They will also add another $1000 for the cost of installing a TV aerial and taking a live "free to air" television feed of the matches, either from TV One or Maori Television.
The council would have to provide security, traffic management and the sound system. One or two blocks of The Strand would probably be closed off.
Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby had earlier told the Bay of Plenty Times that he would like to see public viewing from the quarter-finals onwards - four games over two days on October 8 and 9.
Asked why he wasn't proposing the quarter-finals, Mr Hayward said: "We are taking a commercial risk and if someone wants to pay for those viewings, that's absolutely fine with us.
"There will be a lot of French, Irish and English fans cruising up at that time and some of them haven't got tickets for the matches."
Mr Hayward believed 3000-5000 people would gather on The Strand to watch the semifinal and final games, and he asked the council to extend their bars' liquor licences to the edge of the street on the evenings of the big matches.
He wanted the big screen - 6m wide and 4m deep - erected at the Spring St end of The Strand outside Starbucks Coffee house, and it could be seen 300m down the street.
Events and venues manager Dale Henderson, in his report to council, said: "It is envisaged the screen would be placed at the northern end of The Strand, just to the south of the Harington St roundabout [outside Grumpy Mole] to provide the greatest amount of crowd storage."
He presented a provisional budget totalling $42,275, including 10 per cent contingency, for providing the big screen on four days - for the semi-finals, final and the bronze final on October 21. A traffic management plan would cost $2400 and security up to $12,000.
Mr Henderson indicated there was a potential surplus of $40,000 in the funding allocated ($120,000) for the host region agreement with the Rugby World Cup organiser. Tauranga hosted Samoa, Fiji and Russia for training.
Councillors David Stewart, Wayne Moultrie, Terry Molloy and Bill Grainger, and the mayor complimented the commercial sector for "stumping up" and helping to pay for the cost of a big screen.
Cr Stewart, the deputy mayor, said there are some hooks about "what we can do and can't do".
"If commercial people are willing to take the risk and put the thing together, and we provide traffic management and security, then it would separate us from any legal problems."
He was referring to Rugby World Cup licensing agreements.
Cr Moultrie said when the big screen proposal was first floated, he thought it was a knee-jerk reaction to meet a perceived need based on the All Blacks being in the semifinals and he was disappointed there had been no response from the commercial sector which stood to gain.
Mr Crosby said: "We should make an endeavour to meet the needs of a sector of the community that want to gather."
Cr Guy said he would not support the resolution. "I won't be taking my family and friends down into that environment. As a taxpayer we have already contributed millions of dollars to the Rugby World Cup, and asking the ratepayer help fund a big screen, I see as double dipping."
