So the OPL may have a combined ChCh-Dunedin hub next season.
But NZ Rugby's slow release of Super Rugby draw ie which weekends Crusaders will play at Te Kaha making it tricky to organise in advance.
Article from late June
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-press/20260618/281492168019547The South Island’s first professional football team wants to play at least one proleague match at Christchurch’s One NZ Stadium next year, but could head to Dunedin instead if it cannot lock in a date fast.
Time is running out to secure a day of international football matches at Christchurch’s new stadium next year as anchor tenants, the Crusaders, await their home game schedule.
New Zealand is in the grip of a football fever as the All Whites sit at the top of their FIFA World Cup grouping following a 2-2 draw against Iran on Tuesday. It has emerged that moves are afoot to encourage the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) to choose Christchurch’s One NZ Stadium as a hub for at least one day of matches in next year’s competition of teams from around the Pacific.
Ryan Edwards, chief executive of South Island United – the South Island’s first professional football team – said it would be akin to rugby’s Super Round. “That would be massive for the city to have a whole football hub here – basically a festival of football with all the island nations,” said Edwards. “I’m confident that you could get 15,000 plus to a game like this with the right marketing [and] with the right build-up.”
Tickets to One NZ stadium have sold out for Crusaders, All Blacks and Warriors matches (the latter two have yet to happen), and a Six60 & Synthony concert, while Matatū has attracted a record-breaking women’s rugby crowd of nearly 12,000.
However, Edwards needs to lock in space at the stadium by the end of this month, or the matches could go to Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin – and the Otago stadium is interested.
The OFC confirmed it was approached by Edwards and is interested in coming to Christchurch, or any other South Island location.
Dunedin Venues, the organisation in charge of Forsyth Barr Stadium, confirmed it had also been approached by Edwards and is game to host. Edwards said he had been “going back and forward” with One NZ stadium over the last six months but it was “proving a little bit more challenging than I would have expected”.
He said the major issue was NZ Rugby had yet to release next year’s Super Rugby schedule, which would determine when the Crusaders played home games. He understands the schedule would be released in August, potentially too late for OFC.
