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New Zealand's time to shine as hosts as well as sportsmen has finally arrived, and the country is fizzing.
It's the most-hyped event the country has ever seen and it's fair to say there's a lot riding on both the shoulders of the All Blacks squad and the country as a whole to live up to expectations and pull it off.
Expect fierce competition, huge celebrations, squabbles about referees' decisions, excitement, joy, tears...and half-empty stadiums?
Tickets for the big games, of course, are being snapped up.
But many other matches will not, it seems, be played before sold-out crowds - a fact an acquaintance of mine recently bemoaned, attributing it to a lack of dedication by rugby fans to their teams.
I asked whether it could not instead be down to the fact that tickets are out of reach for many, even if they are the most ardent fans? He wasn't buying it.
But consider this.
Statistics New Zealand's employment survey shows the average weekly income in the year to June was about $1000 before tax - so a little over $50,000 a year.
Other figures show wages grew 1.9% in the year to June, while over the same period inflation shot up 5.3%.
Mortgage rates might be low, but food and petrol prices are high.
The economy, while growing, is hardly fizzing along.
Tickets for some of the less high-profile matches cost $40 for adults and $20 for kids - prices Rugby World Cup CEO Martin Snedden calls "cheap as chips".
Perhaps, but even at those prices it's a luxury beyond the reach of many.
Massey University economics lecturer, Dr Sam Richardson, says prices seem to have been set to maximise overseas spending on tickets - to the detriment of getting our "stadium of 4 million people" actually along to the stadiums.
Atmosphere
Of course, that doesn't mean those without the means to get to the game can't watch the match on telly, soak up the electric atmosphere and partake in the free activities.
However, Dr Richardson says "ticket revenues are the sole source of income from the RWC for this country. Everything else goes to the IRB. Unsold tickets benefit nobody."
But there's always the tourist spend, right? To a degree, yes.
The spending of foreigners on tourist activities, in shops and on accommodation is helping to give our tourism sector a summer-like boost at the start of spring, but it's possible some of those visitors reined in their budgets when they saw that one pound or one euro doesn't buy as many kiwi dollars as it once did.
While industries like tourism will get a World Cup fillip, for others it could well be rather disruptive.
I think employers are likely to give staff a little leeway, but the fact remains that staff pulling sickies, coming to work with hangovers, arriving late or leaving early to avoid the crush has an impact on productivity.
Employees also do need to be wary that if your employer decides to take a tough line, they are now entitled by law to request a medical certificate after one day of sick leave.
DLA Phillips Fox partner John Hannan's advice on AMP Business this week was to make your expectations crystal clear, well ahead of time.
There will be plenty of hobnobbing going on and the organisation New Zealand 2011 has been schooling businesses up on how to be good hosts and how to make the most of the opportunity presented by plenty of high profile and important people descending on the country.
That, while undoubtedly valuable, is a benefit more difficult to quantify.
I don't mean to pour cold water on the event, I've got caught up in the hype as much as anybody.
But I think anybody hanging their hopes on the flow-on effects of the Cup or holding their breath for a major boost to the economy should take the advice of NZIER economist Shamubeel Eaqub.
He says the boost will be 'marginal' and we should just "enjoy the world cup and not worry about the economic impact".
In a year full of worry, of earthquakes, of double-dips, of debt crises - that's possibly the best advice I've heard in a while. Go the All Blacks!
To read more opinion by Nadine Chalmers-Ross
click here.
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