Rugby World Cup - Christchurch

Ticket sales for Rugby World Cup games transferred from Christchurch will commence shortly, said Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully.

Rugby New Zealand 2011 has provided refunds to all ticket-holders for the transferred matches, and will offer those fans a repurchase opportunity for the transferred games in the week starting 16 May. A wider public sales process will then follow mid-year.

"We expect that a number of Christchurch ticket holders will be keen to renew their tickets for the quarter finals in Auckland in particular,” said Mr MCully.

"At the time that we announced that games had to be moved I indicated that we were looking to ensure that Christchurch ticket holders wanting to attend quarter finals in Auckland would be able to do so at reasonable cost.“

“Over recent weeks it has become clear many fans have already made arrangements to travel to Auckland. Where fans haven't done so yet the commercial market still has good value fares and is able to meet the likely demand out of Christchurch. We do not plan to take any further steps at this stage,” he said.

“Beyond travel costs, we are mindful that finding accommodation in Auckland will be an issue for many Christchurch fans. I therefore welcome an initiative with Trade Me, which is building a new website service to allow Christchurch fans to find free billet accommodation in Auckland,” said Mr McCully.

The concept came after Trade Me developed a similar free site after the 22 February earthquake. That site provided over 5,000 offers of emergency accommodation and thousands of listings for volunteers and transport.

“Aucklanders have shown a great deal of support for Cantabrians since the earthquake. This will be another way of showing their support. The intention is to find free accommodation for any Cantabrian who has a ticket to the matches now reallocated to Auckland,” said Mr McCully.

The Trade Me service will be free for both accommodation seekers and providers. Cantabrians interested in the listings will be able to email through the Trade Me system to make contact with the accommodation providers. Once connected the two parties will deal directly. Aucklanders will submit their accommodation listing as a classified, and they will be able to check that the person is a Canterbury resident online.

Trade Me expects to have the site up next month and will promote it to their 2.7 million members.

For Christchurch residents not going to any matches a series of events are being planned to make sure they can still experience and enjoy the Rugby World Cup.

“The NZ2011 Office and Christchurch City Council are working on some exciting options for fan zones and festival events in Christchurch, and will announce those plans within the next few weeks,” said Mr MrCully.