Mr Snedden, visiting Dunedin yesterday, said there was increasing certainty Dunedin's new stadium would be ready in time for kick-off at next year's global rugby tournament.
He predicted the $198-million roofed venue and Auckland's upgraded Eden Park would prove to be the centrepieces of the tournament.
"I just have to say the excitement levels around it are growing very, very strongly.
"I think it will be an amazing feature of Dunedin and Otago's Rugby World Cup, and I think it will be an amazing feature of New Zealand's Rugby World Cup.
"From what I have seen, your stadium is going to be front and centre ... alongside Eden Park, and I think that will be fantastically exciting for you."
Mr Snedden's comments came when he addressed councillors at yesterday's Dunedin City Council meeting, after earlier visiting the stadium site to view progress.
Tournament officials visited the site last week to carry out a thorough assessment, and left "very reassured" the stadium was on track to be completed on time, Mr Snedden told councillors.
Speaking to media afterwards, Mr Snedden acknowledged the stadium's construction time line remained "tight", with the riskiest components being the completion of the roof and the playing surface.
Completing the Dunedin stadium was the only part of the tournament's organisation that looked like "going down to the wire", with other stadium upgrades either nearing completion or already completed.
While confident Dunedin's stadium would be ready, he said Delhi's disastrous Commonwealth Games construction problems provided an example of how things could go wrong.
Rugby World Cup 2011 officials - together with the International Rugby Board - expected to confirm by early next year whether the new venue, or Carisbrook, would be used for the city's three tournament matches, he said.
He also praised those who decided to build the venue when faced with vocal opposition.
"I have a huge amount admiration for the courage of [Mayor] Peter Chin and the other leaders of this city, who made a judgement call to go ahead with it knowing there was a huge amount of public opposition."
Mr Snedden said he had been "pretty careful" in his comments about the stadium in the past, as "for a while there, it looked like the challenge would be a little bit too big to be done on time".
Ticket sales for Dunedin's matches were "ticking over pretty well", and he predicted all three would be close to, or completely, sold out.
Speaking earlier, he also updated councillors on security plans and national ticket sales, which had topped 500,000 with revenue of $77 million, and warned them to plan for an expected influx of travelling fans arriving in fleets of campervans.
