Otago's Ranfurly Shield challenge against Southland is not sold out but officials are hoping they will eventually be able to put up the full house sign.
Otago takes on Southland in a battle of the South in Invercargill on August 7 with much interest in the first shield game between the old rivals in half a century.
Rugby Park has a capacity of 18,000 and, with just under three weeks until the match, about 10,000 tickets have been sold.
Southland commercial and marketing manager Caroline Wethey-Te Whetu said tickets were selling reasonably quickly and the union was still hoping to fill the ground.
There had been rumours the ground was sold out but that was not true and there were plenty of tickets left on the terrace.
A crowd of just under 9000 turned up for the challenge against North Otago on July 9 and a crowd of between 5000-6000 is expected for the challenge against Wanganui this Friday night.
The union had originally thought more than 10,000 would attend the North Otago challenge but that prediction had been reduced closer to the game.
It was still a healthy crowd figure, she said.
Wethey-Te Whetu said the match against Otago would undoubtedly be the best-selling game of the season, and interest was building every day.
About 16,000 had turned up for the match between Southland and the British and Irish Lions in 2005 so the union was hoping to get more people for the Otago game, its biggest crowd for many years.
She was expecting between 1500 and 2000 Otago supporters to be at the game.
A temporary stand, beside the main stand, was expected to hold most of the Otago spectators.
If Southland holds the shield against Otago, it then has a tough season of challenges from Counties-Manukau, North Harbour, Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington.
A train carrying about 300 passengers is due to head south from Dunedin on the day of the game while six buses have already been booked to journey to Invercargill.
The All Blacks play the Wallabies in a Tri-Nations match in the same night in Christchurch so the shield game will be kicking off at the earlier time of 4.30pm.
Otago has not held the shield for 53 years and has had 21 unsuccessful challenges since losing it in 1957.
Southland had not won the Ranfurly Shield for 50 years before beating Canterbury last year.
The Otago squad for the ITM Cup was not announced yesterday, and will be released at the official season launch on Friday.
