Dunedin public ticket sales for the 2011 Rugby World Cup are the highest of the provincial centres, except Hamilton.
Figures released yesterday show 31,000 of the 47,000 tickets available to the public for the three games in Dunedin have been sold.
The uptake figure of 66%, about nine months before the tournament starts, compares favourably with places like Rotorua (24% of 59,000 tickets sold), New Plymouth (29% of 55,000) and Invercargill (38% of 24,000).
Hamilton (88% of 56,000) is well ahead of Dunedin's pace for its three games, although one of those features the All Blacks.
Eden Park - understandably, as it hosts the All Blacks twice in pool play plus the semifinals and final - has sold an impressive 215,000 public tickets out of 240,000 (90%).
Dunedin's games are Scotland v Georgia (September 14), England v Romania (September 24) and Ireland v Italy (October 2).
With an average of about 15,000 tickets available to the public for each game, about that number again will have been distributed via travel packages and the RWC commercial programme.
In total, 956,000 tickets went on sale to the public for the 48 world cup games and 662,000 have already sold.
Organisers say they are on track to meet their lofty ticket sales goal - about 1.45 million, through public and commercial programmes - for the tournament.
Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd chief executive Martin Snedden said key sales and revenue targets had been met in 2010, and international visitors for the tournament were estimated to number at least 85,000.
"This is a very good position to be in with 267 days to go until kick-off," Snedden said in a statement yesterday.
"We still have a lot left to do, but event preparations, coupled with ticket sales to date and strong international visitor projections, mean we are getting ourselves in good shape to host the tournament."
Ticket sales revenue, RNZ 2011's only means of covering expenditure, totals $166 million.
Snedden said the tournament was on track to achieve ticket sales of $268 million, making the world cup the biggest grossing event in New Zealand history.
"[The] biggest grossing event previously in New Zealand's history was the 2005 Lions tour, during which the NZRU grossed $24 million from ticket sales.
"We've now achieved seven times that figure. In the end, we'll need to do 11 times that amount to hit budget."
RNZ 2011 has also released the results of a survey of ticket-buyers. It estimates the bulk of visiting fans (36,500) expect to spend time in Auckland and 18,000 are expected to visit Otago-Southland.
PUBLIC TICKET SALES
• Overall: 662,000 out of 956,000 (69%).
• Dunedin: 31,000 out of 47,000 (66%).
• Invercargill: 9000 out of 24,000 (38%).
• Auckland: 215,000 out of 240,000 (90%).
• Wellington: 128,000 out of 160,000 (80%).
• Christchurch: 119,000 out of 177,000 (67%).
