Ticket sales for the second Test in Hobart are sluggish as forecast rain and an out-of-sorts Australia add further obstacles to administrators trying to boost Bellerive Oval's appeal as an international cricket venue.
Around 18,000 tickets have been sold across the five days of play as Australia look to square the three-Test series following South Africa's crushing victory in Perth on Monday.
Steve Smith's men have now lost four Tests on the trot, and have to quickly find a way to bounce back with a team that will have at least two new faces due to injuries to Shaun Marsh and Peter Siddle.
It's an overall figure well short of the 25,000 Cricket Australia hoped for at a ground which is fighting for the right to continue hosting Test cricket after below-par crowd numbers in recent years.
Bellerive Oval has hosted 12 Tests, the last being Australia's innings and 212 runs demolition of the West Indies last year.
"The Australians have got to recover from what they did in the first Test match," Cricket Tasmania boss David Johnston told reporters on Wednesday.
"And I think that's a really good test of their skill to get back into the game and that will be really interesting for the people to come along and watch."
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting showers for days one, two, three and four of the clash, which starts on Saturday.
The forecast is particularly gloomy on the first day, when there is a 90 per cent chance of rain.
