Thousands want to be part of action

A record number of people, almost 127,000, passed through the gates of the American Express NZ Cup Village at the weekend.

The public relations manager for the village, Sue Foley, said this meant an average of 7200 people an hour.

"A lot of people are anticipating that the Cup is going to finish this week so they were keen to get down here and make a big weekend of it," Ms Foley said.

Nearly 70,000 people entered the village on Saturday, and more than 57,000 people passed through on Sunday, despite the cancellation of race four.

Ms Foley is expecting big crowds at the village this week.

"It's just getting bigger and bigger. I think there may be a lot of people suddenly having to take sick leave this week. It just seems that everybody wants to be down here."

A telephone survey in the last week of January had shown 61 per cent of all New Zealanders and 72 per cent of Aucklanders had visited the village or were likely to do so.

"It's a great place to come for those who can't afford to go out on the water. Everyone just treats it like it's Eden Park," Ms Foley said.

The weekend crowds had been wellbehaved and Ms Foley was confident the village was equipped to cope with the large numbers expected for Team New Zealand's final race.

"We have barriers in place in all the key areas so if we have to close an area off we have the ability to move very quickly."