Top-end Rugby World Cup tent opens for business

The purpose-built Eden Park Pavilion cost $7 million and can hold up to 3000 guests. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Eden Park's top-end corporate Rugby World Cup hospitality gets you into a tent for almost $5000.

The Eden Park Pavilion - a set of luxury lounges built inside marquees on the Sandringham Rd side of the stadium - will be full this weekend for the first time, catering for 6000 corporate guests.

A package at the facility, including premium match tickets, costs $3345 plus GST per person for the semifinals, and $4745 plus GST for the finals.

It offers more than three hours of pre-match entertainment, including guest speakers and a four-course meal, and an hour of drinks and nibbles after the match.

"We've spent $7 million on this facility - it's a purpose-built thing, and we're all proud of it," said Rugby Travel and Hospitality operations manager David White.

The pavilion's area is the equivalent of one and a half rugby pitches and can hold up to 3000 guests.

The entryway, like the rest of the pavilion, has a stylish black interior - a stark contrast to the white tent that encases it.

Photos of the previous World Cup winners hang on the walls and lead to a dimly-lit atrium, where canapes are passed around and classic World Cup scenes are projected on big screens.

The insides of the marquees are fully air-conditioned and, as Mr White described, "just like a top hotel".

The only giveaway are the floors, which feel slightly hollow.

Six spacious restaurant areas leading off from the atrium are prepared with tables seating 10 and a stage for guest speakers, where four-course meals are served from on-site kitchens.

The menu for tonight includes lemon-scented goat's cheese, lamb racks and a baked chocolate and caramelised pineapple tart.

The director of caterer Austin's, Alex Weatherhead, said 1000 lambs' worth of ribs were being prepared, and a tonne of beef for tomorrow night.

Next weekend would have a special beef menu yet to be revealed - but a select product that had been "totally wiped out" by the pavilion's order, Mr Weatherhead said.

No marquees in New Zealand were big enough to build the pavilion in, so organisers have had them shipped in from France and they will be shipped back once the tournament is done.

"It's not cheap... but what you get is the very best Category A seats, you get a venue which is on-site, in the shadow of Eden Park, a seamless experience," Mr White said. "You have great speakers, a great environment and fantastic food. We think it's a unique offering in New Zealand."