The signs are it's bad for business

The Rugby World Cup controversy is dragging in everyone from corporate heads to local dairy owners, says CATHERINE MASTERS.

Man Ng looks incredulous and throws his hands up.

Get rid of all his advertising signs because the dairy he leases falls within 500m of Eden Park?

"No," he says. He will not remove or cover his Coca-Cola and Ponsonby Pie signs. That would be bad for business - because no signs means fewer customers.

"I just want to make my living in this area, in this country," Mr Ng says.

A rugby kick away inside the hallowed grounds of Eden Park is John Alexander, chairman of the Mt Eden Trust Board.

He is grappling with the implications of Rugby World Cup Ltd's more "ridiculous" clean stadium requirements - which boil down to eliminating all advertising signs not placed by the official sponsors.

This includes all signs within 500m of the park, something Mr Alexander believes is impossible for the stadium to enforce.

Permanent advertising signs - for ASB bank, Bluebird chips, Panasonic, Shell, Wiri Timber, to name a few - crowd around the edge of the turf. They all have to go, under Rugby World Cup regulations.

This is not an issue. They will be replaced by the signs of the official cup sponsors, but the Eden Park sponsors always knew this would happen and their contracts allow it.

That also goes for the ASB cash machine at the ground. The machine can stay, but all logos on it will have to be covered. This is not a problem either.

What is turning out to be a big problem is the corporate facilities.

Rugby World Cup wants to evict the 80 box holders for the duration of the World Cup games, though they pay up to $175,000 for a 10-year lease and $50,000 a year in licence fees.

But Mr Alexander says the licence conditions state box holders can use their boxes for all sporting events at Eden Park and the trust board is not prepared to turf them out and cannot do this legally anyway.

The fate of seating for club members and corporate reserves, which have the same licence conditions, is also still murky.

Rugby World Cup wants to provide a large number of seats for the event's major sponsors, says Mr Alexander, and this will have to be worked through.

He believes the definition of what a "clean" stadium is has changed substantially since New Zealand hosted, and won, the first World Cup in 1987.

Then it meant removing signs from within the stadium. Now it has encroached into the corporate facilities to the extent that the wrong brand name on a television set will have to be taped over. And it means removing or covering advertising signs within 500m of the stadium.

But Mr Alexander says stadiums have no control over private property.

They cannot tell owners of homes and businesses who overlook the park to cover any brand names that might be on view, or order those who have paid to put their billboards nearby to pull them down. And they cannot control advertising on trains.

"What happens if TranzRail goes rolling past and they've got TranzRail all over the side of their train?" he says.

Another unknown is whether Panda Catering, which has a contract to provide catering for all Eden Park events and has been expecting to cater for the World Cup games, will be allowed to.

Director Rae Ah Chee says the company can kiss goodbye to $1 million if it is not. He refused to say whether Panda would take legal action.

The trust board says it is prepared to compromise where it can, such as by giving up its own two corporate boxes to RWC. But Mr Alexander says it seems Rugby World Cup's minimum requirement "is the whole stadium and that is just not acceptable. Legally we cannot give them the whole stadium."

The board, with managers of other stadiums, will meet the New Zealand Rugby Football Union this week.

But for Mr Alexander the unfortunate aspect in all the controversy is that rugby, the game, seems to have been forgotten.