Blues Rugby go two from two in Super Rugby Aotearoa with a strong display in the wet in Hamilton. An average attendance of 26,000-plus for the first four Super Rugby Aotearoa fixtures is more than double pre-Covid figures - and the Blues are expecting to at least match that on Saturday.
As of Wednesday lunchtime the competition frontrunning Blues reported 21,000 tickets sold for their round three match against the Highlanders at Eden Park at 7.05pm on Saturday.
A crowd of between 25,000-27,000 is predicted in Auckland, scene of their 42,000 sellout for their opening match against the Hurricanes. That was the largest Super Rugby crowd at Eden Park in 15 years, since 45,000 crammed in for the same two sides in Tana Umaga's 100th match in 2005.
And in Christchurch, the Crusaders Rugby said 11,000 tickets had been snapped up for the 17,400-capacity Orangetheory Stadium for their first home match of the New Zealand competition on Sunday (3.35pm).
According to figures supplied by each club, a total of 105,323 fans attended the first fortnight of matches, an average attendance of 26,330.
New Zealand Rugby does not publicly release individual crowd figures, citing commercial sensitivity, but in a statement said average attendances had more than doubled (a 105 per cent increase) from the first seven rounds of Super Rugby in 2020 before the three-month Covid-19 hiatus.
In 2019, NZR said around 450,000 fans attended the New Zealand Super Rugby matches across the regular season.
Next Big Game for Blues on July 11
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