NZ: Hosts of U20s World Cup 2015

 

Venue: McLean Park

 

Base 1: Bluewater Stadium at Park Island

Base 2: Tremain Field at Park Island

Base 3: Regional Sports Park at Hastings

Base 4: Hastings Rugby & Sports at Hastings

 

In saying all of that, games may be shared around but not if you base it on population base.

 

Edit: sorry 5th

Football WC, Olympics, Wimbledon, US tennis, golf US masters, Superbowl playoffs, Daytonna, F1 winter Olympics, European cup, Champs League were tops from memory.

 

 

That makes 4 cities...

and there are 6 groups.

 

pretty sure NZF will be looking to spread the groups around the country, as opposed to giving auckland 2 or something.

 

I doubt that it would be logistically viable for a single group to be shared around the whole country

 

 

I guess as no one turns up to the rugby in Dunedin anymore that they didn't need a massive capacity.

RoF still the best stadium in the country.

The U20 World Cup in Columbia has already presold 100,000 tickets   Thats for a tournament starting at the end of July and without knowing what teams are playing

 

Definately sounds like a big event

May be a while before we hear about that LG, it's still 4 years away.

 

If the Rugby World Cup has a Minister, does that mean the U-20 competition will have a minister assigned to it?

 

surely we'd get more than 9,500 visitors.  how could they make a prediciton like that when the tournament isn't for another 4 years?

 

 

NZ's just a bit too far off the beaten track for many fans to travel from the football-crazed centres of Europe and South America, whilst our closest neighbours over the ditch, like us, don't have a developed football culture yet whereby large numbers would travel the relatively short distance (despite cheap airfares too these days) to follow a major youth tournament (actually. THE major youth football tournament or arguably THE major youth sports event on the planet).

 

Recent U-20 World Cup in Colombia attracted about 1.2 million spectators to stadiums- anyone who saw NZ's games on TV would have been surprised at the large numbers of locals at even NZ's games (we're talking tens of thousands here). Double-headers proved popular with e.g. NZ playing before a bigger game.

 

Colombia proved an ideal venue too because it was easy for fans from other South American countries to travel across the border from Chile, Brazil etc. e.g. cannily, Chile's games were played at the closest Colombian stadiums to Chile. Thus tens of thousands of foreign fans attended. 

 

Won't happen here of course, though the comparison with a quoted prediction of 85,000 foreign fans attending the Rugby World Cup seems way off- in reality I think they'll probably end up with half that number if they're lucky. The only countries with significant numbers of fans are Australia and the UK teams. Can't imagine large numbers of French, Argentinians etc.

 

If what's written in that Herald report is accurate, the economic benefits to a region from hosting the U-20 Cup seem well-worthwhile from a relatively small outlay:

 

"A report commissioned by the New Zealand Football Federation showed hosting Fifa's second-largest tournament would offer $2.92 million worth of benefits to a region.

 

But the minimum investment would be $300,000 for at least three pool games and a knock-out match and rising to $900,000 for at least three pool matches, knock-out round, quarter-final, semifinal, grand final and hosting Fifa headquarters and media.

The host centre would also have to provide four training grounds within a 45-minute drive.

.... The deadline for a bid is November 30."