The Wellington Phoenix will play a pre-season game against the Brisbane Roar at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday, August 20.
The 5.30pm game had been pencilled in for a while but was only confirmed by the A-League franchise yesterday.
It will be the biggest football event in Dunedin since Carisbrook hosted a pool of the under-17 world cup in 1999.
Dunedin Venues Management Limited chief executive David Davies is excited about the Phoenix game and the possibility of further top football being attracted to the city.
"Any time you get the reigning A-League champions into Dunedin to play New Zealand's only professional club, that's reason to feel pleased," he told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
"It's a rarity. This is a direction I want to see us go. We want to expose people to soccer at the top level.
"This is a good first step and we're very pleased it's happening. We need to make sure we do it well. That will send a message to the league that if they want to bring games here, we're receptive.
"Then who knows, we might even get the All Whites down here."
There has been speculation Dunedin will also be in contention to host a full A-League match in December, a Phoenix-Roar rematch.
Davies said there had been "conversations in general" about that game, but "we just have to do this one well first".
DVML is hoping a crowd of 10,000-plus will attend the pre-season game. Financial arrangements are confidential but it seems the Dunedin stadium will be taking most of the risk and responsibility.
"Effectively, in this case, we are acting as the promoter," Davies said.
"So we are saying to football that we are making the arrangements, they just need to get themselves down here."
The football game will be sandwiched between Otago rugby games on the preceding Wednesday (v Manawatu) and following Saturday (v Canterbury).
"We'll have to take posts out, paint new lines, deal with grass length, get the decals in the middle of the pitch washed out, put up new posts, and then do it all over again," Davies said.
"Rugby fans also like to sit on halfway, whereas soccer crowds invariably like to sit behind the goals. So it's a good test for us."
Footballsouth chief executive Bill Chisholm is excited about the game and the possibility the new stadium will attract more big clashes.
"It's going to be a good test to see if we're prepared to support top football down here. That's going to be interesting," Chisholm said.
"Anything like this is good for football. We don't have any direct impact on the game but we'd certainly hope for some positive spin-offs.
"I'd hope the football community would really get behind the game, and hopefully it can lead to a full A-League fixture and maybe even the All Whites."
Phoenix and All Whites coach Ricki Herbert was delighted the game could be played in Dunedin's new stadium.
"Dunedin hasn't had an opportunity to host international football or a professional team for some time so it is good we are going there," Herbert said.
The Phoenix is still finalising its squad but will likely bring top All Whites like Tim Brown, Ben Sigmund, Tony Lochhead, Leo Bertos and World Cup goalkeeping hero Mark Paston.
The club plans to hold an open training session in Dunedin.
