As for the 2,500 tickets sold with 20,000 distributed free:
Fox Sports wrote:2500 tickets sold for semi
By Dean Ritchie
September 16, 2005
THE NRL is facing an embarrassing attendance for tomorrow night's elimination finals match between non-New South Wales sides North Queensland and Melbourne with just 2500 tickets sold as of 4pm yesterday.
The Daily Telegraph understands about 20,000 complimentary tickets have been taken off the Ticketek system to be given away for the North Queensland-Melbourne game.
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,86 ... 61,00.html