Full house for Lions match in Rotorua

The "sold out" signs have gone up for the Lions' rugby clash with Bay of Plenty in Rotorua on Saturday.

The last 2000 tickets of 33,000 which were available for the Lions opening match were sold yesterday.

"It's fantastic," Bay of Plenty Rugby Union chief executive Paul Abbott said.

A "handful" of the last tickets which went yesterday were for grandstand seats and the rest were general admission.

All tickets for the terraces had been sold by yesterday morning.

"We were always confident it would be a sell-out but to be honest, I thought it would take until Thursday or Friday," Abbott said.

"We're really happy it's happened earlier.

"It's one less thing to worry about ... now we can concentrate on the rest of the game things that need to be put into place."

Abbott said there was a big rush on the last tickets yesterday, people possibly spurred on by the wonderful welcome the Lions received in Rotorua on Sunday.

He described Sunday's Rotorua Airport welcome and the official Maori welcome at Ohinemutu which followed it as "really special".

"Now we can all look forward to Saturday night," he said.

- nzpa