As of yesterday afternoon, 15,000 tickets had been sold for the clash which is a replay of last year's final.
The game will also be the first home fixture for the Highlanders since they won the title in Wellington last year.
Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark said he was looking forward to a big crowd and hoped to have a crowd of up to 18,000.
Students had bought 2000 tickets through a university Orientation ticket deal.
Clark said the franchise had sold more season tickets than last year on the back of the side's winning performance last year.
Ground members, DVML members and other deals meant the franchise was averaging 11,000 through the gate for its six games at the stadium throughout the season even before tickets had gone on public sale.
The market was not as crowded as last year when the Cricket World Cup was being played in New Zealand and Clark was buoyed by the interest in the competition in its first week.
The match will be refereed by Glen Jackson, who officiated the game between the Blues and Highlanders in Auckland last week.
Meanwhile, the grassroots of the game will come to the stadium next week when country sides Kurow and Riversdale clash in a curtain-raiser to a Highlanders match.
Kurow coach Kevin Malcolm said Riversdale, from central Southland, had gone up and played Kurow in a pre-season match last year and it was felt the best place to play a game between the sides this year was in Dunedin.
DVML and the Highlanders were happy for the game to be played at the stadium and the teams have agreed to play the game on March 12.
Malcolm said a large group of Kurow supporters would be at the match which would precede the match between the Highlanders and the Lions.
Malcolm said for the first time in more than 30 years Kurow was looking to field two men's sides.
North Otago had introduced a president's grade last season and Malcolm said that grade had got a lot of young players in the Kurow area, mostly farm workers, interested in playing the game.
The Highlanders Bravehearts side will take on the Crusaders Knights, both development sides, at Logan Park at 1pm on Saturday.
