National sevens tournament to stay put in Bay until 2018

Mason Walker (with ball)

Bay of Plenty will remain the home of the Bayleys National Sevens tournament until at least 2018 - but the big event could move to another city outside of Rotorua.

The Bayleys National Sevens has been held at the Rotorua International Stadium for the past two years and will be returning to the city again next year.

The New Zealand Rugby Union have confirmed the popular event will now stay put in the Bay for another two years in 2017 and 2018. It will then go out for tender for other provinces to bid for.

The annual event includes the best men's and women's provincial teams in the country and is held over one weekend usually in January.

Bay of Plenty Rugby Union chief executive Mike Rogers said it was great news for sevens and rugby fans in the Bay.

He said there'd been no discussions about where the event would be held in 2017 or 2018, and it was possible it could leave Rotorua and go somewhere else in the Bay.
However, Rogers said those sort of decisions would be made after the event next year.

"The 2016 event is all we are focused on at the moment, to grow the event and do it even better," he said.

Crowd numbers were relatively low for the first tournament in Rotorua in 2014, after it moved here from Queenstown, but improved this year.

With sevens featuring in the Olympics for the first time next year, Rogers said he hoped that would translate to more interest in 2016.

"I think the profile of sevens as a sport is starting to grow," he said. "With the likes of Sonny Bill Williams and Liam Messam committing to the All Blacks Sevens team, that is always going to grow the sport."

He said it was great to see the New Zealand Rugby Union showing confidence in the Bay union and rugby community here by extending the deal to 2018.

"Having the All Blacks Sevens games against Australia here, the Lions coming in 2017 and now this - it ticks a few boxes for us and shows that our relationship with New Zealand Rugby is strong and they have confidence in us hosting events of this size," he said. "It is recognition from our point of view that we are doing some good work."

He said they had a lot of good sponsors who made running the event in Rotorua possible.