Tickets for Friday night's ITM Cup championship rugby final between Hawke's Bay and Wellington go on sale this morning, with more than 2000 seats already set to be filled by season-ticket holders and sponsors.
Hawke's Bay Rugby Union marketing manager Jay Campbell said there had been strong interest from season-ticketholders who had preferential purchase options, after getting nine matches for their annual outlay earlier in the season.
There were 750 season-ticket holders, and already 212 had bought in again for 2016 as part of a package last week that offered half-price for Saturday's semifinal and, if the Magpies won, free entry to the final.
Plans were last night still being made for pre-match activities between when the gates at McLean Park in Napier open at 6pm and kickoff for the Magpies-Lions match at 7.35pm.
While the match is at the end of Show Day, the first day of a four-day holiday weekend in Hawke's Bay, the union is hoping for a maximum crowd to see off the season for the Magpies, whose matches this year included eight Ranfurly Shield defences.
The biggest crowd for a Magpies competition game in the past 50 years was the estimated 15,000 for a Division 2 final against East Coast in 2001. The Magpies captain in that match, Mutu Ngarimu, says the turnout was the players' reward for the work they put in during the year, and the current team should expect no less.
"There are no bonus points, and it doesn't matter whether you win by one point or a hundred points," said Ngarimu, whose side staved off a mammoth Coast comeback to win the game 30-27.
"Grand final rugby is different and you've got to take your opportunities. If you don't nail it, it could be the difference between winning and losing."
In a warning to the Magpies against the Lions playing for the pride of Wellington, Ngarimu said: "This is all about grassroots rugby and East Coast showed you can't take the foot off the throttle." If the team had the belief in themselves, anything was possible.
In the 23 seasons of grand finals across the divisions of NPC rugby, Hawke's Bay Magpies teams have played nine finals, for five wins and four losses, including the last two.
Meanwhile, the TAB was last night unable to separate the two sides in early betting and had not listed either side the favourite to win.
In head-to-head betting, Hawke's Bay and Wellington were each paying $1.87 to win, and in win-margin betting each side was paying $3 to win by 1-12pts and $4.25 to win by 13 or more. A draw at the end of ordinary time (80 minutes) was quoted at $21. If it is a draw, 10 minutes each way of extra time will be played and if there is still no winner it will be decided on a sequence of rules, starting with which side got the most tries.
