Tickets are expected to be sold out today for the Super 12 rugby final between the Crusaders and the Brumbies at Jade Stadium this weekend.
Hundreds of fans were queued outside the Jade ticket office at dawn today.
Last week, semifinal tickets for the Highlanders game were sold by lunch time on
the opening day of sales.
Tickets were on sale at 9am today and Canterbury Rugby Football Union chief executive Hamish Riach said it would be interesting to see how long it took before they would be snapped up.
"There is massive interest in the game. One fan has been queued up outside the ticket office since Sunday night," Riach told NZPA.
Queueing fans have been playing cricket under lamp lights on the street, sharing drinks out of flasks and checking e-mail on their laptops.
A slice of the financial cake will be handed to the Brumbies but the Canterbury Rugby Union will benefit heavily from the staging of the game in Christchurch.
Riach said the exact size of the windfall would not be known until later next week.
Meanwhile, most New Zealand rugby fans and former All Blacks are getting behind the Crusaders' bid to wrench the Super 12 crown off the Australians.
"We've got to win. I see it as a national thing," former All Black great Colin Meads has said.
"We have to get back on track after the upsets (of losing hosting rights) of the World Cup. This is the only way to put it right," said Meads, who believed Robbie Deans was the best coach in New Zealand.
Former All Black Andy Haden said today the Crusaders would win the final.
"The rest of the country is saying 'thank God for the Crusaders'. They are holding the torch very high as far as New Zealand is concerned," Haden said.
"They are very composed and going the job extremely well. I don't think they will be upset by a 30 minute effort from the Brumbies.
"The Crusaders have done so well this year and a team like that on the front foot is very hard to knock off at any stage but at final stage even more so."
- NZPA
