HorizonPoll: 83% think ABs will win, 65% want to host cup again

23 October 2011
Media Release

83% back the All Blacks, 57% will be in front of telly, up to 112,000 downtown - and 65% say do it again

The All Blacks go onto Eden Park tonight with 83% of New Zealanders thinking they will win.

Fine weather in Auckland could see between 80,000 and 112,000 fans descend on three downtown Auckland waterfront venues, according to an Horizon Research poll conducted between Monday and Wednesday this week.

The poll of 1962 adult New Zealanders indicates 47,400 people will go downtown regardless of the weather, another 32,700 say they’ll go if it is fine – and another 103,300 say they “might” attend if it’s fine.

At the same time 57% say they’ll be watching the New Zealand-France match on television. About 16% will watch at friends’ homes while about 7% will watch at bars and 2.7% at rugby clubs.

And 66.6% of adult New Zealanders want to do it all again: they think New Zealand should bid to host another Rugby World Cup.

73% think the investment in the cup has been of value: 26.7% say it has been very worthwhile, 25.7% worthwhile and 20.8% somewhat worthwhile. 18.9% don’t think it’s been worthwhile, while 6.8% say they don’t know.

Among Auckland ratepayers, whose council has committed the most of any local body to the event, 74.1% think the investment has been worthwhile.

The blame game and controversy which followed the problems of managing a massive crowd at Auckland’s waterfront for the event’s opening has not dented approval of Auckland Mayor Len Brown’s performance in delivering the event.

Mr Brown scores a 38.5% good performance score (18.1% poor), while RWC Minister Murray McCully scores 28% good, 23.2% poor.

Prime Minister John Key is given a 39.8% good performance rating, 34.1% poor.

The highest performance ratings go to the event’s volunteers (71.6% good), the opening event organisers (59.7%), fan zone organisers and staff (55.2%), the New Zealand Rugby Union (56.9%), wharf fan zone organiser Auckland 2011 and Eden Park management (both 48%), the Eden Park Redevelopment Board (42.8%) and Auckland Council (41.8%).

The poorest performance rating goes to Violia, the company contracted to run Auckland’s trains, with 35.2% describing its performance as poor. It is closely followed by John Key (34.1%), and the International Rugby Board (32%).

The former Mayor of Auckland, John Banks, scores a 25.5% poor rating (and the lowest good rating of 15.5%).

Sky TV’s Channel 30 (29.7%) and Rugby Channel combined (4.4%) will get most viewers tonight, followed by Television one (27.3%) and Maori Television (22.7%).

The poll of 1,961 respondents was taken between 10.30pm Monday October 17 and 9am Wednesday October 19. Weighted by age, gender, ethnicity, personal income, region and party vote 2008 to provide a representative sample of the New Zealand population, the maximum margin of error at a 95% confidence level is ± 2.2%.

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