Rugby World Cup (RWC) officials are set to reveal how they plan to transport 60,000 fans around Auckland during next year's tournament.

RWC 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden said the strategy would cover days when games were played at Eden Park and North Harbour Stadium.

"It's a plan that is designed to cope with the pressures of key match days," he told Radio New Zealand on Thursday.

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority has been undertaking a "consultation process" for some time and is set to announce the plan this week.

"I am confident that it will work," Mr Snedden said.

The RWC boss was expecting about double the number of fans in 2011 that flock to the city for the Bledisloe Cup.

This figure was based on the number of people who attended the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the 2003 RWC in Australia, he said.

The first phase of 750,000 RWC tickets went on sale two weeks ago, exactly 500 days before the tournament kicks off in New Zealand.

"The sales applications that we've receive so far have been strong but pretty much line with our expectations," Mr Snedden said.

"It's not above our expectations.

"There has been some talk about higher figures... there's been some figures of about 85,000 that have been floating around for a while and I have to say I'm just a little bit uncomfortable with those.

"Let's keep our expectations sensible."

Mr Snedden said organisers had spent about three years preparing for next year's RWC and no profit would be made from the event.

"We're going to make a substantial loss on this event, at the moment it's sitting on $NZ39 million ($A31.14 million)," he said.

Mr Snedden said about 1.6 million tickets were up for grabs for the 44-day tournament in New Zealand.

There will be three ticket sales phases: applications for venue and team pool packs close on May 21, while entry to all individual matches will be on offer in phase two and semi-finals and final tickets will be drawn in a ballot system in the third phase.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP