The next stage of planning for the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand takes place next Friday, the deadline set by Rugby New Zealand 2011 (RNZ2011) for regions and cities to put a case forward to host games.
Otago businessman Stuart Heal has been part of a team working on the southern bid for up to 18 months. He said the bid was all but finished and had taken a lot of work, with the compliance section of the bid being a huge task.
The southern bid involved councils, regional tourism offices and rugby unions from the Waitaki River south, and Heal said 19 different organisations and groups had been involved.
To its credit, the group had stayed united throughout the process, whereas many other regional groups from further north had splintered.
After the handing over the bid next week, staff of RNZ2011 were looking to come south next month for discussions.
Heal said the submission was looking at attracting three games to Dunedin, two to Invercargill and one to Queenstown, but talk of basing teams in a specific area was premature, and unlikely.
All the way through the southern bid had been clear it did not, and could not, buy games.
It did not have the population, stadium size or the finance to match northern areas, but the tournament theme was of a stadium of four million people, which Heal hoped would make organisers view the southern bid in good light.
There was also the strengths in the South of being near tourist areas such as Queenstown and Milford Sound.
There were festivals organised, such as the Blossom Festival, during the time the World Cup is to be played in September-October, and there were also other events planned, although Heal declined to say what they were.
The best result was to get an All Black test in Dunedin, along with five other games in the South.
The All Blacks may play in a mobile pool, so the national side can play pool games all over New Zealand.
Only one pool may be located in the South Island. There will be four pools of five teams.
Christchurch has already been given two quarterfinals, which may help gain games further south.
Heal believes Queenstown could host one game during the afternoon, as the events centre did not have lights, and he said the indications were RNZ2011 was keen to bring a game to Queenstown.
It was hard to calculate the yield or economic impact made from hosting a World Cup match as ticket prices had yet to be set, and it was not known where teams were to be based.
Heal said organisers had indicated tickets for high-profile games with-top tier teams were likely to be at prices not seen before in New Zealand.
But people had to be realistic and realise that was what price had to be paid.
Teams ranked one to 12 were decent teams so three teams in each pool would be of a good ability, he said.
To make sure of hosting a particular team would only come from buying that team into the region, and the southern bid would not be prepared to do that.
Mayors Tim Shadbolt, Peter Chin and Clive Geddes had driven the bid politically, Heal said. The compliance document was huge and a lot more work than initially thought.
The pool allocation draw for the World Cup is to be held in London on December 1, with the allocation of venues not expected until the middle of next year, he said.
