Rugby World Cup: Snedden amazed by surging ticket sales

Rugby World Cup 2011 CEO Martin Snedden. Photo / Getty Images

Martin Snedden, CEO of Rugby New Zealand 2011, can barely believe how well the Rugby World Cup is going and is "really confident" ticket sales revenues will be achieved.

"Every day I'm just pinching myself saying 'wow, this is so good'," he told Radio Sport.

Snedden admitted he had some worries about sales, but said they were allayed after the public response to games.

"To be honest I did have a wee bit of a concern about Rotorua even on the day before the tournament - it just wasn't quite heating up as I hoped it would.

"But they got in behind it - they saw what happened in their first game and I think the people that were there enjoyed it so much, word got around."

He said the fact that Rotorua's third game involved Ireland, a team which has captured people's imaginations so far, also helped.

"Their next game in Dunedin is also a sell-out against Italy. It's just all over the country it's happening."

Snedden said ticket sales were growing for the bigger matches, but it is not too late for people to purchase. He sensed that supporters were waiting to see how the draw played out before making decisions.

"There's a growing interest, but there's a lot more tickets still to be sold. We've got a lot of tickets left for the quarters at Eden Park, and still got a few left for the quarters in Wellington."

New Zealanders have purchased tickets for semi-final 2 in big numbers, he said - the match they believe the All Blacks will be playing in. Around 5,000 tickets are still to be snapped up.

For the other semi-final, there are about 12,000-13,000 to go, Snedden said.

He is confident they will reach the $268 million mark for ticket sales.

"Yes. We're going to get there. Our ticket numbers are up to about 1.3m in ticket sales. We've got another 40 or 50,000 to sell over the second half of the tournament. I am feeling really confident that we're going to get there in terms of the forecast revenues."

When asked about IRB comments to Prime Minister John Key about this being the best Rugby World Cup ever, Snedden replied:

"I think I would probably just hold off a little bit yet. We've had 28 matches and we've done brilliantly so far. But we still have 20 crucial matches to go.

"My staff and I are just absolutely focused on taking each match one at a time and making sure we nail it."

Key told Newstalk ZB that the tournament could pave the way for other big events.

"We're doing a marvellous job of hosting the Rugby World Cup, proving that this truly is the stadium of four million people. We are showing the world we can host these very, very large events."

He said they were "not bidding yet" for the Commonwealth Games, but wouldn't rule it out.

"It's early days, but there are always options available for New Zealand. I think what the Rugby World Cup is proving is that if we did bid for a Commonwealth Games we could host a world class and thoroughly enjoyable event."

- Herald Online