RUGBY: WORLD CUP 2011: THE SLOW resale of Rugby World Cup tickets from relocated Christchurch matches was causing concern 100 days out from the start of the tournament, but preparations were well on track, organisers said yesterday.
All seven matches originally scheduled for Christchurch, including two quarter-finals, had to be shifted after the February 22nd earthquake devastated much of the central city and eastern suburbs and badly damaged venue Lancaster Park.
“It’s a pretty tough ask because there is a big difference in going to events in your own city and then being asked to think about having to go all around New Zealand,” said Rugby New Zealand 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden.
“We always expected the quarter-finals would have a reasonable take-up and the England-Argentina match (now in Dunedin) would do okay but the rest of the matches are far more likely to be affected badly by what has happened,” he said.
Organisers had to refund about NZ$20 million (€11.4 million) worth of tickets after the Christchurch matches were moved. The resales have so far only been available to those who had purchased tickets for the Christchurch matches. Snedden said the organisers would not confirm the exact resale figures until shortly before all the remaining tickets were released for general sale on July 4th.
Tournament organisers are only allowed to keep revenue generated from ticket sales and must underwrite the costs of hosting the tournament and pay a licence fee to the world governing International Rugby Board.
Organisers had budgeted for ticket revenue of about NZ$268 million (€153m) and an operating loss of about NZ$40 million (€23m, which is to be underwritten by the New Zealand government and New Zealand Rugby Union.
World Cup minister Murray McCully, however, said he was confident organisers would meet their target of 1.35 million tickets and their budget, when speaking at a gathering of business and civic leaders to mark the 100-day countdown. “Ticket sales and revenue are on target despite having to make some refunds,” McCully said at the gathering at New Zealand’s Parliament. “The budgeted deficit is still NZ$39 million (€22m) but that is offest by many hundreds of millions of dollars of economic benefit.”
Prime Minister John Key, who also attended the gathering along with International Rugby Board vice-president Bill Beuamont and chief executive Mike Miller, echoed McCully’s confidence.
“The rugby World Cup is so close, you can just about taste it,” he said.
Beaumont endorsed the progress of preparations after organisers were forced to rejig a large part of the tournament following the earthquake.
Despite the positive message on preparations, McCully and Key reiterated that travel sanctions would remain on Fiji, despite threats from the Fijian Rugby Union an understrength team could be selected for the tournament. “We haven’t changed our stance, which is that if someone is associated with the (military-led government), they will be subject to travel sanctions,” Key promised.
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