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Auckland Mayor John Banks has been in secret discussions with NRL bosses to have a State of Origin match played at the revamped Eden Park.

Banks met with NRL director of commercial and marketing Paul Kind and director of finance Ed Farish earlier this week.

Sunday News understands Warriors CEO Wayne Scurrah and NZRL bosses were also involved in the discussions.

The mayor also wants the Kiwis to play the Kangaroos followed by an All Blacks v Wallabies test in a footy-fantasy double-header at Eden Park, to showcase the ground's multi-million dollar facelift to be completed by next October.

"I am absolutely committed to bringing State of Origin to Auckland," Banks told Sunday News.

"The Eden Park people are very keen to maximise the use of the new ground and I've always felt that the best place to play rugby league tests and an opportunity for hosting State of Origin would be at Eden Park.

"The NRL officials were very receptive to the idea but I must say it would be incumbent on me going out and raising quite a lot of sponsorship for it.

"These international fixtures with global television audiences are not cheap and to take Origin from Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne and bring it to Auckland would cost a lot of money.

"I'm quietly confident that I can raise that cash privately."

Kind confirmed the meeting with Banks.

"Certainly we have been told by a number of sources in New Zealand that there would be strong interest in an Origin game there," he said. "We aren't looking at it in the short term but we wouldn't discount it in the long term."

Kind said the NRL wanted to build a relationship with the Auckland authorities.

"When we played the World Cup here (Australia) in 2008, we had the support of both the Queensland and Victorian governments to play our major games," he said.

"We work really closely with those governments to make sure we are......................READ MORE