Every step they take - The Police trail leads to Croke Park reunion

By the time The Police finish their reunion tour in Australia next year, they will have played in many of the great cities and venues of the world. However they will not play to a bigger crowd than expected at Croke Park on Saturday night.

All 82,300 tickets that went on sale in April sold out within 2½ hours, a remarkable achievement for a band who recorded their last album in 1983 and whose tenure as one of the world's biggest music acts ended in acrimony.

A few hundred tickets which were held back for technical reasons have gone on sale on the Ticketmaster website. They range in price from €66.50 to €145 and are expected to be sold by Saturday.

More than 70,000 concert-goers bought tickets with their credit cards over the internet, indicating that it is most likely to be fans in their late-30s and early-40s who will be attending Saturday's concert.

The gamble of holding a stadium concert so late in the year would seem to have paid off for promoters MCD.

Concerts held this summer, most notably Barbra Streisand and Oxegen, were plagued by bad weather, but the forecast for Saturday is as good as can be expected for the beginning of October.

It should be sunny and dry and exceptionally mild, with temperatures of about 13 degrees by the time the band go on stage.

MCD spokesman Justin Green said: "If you look back as far as 1985 when Simple Minds played here, they played during the summer. It is a tribute to Croke Park that they have been able to provide the infrastructure for a band that can play in the heart of Dublin in October."

The Police are due on stage at 7.45pm and to be finished by 10pm. With only one support act, Friction Plane (Sting's son's band) and, given that Croke Park is in a residential area, fans are urged to come early and leave promptly after the concert.

"It is earlier than a lot of people would expect, but The Police go onstage at that time all over the world. It's a Saturday night and we advise people planning their arrangements that it might be better to go out or go for dinner after the concert," said Mr Green.

Though the band will be on stage relatively early, the late-in-the-year staging of the concert will make for a better atmosphere, according to Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna.

"Traditionally concerts with Billy Joel, U2 and Robbie Williams have been held during the summer and it is still light when the band come on stage. But The Police will be coming on stage in darkness. It will make for a really good atmosphere."

The usual traffic management plan for Croke Park will be in place on Saturday. Local residents and business people will be issued with passes and there will be parking restrictions from 9am and traffic restrictions from 2pm.

There will be two big car parks, one in Clonliffe College and another at O'Connell School, but motorists will not be able to leave until most of the crowd have dispersed.

The Garda is not expecting trouble.

"The Garda Síochána will have a great welcome for The Police," said Insp Tony Gallagher from Fitzgibbon Street Garda station.