You spend one weekend away from the hurricane that is the Toronto FC news making machine and return to find all sorts of little stories to read about as the season draws closer by the day. From the great news that defender come midfielder Richard Eckersley is on the verge of leaving English side Burnley and signing on a full-time basis for TFC to the fantastic news that the CCL quarter final game at the Sky Dome against LA has now sold more than 35,000 tickets. Fears of large collections of empty seats are subsiding by the day it would appear as the club have even taken the step of releasing an extra 1,000 tickets.

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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.

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As those who frequent this parish with any regularity will know, I wasn’t the biggest fan of taking the CCL quarter-final game on March 7 to the Rogers Centre Sky Dome, but I guess one of the good things to come out of having to fill 45,000 seats rather than a little over 20,000, is that it’s pushed the ticket prices down. By comparison to what you might pay to a regular season game at BMO field, never mind had this game been held at our regular home, these prices are very reasonable indeed. Anywhere between $12 and $69 with about 70 per cent being under $30.

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It’s been a mild winter thus far and if it keeps up the club might begin to question their decision to need to take their March 7th Concacaf Champions League quarter-final game, against the Los Angeles Galaxy, inside the Sky Dome in order to avoid the elements. It was revealed today that the game would be held indoors on an artificial turf in a move that appears practical, but one I’d rather they didn’t make.

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So it seems that my personal fears of the team taking their CCL knockout game next March to the Sky Dome were not unfounded after the club this week announced the option is being considered. The weather is the biggest factor in the decision – not to mention the potential of pulling in a bigger crowd – because with Toronto playing the first leg at home, the game would take place on either the 6th, 7th or 8th of March when temperatures in the city are still sub-zero. Thankfully the option of playing in the ground we call home has not been ruled out. A decision should be made in and around when the draw for the quarter-finals are made on November 8th from which TFC will play one of LA Galaxy, or Mexican outfits, Santos Laguna or Monterrey.

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Let’s not go hiding inside just because it might be cold out…

I don’t know about you, but the first question I asked upon the peep peep peep of the referees whistle to signal that the game was over and that Toronto had indeed pulled off the finest result in club history, wasn’t whether this game was indeed the biggest in club history (I think we all know it was), but rather when, and where, the next biggest game in club history would be taking place?

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