The Government will have initial reports on whether AMI Stadium in Christchurch could be used for Rugby World Cup games by the end of the week, Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully says.
The grounds at the stadium are bulging from liquefaction from the Christchurch earthquake.
There are five pool matches scheduled for Christchurch and two quarterfinals.
"I am expecting some initial reports later this week and whether we need further reports or corroborating evidence is another matter," he told reporters.
"It's pretty clear there's a serious liquefaction issue on the ground itself. I am told there are some structural issues with the stadium itself."
However, he had no plan B at this stage and contingency steps were not being taken.
"We're operating on the basis that if it can happen we will make it happen, we're waiting first of all to see whether the stadium is able to be made ready for the hosting of the games and then we will look at the other issues associated with Christchurch's capacity to accommodate people and provide the appropriate infrastructure."
Previously the Government has raised the idea of using cruise ships to boost hotel stock.
The International Rugby Board had been "enormously supportive" and had asked participating countries with concerns to give Christchurch time, Mr McCully said. A high standard of engineering advice being sought should give the board confidence, he said.
However, if the games scheduled for Christchurch had to be moved elsewhere it would not be difficult.
"But we want to try and give our best shot to hosting the games in Christchurch, that's what we are doing."
So far there had been no indications of cancellations and ticket sales were "going very well".
"We anticipate we will lose some ground for a while whether we can make that up a bit later is another matter."
He said it was too early to talk about refunds.
"I think Christchurch is obviously going to be back on its feet in some key respects quite quickly."
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said he was committed to ensuring Christchurch had the opportunity to host some games.
"I think it would be very, very important for us to host matches there.
"I appreciate that the IRB make the decision in the end, but the rest of the world are going out of their way to help us and I'm sure that they will want to do that as well.
"They need to be certain that people who are coming to Christchurch are going to be safe, and naturally they are going through the engineering process at the moment, and we certainly welcome that."
Labour leader Phil Goff said it was not clear to him whether holding the World Cup in Christchurch was realistic.
"People I've talked to on the ground have much more reservations about whether that's possible, just in terms of accommodation, they don't think the cruise ships will do it," he said.
"We've got to look at that very quickly, make a decision whether it can be realistically staged there. If it can be good luck to them, it would be great for the city, if it can't be then obviously we need to make alternative arrangements as quickly as possible."
