With only provincial sport in the meantime, the highlight of the 13 months since the cricket calamity, was the April 21 Super Rugby match last year in which the Hurricanes beat the Brumbies 56-21 a few weeks before the Highlanders beat the Hurricanes in the final. The eight-tries-to-three win was repeat of a 56-20 victory over Dunedin-based eventual champions the Highlanders in June 2015,
Mr Campbell said such high-scoring matches attracted the public and were well remembered.
"I think the crowd last year was about 12,000," he said. "On the way we're tracking it could be more than that."
Crowd capacity without extra seating but with the embankment filled is put at more than 15,000, a figure which could be approached if the weather gods play their part.
April 6 has a reasonable history of fine weather in Napier. While Cyclone Debbie dropped more than 100mm of rain on the area in the first few days of the month last year there was less than 1mm on April 6, and none on the same date the previous year, nor in 2015.
There could be as many as four Hurricanes players who have played for the Hawke's Bay Magpies, including first five-eighths Ihaia West. And while announcements about supporting entertainment are yet to be made, there will be an age-group match between the Hurricanes and Chiefs franchises, expected to include several players headed for New Zealand's defence of the World Under-20 title in France in June.
It will be the 13th Super Rugby match at McLean Park — the 11th for the Wellington-based Hurricanes who have a Napier win-loss record of 6-3. They beat South African side Transvaal (now the Lions) in 1996, the New South Wales Waratahs in 1997 and 1999, the Dunedin-based Highlanders in 2001 and 2015 year, and in 2014 South African team the Bulls, to whom they'd twice lost at McLean Park in 2003 and 2011.
The two matches not involving the Hurricanes were Canterbury Crusaders "home" matches against the Chiefs in 2011 and 2012, when the Crusaders were without a suitable home ground after the devastation of Christchurch test match venue Lancaster Park in the February 2011 earthquake.
The Hurricanes were beaten 21-19 by the Bulls in their opening match this year in Pretoria on February 25, and have since beaten the Jaguares 34-9 in Argentina and the Crusaders 29-19 in Wellington.
Leading into the Napier game they have a home match against the Highlanders in Wellington on Saturday night, and an away game against the Rebels in Melbourne on Good Friday.
The Sharks, based in Durban, will be playing the last of four matches in an Australia-New Zealand tour in which they lost to the Brumbies in Canberra at the weekend, and play the Rebels this weekend and the Blues in Auckland at Easter.