Rugby ball's Tokyo visit costs $400,000 a day

Tourism New Zealand

ACTION REPLAY: New Zealand's giant rugby ball promotes the 2011 Rugby World Cup and Kiwi tourism. After appearing in Paris two years ago, then in London, it is about to make its biggest and most-expensive play so far, beneath the Tokyo Tower.

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A trip by Tourism New Zealand's giant rugby ball to Tokyo will cost taxpayers nearly $400,000 a day – six times the cost of its inaugural outing in Paris two years ago.

The ball will be set up beneath the Tokyo Tower this month to coincide with the All Blacks taking on the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup test match.

The ball promotes the 2011 Rugby World Cup and Kiwi tourism generally, which is viewed as particularly important in the lucrative Japanese market. Tourist numbers from Japan have dropped recently, partly as a result of swine flu fears and the recession.

The ball was erected below the Eiffel Tower during the 2007 Rugby World Cup at a cost of $907,000 for two weeks. More than 24,000 people visited it and 70 per cent said they would visit New Zealand in the next couple of years.

It was used again in London during the All Blacks' tour of Britain and Ireland in 2008, and sat by Tower Bridge for eight days at a cost of $1.7 million.

It will open in Tokyo on October 28 for a media-only day, then be open to the public for the next six days.

Tourism NZ figures given to The Dominion Post show it will cost $2.7m for the seven days – nearly six times the $65,000-a-day cost of Paris, where the site was provided rent-free by the city authorities. Rent in downtown Tokyo, where it is understood it was difficult to find a space to erect the ball, will be $95,000.

The ball is free for visitors to enter, and plays a 10-minute 360-degree virtual tour of New Zealand, beginning with Tana Umaga kicking a ball that bounces around the country.

It is also a venue for evening events and, while in Tokyo, will host a "Breakfast in the Ball" where guests can meet Prime Minister John Key.

Despite rugby remaining an elite sport in Japan, it has the fourth-highest number of rugby players in the world because of its huge population. Japan will host the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

BALL FACTS

* Holds up to 220 people and an estimated 600,000 ordinary-sized balls.

* 25 metres long, 17 metres wide and 12 metres high.

* Takes five days to set up.

* Requires 8000 litres of air per second, provided by two pumps.

* Requires 14 people to staff it.

* Designed by Inside Out Productions and cost $3.5 million to build in 2007.

* 26,600 visitors in 14 days in Paris and estimated to reach an audience of 138 million through media.

* 7500 visitors in seven days in London and estimated to reach 200 million on screens and in media.

* Expected to cost $15,000 to freight the ball back home and between $500,000 and $750,000 to install it in New Zealand.