Greg Peters: New Zealand Rugby League CEO discusses addition of Christchurch to RLWC venues

Christchurch has been added to the list of cities hosting games for next year's Rugby League World Cup. 

The city joins Australia and Papua New Guinea as hosts for the event, and although the addition is a surprise for fans, it has been in the works for a while. 

New Zealand Rugby League CEO Greg Peters told Mike Hosking that, 'it's been on the cards for a little while now, obviously, with the opening of Te Kaha down there.'

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Twist on next year's Rugby League World Cup was to
be played in Australia and Papu New Guinea hold my ba.
Christ Church now part of the venue action, we get
a Kiwi double header. Greg Peters is the New Zealand
Rugby League CEO and he's back. Well, this is Greg,
morning to your now win did this emerge?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's been on the cards for a little while now,
obviously with the opening of Takaha down there, so we've
been talking to them for a little while about MB
money and also christ Chitch money to make this happen.
So it's exciting to see it that we'll see some
Rugby League World Cup action in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Could you have swung them on New Zealand as a
venue if christ Church hadn't had a new stadium or
is this unique to christ Church?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I think that's a special nature of it. I mean
the game we're playing against Cook Islands and Kiwi fans
against France, so we needed a bit of a I
think a unique factor to that, and Takaha is obviously
that it would be a more difficult to sell in
other parts of the country, I.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Think right, So, without wanting to cause a diplomatic incident.
What on earth is P what What on earth is
P and G doing as a host? I mean, are
they up for this?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I think so. I mean they've hosted the Prime Minister
of CD up there and it'll largely been NRL run
a vent up there any rate. But I think the
main thing is, as you probably know, the government play
the six hundred million that they're putting into the So
it's all part of that feel good factor. OU suppose
for rugby league into Papua New Guinea, I'll get some

(01:26):
good crowds.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Okay, well, as long as they're up for it. As
far as christ Church is a league venue, now we've
seen the Warriors obviously, but the Warriors are different to
league generally. Is christ Church a league venue?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I think so. Like last year, for the first time
in my time in this job, we had a Kiwi's
crowd down there, proper Kiwi's crowd barracking against Australia so
and we sold out. So I think there's there's a
real opportunity down there when we take another game back
for the Kiwis Kiwi fans against Australia to sell out
to Kaha too. So it's changing, Mike Good.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Nice talk to you, Greg, Greg PAGs with the Rugby
League World Cup. For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast,
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