Saturday night’s Super Rugby final is set to break Australia’s 104-year-old provincial attendance record after all general sale seats were snapped up within 45 minutes on Wednesday morning.
It means the Queensland Reds and final opponents the Crusaders will lock horns at a sold-out Suncorp Stadium for the second time this year.
The full house sign also went up in round 15 on May 29, when a record Australian Super Rugby crowd of 48,301 celebrated an epic 17-16 victory to the Reds.
That mark will now be eclipsed on Saturday night, along with the national record for a provincial match, set in 1907 when 49,327 turned out to watch NSW play the All Blacks at the SCG.
Suncorp Stadium’s capacity is 52,000, but up to 4000 stadium members and pre-sold seat holders failed to attend the round 15 encounter.
A sell-out ensures a second capacity crowd in Brisbane this week following Wednesday night’s rugby league State of Origin decider between Queensland and NSW.
Saturday night’s capacity crowd will also provide almost $500,000 in extra revenue for the Queensland Rugby Union who have seen a major boost in crowds during the Reds revival.
Brisbane crowds are averaging 31,000 this season, up 30 per cent on last year, and a 60 per cent boost on the 2009 average of 18,646 when the Reds finished second last.
Tickets went on sale to Reds members on Monday and were available until Tuesday afternoon.
The remaining tickets went on sale to the general public at 9am on Wednesday morning and were all taken by 9.45am.
The QRU and Ticketek said glitches which saw punters turned away from booking semi-final tickets last week had been fixed to ensure no problems when final tickets went on sale.
p.Tah
Guest
:)
Emric
Guest
Thanks Tristan. I will post on Saturday morning. I still want to go if I can :)
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Emric - we can try to facilitate this if you'd like.
Emric
Guest
went to the doctor, was given a script for a ton of pills, a note for work, and warning to take it easy. I was going to offer the tickets to some loyal roars if I'm still too sick on sat morning but anyone taking them would have to make the trip to the gabba to get them.
Brett McKay
Guest
if the crowd on Sat night is 52497 Emric, you and these two other clowns are gonna get hunted down!! Alternatively, I could take your ticket off you hands (which would result in me upsetting a wife, a daughter, and a mate turning 40 on Sat)....
Big Steve
Guest
Good luck in your recovery Emric. Brett will be onto you now if the crowd is two short on Saturday.
Emric
Guest
well we will see how things progress sat morning at least I've got my tickets :)
Jiggles
Roar Guru
Emric – all I can say is take a teaspoon of cement and harden up.
Brett McKay
Guest
well there is also that PT!!
Emric
Guest
I spent 30minutes fighting my way through heavy net traffic to get 2 tickets (silver is all i could get because the system was crashing on gold / plat tickets) and what happens I come down with the flu and my mate does not want to go by himself - hoping to get well by saturday
Jiggles
Roar Guru
Don’t think so Dave all the stadium members I know are all Rugby people who hold stadium membership as well as QRU membership. Note this is different to Reds membership.
p.Tah
Guest
I saw them at Suncorp last night. You can spot them easily because they are the ones ... waaaaait for it.... waaaaaait for it... they are the ones wearing eye patches! boom boom. Thank you. I'll be here all week.
p.Tah
Guest
LOL perhaps they've count the number of seats incorrectly. Maybe there are only 52498 seats at Suncorp!
The Bush
Roar Guru
I agree Brett, I'm confident that it is a couple of true larakins that are pulling this off each time!
King of the Gorgonites
Roar Guru
add to this the hundres of thousands of RWC tickets sold during the week. who said rugby was dead?
Dave
Guest
it will be a super rugby record in australia but it wont get anywhere near 52,000 because stadium members are mostly one eye rugby league fans.
Dingo Bob
Guest
Hopefully this means it is really sold out not the Ticketek version of sold out like last week.
Brett McKay
Guest
will the two people in Brisbane who keep denying a capacity crowd record turn up on Sat?? Last night's Origin equalled the ground record of 52498, just two short of capacity. So who are these two people, and have you seen them?!? Name names!!
Joseph
Guest
Who said Rugby was dying, winning brings them back! -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.