NZ to announce 2011 RWC venues

Eden Park: To host the 2011 World Cup final and semi-finals

The organisers of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand will announce next week which venues have secured the quarter-finals and third place play-off matches.

Rugby New Zealand will make the announcement on Thursday following a final board meeting.

Auckland, already guaranteed the final and semi-finals, has also bid for the quarter-finals and the third placing match.

Christchurch and Wellington have also applied to host quarter-finals.

Auckland and Hamilton have bid for the "bronze final" between the losing semi-finalists.

Auckland has proposed either Eden Park or North Harbour Stadium as a venue for the third place play-off.

Meanwhile, backers of Dunedin's waterfront stadium to replace Carisbrook say the project is on track after securing all the land needed for the development.

That is despite growing opposition from one anti-stadium group, who claim it is a project Dunedin cannot afford.

There is no sign of diggers, but those behind the proposed 'Otago Stadium' insist their plans for a 2011 opening are on track.

After months of negotiations with different land owners and leaseholders, the stadium trust has purchased all the land it needs, and more.

"We're really quite proud of the fact that we've managed to pull together over six hectares of land, under one ownership now, and we're going forward," says Malcolm Farry of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust.

But it is not just land the trust has been focusing on.

For the last year they have literally been watching grass grow, testing whether the much-vaunted see-through roof really is practical in Dunedin.

"We know that it will grow," says the trust's CEO Darren Burden.

"We know 12 months on we've still got green grass here. The question is what are the management techniques we need to apply to ensure that we have a good qualtiy sports surface."

Several other challenges remain, including finding more private funding and deciding who will pay for the realignment of State Highway 88 beside the stadium.

Opponents have so far failed to persuade the city council, regional council and local trusts to dump the project, but insist they are not giving up.

"The problems that this project will mean for the city are enormous," says Bev Butler of the Stop The Stadium group.

"We believe the city will be wrecked by this project."

But time may be running out. The project goes out for tender in the next few weeks, with construction hoped to begin by February next year.