Queenstown to try for Rugby World Cup game

Can Queenstown land a rugby World Cup game?

Business leader Eion Edgar thinks it can, and is making moves to secure a pool game for the resort town when the 2011 tournament hits New Zealand.

He wants the community-owned Queenstown Events Centre ground established as a realistic venue for a game, and to get the ball rolling is organising a meeting today between interested parties.

"I'm very excited about it, and I think if we can develop a proper stadium at the Events Centre that's capable of hosting a game, then I don't see any reason why Queenstown couldn't have a role to play," Edgar said.

"Queenstown has all the infrastructure -- accommodation, airport, parking at the centre -- everything else that's needed. All we need now is to get the stadium developed," he said.

The grandstand at the John Davies Oval at the Events Centre holds only 800 people, and Edgar said he envisaged seating for 6000 spectators would be needed as a minimum.

"And that could be expanded to seat maybe 10,000 or 12,000 as it is developed. But it would be a matter of taking small, realistic steps along the way and not over-committing ourselves. There's no point in competing with Carisbrook or developing a 20,000 seating area when the long-term demand wouldn't be there."

Edgar said early costings indicated the development would cost "in the region of $6 million", which could be funded through a mix of private and council funding.

Manager of the council-owned Events Centre, Andrew Tingate, said he had contacted the New Zealand Rugby Union to find out what would be required to host a match.

"I've asked them to identify the minimum standards of what would be required to host a pool game, and also what the process is that we would need to go through to put our case forward."

Tingate said he was confident the Events Centre would be a suitable venue.

The Events Centre will host two pre-season Super 14 matches next year, and Tingate said the aim was to get at least one or two Highlanders super-14 fixtures each season from 2007 onwards.

He said under the Events Centre masterplan there was already a plan to expand the ground's seated areas by an extra 2000 seats in the next two years.

- NZPA