Beckham struggling to draw Auckland crowd

Football fans can see David Beckham's silky skills on the pitch on Saturday for a bargain half price, after ticket prices were slashed to boost the crowd.

Just 14,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday night's game between Beckham's LA Galaxy and the Oceania All Stars at Mt Smart Stadium, which holds around 25,000.

The Auckland Regional Council expanded the two-for-one ticket offer to include everybody who has bought tickets to the game.

ARC General Manager Parks Lance Vervoort said the decision was taken following a sponsors' group initiative to offer two tickets for the price of one on every ticket sold from Thursday night.

Mr Vervoort said the ARC felt it was only fair to expand the offer to all ticket purchasers.

Patrons who have already purchased tickets can take up the two-for-one offer by taking their original tickets to Mt Smart Stadium's Gate B office between 10am and 1pm tomorrow (Saturday); or into the Ticketek SkyCity Theatre box office from 1pm - 5pm today (Friday) or from 10am - 1pm tomorrow (Saturday).

For each ticket they have purchased they will be offered an additional ticket in the same seating area, wherever possible, however tickets will not be seated alongside their original purchased tickets.

All tickets will be checked for date of purchase, and the offer will not apply for any tickets already purchased on a two-for-one offer.

"It is essential that people wishing to take advantage of this offer present at the stadium or the Ticketek SkyCity Theatre box office before 1pm Saturday, as logistically it will be impossible to do this immediately prior to the game as we are expecting a large walk up crowd."

Mr Vervoort said the ARC was keen to create an outstanding atmosphere and occasion on Saturday night and was pleased to be able to extend the two-for-one offer to people who had already shown their support for the match.

Vervoort said organisers expected a large walk-up crowd but were aiming to get a capacity attendance.