There are just three nights to go until the biggest sporting event in New Zealand's history kicks off in Auckland
The Football Ferns will get the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup underway when they take on Norway at Eden Park on Thursday evening.
Organisers believe it could attract up to two billion viewers around the world.
FIFA Women's World Cup chief executive Dave Beeche told Checkpoint 1.2 billion viewers tuned in to the 2019 tournament.
"With the growth of the women's game, which has just been phenomenal, the women's Euros [UEFA European Women's Championship] last year in the UK was a knockout success - they broke all records in attendance in audiences so absolutely the global audience is going to be huge."
Only about 350,000 of the 1.3 million tickets sold across the whole tournament were for matches in New Zealand, who is co-hosting the Cup with Australia.
"Obviously, Australia is a lot bigger country and per head of population New Zealand is actually doing slightly better than Australia, so we're happy with how things are going," Beeche said.
There had been an increase in domestic sales over the past week, he said.
"Last sales last week were up 50,000 so things have really kicked up as New Zealanders have realised what's on the doorstep and want to be part of what this is, which is going to be a fantastic in-stadium experience, watching some of the best athletes in the world.
"I think New Zealand is always a bit last minute if you like, for this type of thing. We're happy with how things have gone ... there's a real hive of activity around it."
The Xero promotion, where 20,000 tickets were given away for free to bolster attendance to some matches, went well, Beeche said, with tickets snapped up in about four or five hours.
"The tickets are super affordable, only $10 for children and $20 for adults for some of those group stage matches."
But there were no walk-up tickets, which Beeche said was not uncommon for major sporting events on this scale.
"You can't just walk up to an Olympic Games and buy a ticket at the door, and it's similar for this tournament."
The visiting teams were having a great time in New Zealand, building support and meeting aspiring athletes, he said.
"They're absolutely loving it so having a great time, you'll see them wandering around the cities, engaging with people, these open to public training sessions have gone down really well with kids and this is what this is all about - connecting these athletes with the next generation so they can see what they're like and see how they train and get inspired and then sort of form a following if you like.
"These teams are really good at creating that home away from home so that when they're in the stadium, they've got a whole lot of fans who want to give them a bit of support."
The FIFA president and secretary general and a range of government ministers and senators from all over the world were expected to attend some of the games too.
BENEE and Mallrat will perform Do It Again live at Eden Park on Thursday. The pre-match ceremony will start at 6.30pm and kick-off is set for 7pm.
"There's about 300-odd volunteers involved, dancers who put their hands up to be involved, they've been rehearsing frantically at a local school and all the movement that goes with choreographing something this big on a football pitch, they've done a great job and it looks absolutely fantastic."
