BRISBANE is close to selling out its first game at the Gabba in nine years when it hosts Collingwood on Thursday night.

As of late Monday morning only 1000 tickets remained to be sold, which the club expects to offload prior to the match.

Channel Seven will broadcast the game live into Brisbane on its main channel, rather than 7mate.

The last time the 'house full' sign went up was in round two, 2010 when Brisbane hosted Carlton.

This was the game that saw Brendan Fevola face the Blues for the first time since departing the previous off-season.

On that occasion the crowd was 36,780, the Lions won, and Jonathan Brown booted seven goals.

LAST SEATS Click here to get your tickets for Brisbane v Collingwood

Brisbane CEO Greg Swann said he hoped selling the game out would be the first step to making the Lions-Magpies fixture a regular on Easter Thursday.

"We're trying to get the AFL to lock this away as a permanent fixture for the next three to four years," Swann told AFL.com.au.

"A sellout, good TV ratings and hopefully a great game would go a long way to helping."

Brace yourselves, Round 5 is here. Make sure you secure your throne. #Uncaged #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/ZTt9XrTqBw — Brisbane Lions (@brisbanelions) April 15, 2019

On the eve of the season AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan was receptive to the idea.

McLachlan will be in attendance on Thursday night.

"They've got to deliver, they know that, but they're feel-good," he said of the Lions.

"We would love for that to be a permanent or semi-permanent slot.

"There's a bit to happen there yet but Collingwood are keen, I know that, and Brisbane are keen, but we need to have a look at this year and see how the game plays out.

"We know it can work. We know the people travel. We know the Brisbane supporters support the slot so if we can make it work, we'd love to do that."

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Brisbane and Collingwood played in the same timeslot in 2003 and 2004, following their Grand Final matchups from the previous years.

The capacity of the Gabba has been reduced to around 36,700 with the addition of a new scoreboard, extra space behind each team's bench and 'The Verandah' in recent years.

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