A crowd of over 10,000 is expected for Friday night's Super Rugby match in Napier - the first at McLean Park involving a defending champion New Zealand side.
Hawke's Bay Rugby Union commercial manager Jay Campbell said more than 8300 tickets had been sold by mid-afternoon yesterday for the match between home-region team and titleholders the Hurricanes and the current Australian Conference leaders, the Canberra-based Brumbies.
It's the 12th match in Napier in the 22 seasons of professional rugby since the Super 12 was introduced in 1996, with the Hurricanes having won the title for the first time last year and targeting a place in the final for a third year in a row, and 2001 and 2004 winners the Brumbies having last been in the final in 2013.
The only other time a defending champion side played in Napier was when South African side the Bulls beat the Hurricanes in 2011 in what was the first Super Rugby match at McLean Park in eight years but also the first of two that year with the park later deputising as a home venue for the Crusaders whose home ground had been wrecked in the September 2010 Canterbury earthquake.
The Hurricanes, expected to include 2016 World Player of the Year Beauden Barrett, will be going for a fifth win in a row this season, on a ground where they've won seven and lost two.