The plot to poach the Wellington Sevens is still on - just delayed by four years.
That was the message from Dunedin Venues Management Ltd chief executive David Davies yesterday, after it emerged Dunedin had abandoned its bid to host the annual NZI Sevens rugby tournament from 2012.
Mr Davies told the Otago Daily Times in January he was planning a bid to poach the tournament, which attracts 16 teams, 50,000 visitors and millions of dollars of spending.
However, Mr Davies confirmed the bid had been abandoned "a couple of weeks ago" to focus instead on completing the city's $198 million indoor stadium on time.
DVML staff had begun work on the bid, but pulled out because of the "exhaustive" paperwork required by the International Rugby Board and the need to marshall cross-agency support for the bid.
"From an organisational perspective, it absolutely came at the wrong time. I had to make a decision about whether we could put in a quality bid, rather than just a token, and I made a decision that, actually, we weren't into tokenism. I made the call based on the need to deliver the stadium."
However, he said the stadium would be in a better position to launch a bid to poach the tournament when the contract was next up for grabs in 2016.
"All I can say is, keep that thought - just hang on four years.
"I'm signalling we will be in a better place to respond ... probably with some more experience as an organisation under our belt," he said.
His comments came after The Dominion Post reported yesterday the tournament would almost certainly stay in Wellington, after bids from Auckland, Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin failed to materialise by the October 23 deadline.
Despite the disappointment, Mr Davies said he was encouraged at the interest already shown by other groups, with "dozens" of bookings from businesses and sports groups either confirmed or pencilled in.
Details could not be released until after they were presented to the next DVML board meeting, he said.
"There's hardly a day goes by where we're not getting inquiries. There's hardly a week goes by where we haven't got a couple confirmed."
