"Even if the wrecked infrastructure, the damaged buildings, hotels and roads in the city centre and the ruined facilities such as sewerage and water can be repaired in record-fast time, there is no way any World Cup games can be played in the city.
"That is the harsh, brutal truth but it has to be said," Bills wrote in a column for the Independent Group of newspapers. "It just cannot happen ... It is tragic for Christchurch."
We reckon that Bills is taking an exceeding pessimistic view. We truly hope that RWC games in the Garden City can be salvaged.
And we received this comment overnight from one of our Facebook friends, Tony Sharpe - he wrote:
"Yep - we want this cup here, for our tourist industry. 90% of Canterbury is currently fine, and open for business. As I have posted elsewhere: Tourism in Canterbury is one of our biggest earners and Rugby World Cup has a Lord of the Rings type advertising effect. It is CRUCIAL we pull out all the stops and remind the world that while the City is broken and bashed, the rest of this proud province is unaffected and open for business and has many many attractions. Hamner, Metven, Kaikoura, Arthurs Pass, Tekapo, Geraldine, Timaru, Ashburton- all have accomodation available to use and are within a bus trip of the venue. We just need to get that stadium right, and sort accomodation options. We will open our homes and make this an event the world won't soon forget. We must make this happen."
We agree; it's much too soon to slam the door on Christchurch's hosting of RWC games. The RWC could be the ideal opportunity to re-launch Christchurch and Canterbury to the world.
The economic hit of games being moved away would be a major blow to Chrustchurch's earthquake recovery, and we reiterate the view that we expressed yesterday - the people of Canterbury need something to look forward to. They have had a miserable six months, but that doesn't mean that things cannot improve in the next six.
If, after all factors have been taken into consideration it is decided that Christchurch cannot host RWC games, then so be it. But the decision, once made will be irreversible, so it must not be made in unecessary haste.
7 comments:
OK, if the English don't want to play in Christchurch, they can play the games scheduled in Christchurch, first in Invercargill, then Whangarei, the Napier and then Nelson.
The y can also travell between games by bus.
and that goes for Bills and Jones too.
Bills is just selling papers. I do want the rugby here - (disclosure - I've paid for Quarter final 4 tickets) but I'm struggling with the idea of a digger working on the pitch instead of somebody's home..
Made the front page of the Herald.
Shows you that the herald wouldn't recognise news if it saw it.
As one who always thought the city most at risk was the Capital it dismays me that some would take our new prosthetic limb away as we limp out from under the debris of Sept 4th and Feb 22nd so unless the Deans stand is unsafe or the insurance issues sink us let us get on with it.
alex your thoughts on the brits and the balmy army sound good to me.
Great idea Alex! It couldn't happen to a nicer team.
Once the Aussie cops go home Rolleston prison could help out with any shortfall in accomodation several hundred twin share ensuite rooms...If they do shift the venue I feel sorry for Candice whose business will suffer.
Another whinging pom taking pot shots at New Zealand, hardly news. If you don't like NZ, don't visit - simple!
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