A SELL-OUT crowd is expected at Adelaide Arena at Jiangwan Stadium in China with nearly all tickets exhausted for the round nine clash between Port Adelaide and Gold Coast.

This year there will also be a larger Chinese presence with around 50 per cent of tickets sold to the locals, a significant increase on last year.

The AFL GM of China and India, David Stevenson told AFL.com.au there were just a "handful of tickets" left with the game to be officially sold out within the next couple of days.

"We will have a bigger proportion of local Chinese at the game," Stevenson said.

"We probably had 30 per cent last year, and this year it will be closer to 50 per cent. We've done more marketing, social media and now have 22 schools involved in our AFL program. We're also getting more interest in the game because of the broadcasters. This year we've already had six rounds of AFL aired in China."

Just over 10,000 fans attended the historic game in Shanghai in round eight last season,

with the AFL adding more seating for the second China game.

The League had hoped to increase crowd capacity at the venue by about 2000 seats, however they have fallen just short of that, with a sell-out crowd expected to be around 11,500.

The stadium turf has been given the all-clear with the surface graded as AFL standard, while the arena itself has undergone a transformation in the last 12 months, with custom built change rooms in place behind the interchange benches.

Last year, both teams had to leave the arena and walk on the outside to access makeshift changerooms.

However, brand-new AFL-standard changerooms within the stadium have since been built, as the League continues its commitment to playing games in China for at least the next five years.