KEY POINTS:
Put it in your diary: the 2011 Rugby World Cup final will be played at Eden Park on Sunday, October 23.
The next thing chief executive Martin Snedden has to organise is when and where the rest of the games will be played, and where the teams will be based.
"That's a big issue for New Zealanders," Snedden said. "Everyone wants to host games, everyone wants to host teams. We know that is one of the most controversial and most interesting issues we are going to go through."
Yesterday the Rugby World Cup 2011 Wellington head office was officially opened by Prime Minister Helen Clark. Currently it houses Snedden and seven staff, but by 2011 the World Cup will have more than 150 staff.
Snedden is awaiting a decision on whether 16 or 20 teams will take part in the 2011 World Cup. Once that is known, in-depth planning of the tournament schedule will get under way.
In the meantime, cup organisers are ensuring the extra activities which will run alongside the tournament are thought through.
"Someone who comes here and makes a judgment on the tournament at the end of it, they're not going to distinguish between what's the responsibility of RWC2011, what's the responsibility of tourism, what's the responsibility of a local authority," Snedden said.
"They are going to look at the whole thing as one package. We have a key responsibility for ensuring that the rugby is right, but also that the other issues that add into the total value of the event and the fun of the event are done well."
Labour Weekend was picked for the final so people could have a two-day rugby party with the bronze final on Saturday, the cup final on Sunday, and a day off afterwards to recover, he said.
"We would like New Zealanders to have an opportunity in the last part of the tournament to absorb it and not, suddenly, the next morning, 12 hours later, find themselves back at work," Snedden said.
Rugby Union chairman Jock Hobbs said yesterday's office opening showed cup organisers were up and running, and focused on getting planning and preparation for the event right.
"Already a great deal of analysis, planning, negotiation and decision making has occurred. While much of it has not been high profile, we have already achieved a great deal."
Helen Clark, who actively lobbied for New Zealand to be awarded a sports event which will have an estimated 3.5 billion television viewers and generate an extra $400 million for the economy, said 2011 seemed awfully close.
"It doesn't seem like 30 months ago that we had the date with destiny in Dublin [when New Zealand was awarded the cup hosting rights]," Helen Clark said.
"Time has flown, and I guess then that six years out it seemed a long way away and here we are, with it motoring towards us, with a whole lot of benchmarks and milestones to be met."
