$10m Eden Park pavilion plan unveiled

The organisers of next year's Rugby World Cup have unveiled plans to build a two-storeyed function centre capable of seating 5000 diners adjacent to Eden Park's new stadium.

It will be the biggest entertainment facility of its type ever built in this country and will be dismantled and sold at the end of the tournament.

The exterior will be a 20m-high marquee, while the interior will be more like a five-star hotel, with air-conditioning and solid walls, floors and ceilings, fitted out with plush furnishings and high-tech audiovisual wizardry.

To be called the Eden Park Pavilion, it will contain 10 banquet rooms, each capable of seating 500 guests, surrounding a double-storey atrium, which will be the base for live entertainment.

The pavilion will operate for all nine Rugby World Cup games being played at Eden Park, and it will employ 1000 staff on each of those nights to ensure guests have a good time.

Access to the facility will be via pre- booked hospitality packages that will include tickets to the game. Packages start at $995 plus GST per person for the Fiji v Samoa game, and go up to $10,995 plus GST for a package that includes the final and both semifinal games.

For that, guests will be served champagne and canapes on arrival and be able to enjoy a variety of live entertainment in the atrium. They will then be seated in one of the banquet rooms for a four- course meal designed to showcase the best New Zealand food and wines, before walking through to the main grandstand where they will watch the game from premium covered seating.

After the game they will return to the pavilion, where the food and wine will continue to flow and guests can enjoy live entertainment into the small hours.

David White, operations director of Rugby Travel and Hospitality, which is overseeing the pavilion project, said although the package prices would seem expensive to many people, they were relatively modest compared to many other international events.

Similar packages for the final and semifinal games at this month's Fifa World Cup in South Africa were double what was being charged for a pavilion package, he said.

The prices were also 40% lower than those charged at the last Rugby World Cup in France in 2007, he said.

The company expects most of the tickets to be bought by companies to entertain clients. About 75% of the bookings were expected to come from New Zealand companies.

The pavilion's two levels would have a floor area of 9750sq m, equivalent to two- and-a-half rugby fields.

It would cost about $10 million to set up. International tenders were called to supply the exterior marquee and main internal skeleton, which would be shipped here and assembled by local firms, which would also supply much of the interior fit-out.

- © Fairfax NZ News