The club website announced this past weekend that ticket sales for the CCL game against the Los Angeles Galaxy have surpassed the 25,000 mark meaning that this game will set an attendance high for the club for a home game in what is our first home game away from BMO Field. Attendance records are set on tickets sold and not by how many people actually show up. With a capacity of 54,000 (going off the capacity for NFL games at the stadium), it’s still someway short of a sellout but with seven weeks (yes just 7 weeks!) to go there will be optimism that they can get at least close to capacity.

One of my fears of having this game staged at the Sky Dome — aside from the plastic pitch — was the potential loss of atmosphere should there be too many empty seats around the building. Let’s face it with that many tickets already sold BMO Field would have been sold out and then some, but the step up in capacity from BMO to the Sky Dome is quite large.

Still the club website informs that 75 percent of the lower bowl is already sold which should help with the atmosphere even if we get little more than 30,000 bodies through the door. If all that is empty is the back dozen rows right around the bowl in the 500 level then I dare say we won’t be too badly off. Especially with the roof closed.

The speed at which the lower bowl has filled up has to be down, in part, to the ticket prices. I have to admit I was shocked and surprised at how reasonable the ticket prices were though I suppose now that I see that potentially 29,000 tickets remain unsold, it does explain it. I hope that over the coming weeks as this game gets more media attention be it on television, in the papers or on local sports radio that more ‘passive’ supporters of the club — or those who have never been to a game but see this as an opportunity to score a cheap and easy ticket — might pick one up and come along to see what it’s all about.

One thing that has irked some supporters during this sale process is the potential number of tickets that have gotten into the hands of scalpers. Of course, if there are plenty of tickets left over through official channels come game-time it might stop scalpers from making a profit in all sections, but the fact some of the more popular sections may have sold out because of scalpers hording tickets for resale at a marked up up price, is a shame. Ideally you want those sections filled but it may mean they are filled to the profit of scalpers. Would we want that or would we accept a scattering of empty seats in those sections?

This is all speculation of course and scalpers are a staple at any Toronto sporting event looking to profit off the back of genuine fans, though it always leaves me asking if Toronto as a city does enough to clamp down on the buying and reselling of tickets for profit?

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On a side note, I heard a rumour at the weekend that Liverpool Football Club — my lifelong love — may play a pre-season friendly this coming summer in Toronto. Has anyone out there got anymore details on this and whether such a game would be against European opposition or indeed our own Toronto FC?

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