The quarterfinals for the next World Cup may be held in up to three cities but Dunedin will not be one of them, as its ground, old or new, does not have enough seats.
Hamilton has put its hand up to host the third-fourth play-off match, a fixture no-one wants to play, but it seems a couple of cities want to host.
A statement released yesterday by Rugby New Zealand 2011 organisers said Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch had applied to host quarterfinal matches, while Auckland and Hamilton had lodged proposals to host the third-fourth play-off.
Dunedin businessman Stuart Heal, who is leading the bid to bring World Cup matches to the South, said Dunedin was never in the running to host a quarterfinal.
"The first criterion was you had to have a stadium that held 35,000-plus. New stadium or old stadium in Carisbrook [capacity 29,126], we were never going to be big enough," he said.
The third-fourth play-off match was to be played the day before the final so was always going to be played near Auckland, the site of the final.
Eden Park in Auckland has been picked to host both semifinals and the final.
Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd chief executive Martin Snedden said the preference was to host the quarterfinals in two cities.
"While that preference is understood, RNZ 2011 had an open mind about hosting the quarterfinals in three venues as was the case at the Rugby World Cup in 2007," he said.
"We would prefer to wait to see what is in the regional hosting proposals before we form a view about whether our preference would be to use two or three cities."
If three cities were preferred, RNZ 2011 would have to work with Rugby World Cup Ltd to resolve the matter.
The four key criteria when evaluating venues were achieving capacity crowds, inspiring a nationwide World Cup festival, creating enduring benefits and delivering an excellent operating tournament.
The Awatea St stadium has a planned capacity of 30,300.
Heal said the southern group was aggressively promoting a tier one pool match involving the All Blacks.
The All Blacks were expected to have a national pool, which allowed them to play games throughout the country, and he hoped Dunedin could get one of those games.
The selling out of Carisbrook for the match last Saturday between the Springboks and All Blacks was a huge plus for the campaign to attract games.
He said this would not have gone unnoticed by New Zealand Rugby Union bosses and, coupled with the great atmosphere in the city, helped to tick all the NZRU boxes.
"There are still 10,000 seats for next Saturday night in Sydney yet we sold out weeks beforehand and mostly to Otago and Southland people."
He thought the South Island would have a pool of 10 games and hoped the Otago-Southland area would get a share of those games.
Queenstown and Invercargill also wanted to host games.
Submissions from regional groups have to be with RNZ 2011 by the end of October.
Decisions on pool venues will be made in March-April next year with location of team bases to be announced in late 2009.
