Lee Stensness: World Cup inconvenience is a small price to pay

Having spent a few days of last week in Berlin, it was interesting to see how the city was preparing to host the football World Cup finals and relate that to how Auckland will be affected in 2011 for the Rugby World Cup.

In a city as passionate about football as we in New Zealand are about rugby, the sense of excitement was palpable.

With the start of the tournament approximately seven weeks away, the atmosphere was starting to build, with large billboards and posters sprinkled throughout the city and the tower in the city centre being covered to look like a football.

Even people with little or no interest in football were looking forward to the carnival atmosphere that will accompany the arrival of the supporters, although a certain amount of anxiety about the English supporters was expressed.

Fortunately, with rugby, that trouble-making element does not exist and, as the Lions tour showed, when their supporters and ours mixed freely with an atmosphere of friendly rivalry and respect, we can look forward to 2011 without fear of violence.

The Lions tour proved that New Zealand could indeed handle a large influx of supporters and that, no doubt, influenced the vote for hosting rights in our favour. So, too, did our rugby culture and both will be key factors in ensuring a successful event.

The only difficulty that could arise leading up to 2011, especially in Auckland, relates to the inconveniences and disruptions to normal everyday life caused by the construction work and alterations to the city and its infrastructure.

In Berlin, there were roadworks and beautification/improvement projects sprinkled throughout the city as it prepared to put its best foot forward.

But will Aucklanders, not particularly known for their patience while driving, cope with delays and detours?

This will be the real test - not the actual hosting of the tournament itself.

Hopefully, we in Auckland will retain a sense of the bigger picture during these periods of inconvenience as the benefits of hosting the Rugby World Cup, both in terms of a financial windfall from tourists and improvements to our infrastructure, will last for many years beyond the tournament.

Besides that, it will be one hell of a party.

-HERALD ON SUNDAY