A report about the proposed number of home Super 14 games to be played at the Otago stadium, should it be built, was premature and the future format of the competition has not yet been decided, the Highlanders chairman says.
The latest Carisbrook Stadium Trust report to the stakeholders' group overseeing the stadium says the previously adopted operational projections have changed.
The report said initial advice on the use of the stadium was the Super 14 competition would have 26 rounds, effectively bringing 13 home games.
This was basically a doubling of the Super 14 with each team playing each other home and away.
But the latest advice was the competition would have 18 rounds, bringing nine home games. The change of schedule has impacted in the projected income for the stadium.
But Highlanders chairman Stuart McLauchlan said it was too early to talk about the way the competition would change.
Nothing has been decided, he said.
The move to an 18-round competition would involve 15 teams, five from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The teams would play teams from their own country both home and away, and would then play other teams from the two other countries just once.
This would give the advantage of having more games between teams from the same country, which were traditionally the games which were the most supported.
But McLauchlan said it was far too early to talk of changes, and there was a lot of talking to go through.
The changes may happen in 2010 or the year after, but it was hard to predict anything in the present economic climate.
It was up to Sanzar and the outcome of negotiations on the broadcasting contract, as to what form the Super 14 would take.
The New Zealand Rugby Union had already indicated it was looking at changes for the Super 14 but nothing had been decided.
It would require the agreement of the three Sanzar partners.
