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Toronto FC vs. Motagua - July 27th @BMO Field


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Then again, it was still a crowd of 18,000 and change, which isn't all that bad.
18,891 ... almost 19,000. According to CBC.

It's the first non-friendly match they've had to sell outside of the season ticket packages since the 2008 Canadian Championship game. And the attendance is almost exactly the same as the first one of those (47 less). Not bad given how hard it was to get tickets back in 2008 to any game.

Better than many expected ... the beautiful evening may have helped, as we came in there seemed to be a lot more people at the ticket windows than usual.

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You also have to consider that most people assume you can't get tickets and don't bother trying....it was a poor marketing effort as well....I was out of town a week prior to the game but realy until yesterday heard nothing from any of our media outlets...

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I spent a couple of games prior to this one explaining what the game was.

People don't even understand it yet.

Wed, Sat, Tues. The people that sit around me come from way up north. Takes them 1.5 hours to get in. That's nine hours of driving in less than one week.

Then there are the people who are prisoners of the Go Train schedule.

I love the 8pm kick off, but I bike home.

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I spent a couple of games prior to this one explaining what the game was.

People don't even understand it yet.

Wed, Sat, Tues. The people that sit around me come from way up north. Takes them 1.5 hours to get in. That's nine hours of driving in less than one week.

Then there are the people who are prisoners of the Go Train schedule.

I love the 8pm kick off, but I bike home.

The bit about some people not knowing what CL is or represents is exactly what i was getting at. People who know soccer well, realise teh significance. Notice that the empty seats were in the higher end price range.

Howver, the start time of 8PM is perfect even for the cyclist. It took me 45 minutes door to door last night using the combination of subway and bike. Thats faster that any time i ever made by car and much faster than doing it all by public transit. the waiting for the busses and street cars as well as the numerous stops really add up.

Attendance. I guessed earlier at a 16-17k figure. some said 18K, ok maybe I'll buy that. But no way was it close to 19K as is now being suggested. There were definitely more than 2000 empty seats

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Attendance. I guessed earlier at a 16-17k figure. some said 18K, ok maybe I'll buy that. But no way was it close to 19K as is now being suggested. There were definitely more than 2000 empty seats

There were more than 2000 empty seats, but as the venue now seats 22,000, close to 19K still makes sense. Always have to factor in that some of the empty seats are people standing in the beer garden, which is almost always full.

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I'm not sure how the Honduran league operates but is this technically Montagua's pre season? If so, does anyone know what their prep has been like prior to this yesterday's match?

Liga Nacional basically has two 'seasons' there's one that runs from end of july (so the one they're heading into now) until end of november and one from january until may. Each 'season' has a playoff of the top 4 teams and the winner is declared the winner of that "aptura" I think the name is.

Motagua was unable to win either of these playoffs, but the two seasons combined was the top team in the table.

I think because of the world cup, their season was pushed back a couple weeks which isn't due to start until August 7. Coming into this game, again because of the WC I think they had only started training 10 days ago (I'm not 100% on that but for some reason think I might have heard/read that somewhere). In terms of prep if I'm not mistaken this was their first match of preseason as well, so they probably have had much competitive training.

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TFC Wins 1st Ever Champions League Game - Post Game V-Blog

It's worth noting that someone on BigSoccer pointed out that this was actually the first time ANY Major League Soccer club has actually won a match in the preliminary round of the CCL since it switched to the new format from the CCC in 2008. Apparently the total record of the league in this round had been 0-5-5 up 'til last night.

And for anyone questioning the attendence consider this: of the 12 season tickets that my friends and I control only 5 got converted into CCL tickets for last night. It's not that my friends don't understand what this tournament is or who Motagua is they simply made a rational economic decision. They already have tickets for every single TFC home league and Canadian Championship game. In about two to three months they'll be paying the cost of those again; we get hit with renewals by October each year. So the comparison - do I care more about the league or the CCL? - isn't a fair one and not the decision people are making. The CCL represents an ADDITIONAL marginal cost on top of the games they've already bought. The question really is: do I care enough about the CCL to pay for MORE TFC tickets (and keep in mind that the way TFC set up the program meant that buying your season ticket for this game committed you to buying your ticket for the 3 group stage games should we progress). For me it was a no brainer; apparently for most of my friends it wasn't worth it.

They missed a good game though.

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Thats a good point there Mike. You have to have seasons tickets to get your dibs on CL and at a reasonable price. So you have already forked out for season tickets but what if TFC advances on to the group stage or the stage beyond that? That kinds of really blows the budget doesnt it? I might be inclined to take a pass on maybe one of those group stage games if i deem it insignificant. So maybe that doesnt speak negatively about the fans. Believe it or not, I actually forgot that I paid extra for that ticket.

Inevitably, they have to market this separately so that you can hit those that would like to go but arent seasons tickets holders and aren't on the waiting list. But that where you need the media. If this were a sport like hockey, baseball and football it would be easier.

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