But Heal, helping orchestrate the campaign for the South's involvement in the tournament, hopes the three major centres south of the Waitaki will all play a part in one of the biggest sporting events in New Zealand's history.
He also said he would be "very, very disappointed" if the All Blacks did not play a pool game in Dunedin.
The process to allocate games and team bases for the 2011 tournament is well under way and reaches an important mark next week when Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd releases a set of criteria for hosting rights.
Heal said Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown all had the potential to host teams.
Already, Dunedin is being linked with Scotland because of the city's Scottish affiliation.
"Everyone's talking about it and it is obviously the logical link," Heal told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
"But it's not that simple. There are five teams in a pool.
If Scotland wants to be in Dunedin, and it works for Rugby World Cup, then the other four teams in that pool have to stay in the South Island.
"It's all very well saying we want this team, we want that team, but it depends on what the pools look like."
Heal confirmed he had also heard England was interested in a base in the Bay of Islands, and the Springboks, who will be the defending champions in 2011, were keen on Queenstown because their Super 14 teams regularly stay in the town.
"But it's just gossip and rumour at the moment. Until we know what the pools are going to look like, it's hard to look ahead."
Otago centurion and Scotland test player John Leslie would love to see some tartan in the stands at Carisbrook, or the new Awatea St stadium, in 2011.
"If Scotland was to be based in Dunedin, that would be great. Obviously, Scotland would get a lot of support down here," Leslie said.
Leslie was injured in the 1999 World Cup and missed his opportunity to play a test at Carisbrook when Scotland played the All Blacks in Dunedin a year later.
He would welcome the chance to catch up with one or two of his former team-mates if they were still around in 2011.
"They're good people. They enjoy interacting with the public. They're not shy but they don't have over-inflated egos."
The group bidding for the Otago-Southland region's involvement in the World Cup was building solid rugby and tourism arguments to be included, Heal said.
"We're currently gathering data to make our bid quite unique, and really leverage off the tourism component of places like Queenstown and Milford Sound. And we've got a good mix with what Invercargill and Dunedin can offer," Heal said.
"I don't know exactly what we're pushing for. But I've always been reasonably optimistic because New Zealand won the bid on the basis of it being a uniquely New Zealand tournament.
"I don't think you will achieve that objective by not having a fair share of the tournament played in Otago and Southland."
The All Blacks will play their pool games around New Zealand, and the Otago-Southland group will argue they must play a game in Dunedin.
Bids for quarterfinals and the third-fourth play-off have to be lodged by the end of July, and a decision will be made two months later.
Bids for hosting teams and pool games must be in by October.
The International Rugby Board will make the draw in December, match venues will be confirmed by March, and team bases will be decided by the end of 2009.
