5.30pm
A near sell-out for Sunday's final pool match against Wales will lift the number of spectators who have watched the All Blacks at the rugby World Cup beyond 200,000.
A tournament spokesperson told NZPA their test at Telstra Stadium would "either be a sellout or go very close". The giant venue
to be used for the semifinals and final has a capacity of 82,000.
New Zealand's games so far -- two at Melbourne's Telstra Dome and one at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane -- have been watched by a total of 127,197.
A large percentage have been All Blacks fans, something that hasn't gone unnoticed by All Blacks coach John Mitchell.
"If the warmup was any indication at Suncorp, it almost felt like we were in New Zealand," he said.
The tournament is already the best-attended of the five World Cups, with official figures showing just short of 1.08 million had passed through the turnstiles ahead of tonight's match between France and the United States. An average crowd of 32,000 had watched the first 34 games.
The final figure is on track to topple the organisers' target of 1.8 million, although it may struggle to reach the two million mark -- a figure they said could be a possibility if sales boomed.
The remaining six pool games -- five of which involve the tournament favourites -- should attract more than 300,000 fans while the eight playoff games are anticipated to draw over 500,000.
However, ticket sales for the two quarterfinals in Melbourne are not reaching expectations.
There are still 14,000 unsold for the match likely to feature the All Blacks on November 8 while the game a day later involving France still has 20,000 tickets available. The Telstra Dome venue seats 56,000.
- NZPA
