Unfortunately I can't get into intense detail because the situation is still being pressed by our FO and Section 8, but as of right now I can confirm TFC is only offering us 100 tickets for the October match in Toronto. While I understand the overwhelming demand for tickets in Toronto, I believe 100 tickets is wholly unreasonable, especially seeing as 200 has been essentially the standard minimum around the league. This is not only bad for league interest, but it's somewhat dangerous if you have a case of away supporters managing to get random tickets- this is when disagreements between supporters tend get much more out of hand. Sorry if any of this came off aggressively, but I'm sure many TFC supporters will be understanding of our situation, especially seeing as your away support is already gaining that of legendary status. If we want to be seen as a real league, we need real policy.....thanks for your time. P.S. Can't wait to see the red in Columbus.....the ohioans are gonna be freaking out.
From what I have read so far, the TFC supporters are not ok with this and we agree that more tickets should be made available to travelling supporters from other teams. I hope TFC listens.
Article up on pitch invasion http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/03/05/away-supporters-restricted-in-mls/
I fully support having tickets allocated to travelling fans. 100 is simply not enough. I think it is safe to say that this is the first time a team in the league has faced this challenge. Hopefully something can be done about it before something stupid happens in the stands (ie. travelling fans taking whatever tickets they can get and sitting in the mix with home fans, it's a fight waiting to happen)
Truly unfortunate. And not only short sighted on the part of the MLS and TFC, but I would also argue short sighted on the part of the City of Toronto. Any chance to sell the great city of Toronto should be embraced, and picking up on the interest of TFC should be a priority. Granted 200 people is a drop in the bucket for overall tourism, but it does set a precedent, and right now that precedent is not a good one and seems like an opportunity missed.
Agreed - there should be more tickets set aside for away support. Some of last years games were great - seeing and hearing the away section... well hearing them when we didn't drown them out.... Can you hear the Fire sire sing? No, No! Can you hear the Fire sing? I can't a f***ing thing!
The Herr brought this situation up on the RPB forums and the response was positive support from TFC fans for having a section of good away support. The 100 hundred seats being held back have been moved right up to the top of section 104. We had a temporary seating section put in for the beckham-mania game last year, so wht not use the same procedure for organised away fans supporters groups on a groups sales basis.
My seats are near the away supporters area, the back and forths with the visiting fans is a big part of my experience now. Let's hope MLSE sees the light.
In defence of the TFC FO... The biggest away supporter turn out last year was DCU & the Rev, and they maybe had 50 and 100 fans tops? They're probably setting this years away supporters allocation based on last year's numbers. IMO we can expect a huge increase in away fans this year as any "real" MLS fan will want to come visit BMO this summer !
Until TFC expands the stadium I don't think home fans should have seats taken away from them for visitors. As mentioned above, having visitors at BMO is highly unusual anyways, so not surprising they would cut it off at 100. Given that season tickets went up 2000 or more this year, I don't think it's reasonable to block off 500 seats or whatever for visiting supporters for any game. Similarly, it's only the second season for the club, and given the ticket scarcity situation, many Torontonians have yet to attend a match and see the stadium. In that light, I think it's unreasonable to be giving more than 100 to visiting supporters. Once they expand the stadium, or if ticket demand drops, I can see offering up more to visitors.
TFC FO could have easily avoided this if it wanted to (but as a member said, last year the numbers on away supporters werent that high) as early as the offering of addiitonal season tickets back in Oct. If I can recall there were quite a few seat markers in that away supporter section that they were attempting to sell....maybe shortsighted and they should have left some more available....because as we know if they arent bought by the away supporter clubs they can always sell them off on game day or a release of tickets a few days before the game.
Beside Chicago you mean, Chicago had 250 for the first match last season and request 500 this time but were only allowed 100 if columbus based their ticket allotment for you based on last season's away numbers you folks wouldn't be where you are today would you
While I sympathize with Chicago's travelling support and agree that there should be a league-mandated minumum, Columbus is hardly the same situation. Columbus is in no position to be turning down an extra 2000 people, no matter where they come from.
Well, thanks for your overall support gents. I completely understand the problem of tickets, and this isn't completely the FO's problem- I'd just like to see a league minimum of 200 or so away tickets be put into place. Also, someone mentioned temp stands (as in the Beck-spice game last year), maybe this could be possible so as not to take up limited space....but still give our team some showing (they did notice us last season and i think it meant a lot to em). Finally though, I do think we need some sense of regular traveling support if wewant to encourage a cultural football mindset that has helped move many other leagues away from "mickey mouse" status.
The game I'm most interested in seeing what the allocations will be is the all-star game. If it stays at BMO Field and 16,000 season ticket holders purchase the tickets (who wouldn't?), then there are 4,000 seats left for everyone else. Still feel this'll be moved to the Skydome.
I'd like to see 250 tops. Even now, I'm not that upset over 100 seats. It's not our fault that we sell out every game. Seats at BMO should be held first and foremost for TFC fans, it's our team after all. In the future, if more away supporter seats must be a requirement, they can always set temp seating like they did when Beckham came.
Hopefully there is ZERO chance of the allstar game ending up in the skydome. BMO management would be out of a shitload of revenue, including the concessions. It's not a TFC game, so if it did get moved, hopefully they would refund my money for the BMO tickets I already purchased. Aren't we past the point of putting up with watching footie on a baseball / gridiron field?
The last thing I want to see is the A-S game in the Skydome, but in the past, when large int'l matches have come to town, they've done a good job with it as a venue. Brought in a pitch, sold out the place and had a great atmosphere.
If MLS brings a team like Liverpool over (which seems to be the number one rumour) you can definitely count on the AS game being at Skydome. MLS isn't holding this game every year to lose money... If you had the choice, would it be a Werder Bremen at BMO or a Liverpool at Skydome?
Converting the biergarten to an away supporters section with temp stands, as needed, would be best: 1) controllable access 2) close to a gate 3) behind a goal 4) doesn't displace Section 104 STHs or same day sales What was the capacity of the temp stands the FO set up for the Gals game? 200? For all the blokes who like to watch half the game from the garten (which includes me sometimes), suck it up, you can sit in your seat for that game.
While I am certain that Mark McCullers would happily sell blocks of tickets to Satan if he paid cash, I know that basically you're engaging in attendance smack, and that;s because you don't really know what you're talking about. Columbus used to have 10,000 season tickets and regularly stuffed that place to the rafters. Four or five straight years of gross mismanagement and ineptitude have driven the fans away, but at some point - hopefully sooner rather than later - Columbus will be run by grownups again. (Plus, frankly, the south end seats which CBus allocates to visitors are the last ones to sell anyway. They're way up from the field, you have to turn around 180 degrees to see the animated scoreboard and the loudspeakers are right above your head. In all honestly, local fans refuse to sit there anyway) You can't base league policy on snapshots. In any case, let's see how high and mighty TFC management is about selling away tickets after their team has finished last or next to last for four straight years. These things can't be subject to the whims of the moment: "this year attendance is good so we'll stiff visiting supporters, a year or two from now it's down and so we'll chnge our minds" isn't sound business practice, it's just making it up as you go along. For a bunch of guys who are always trying to lecture everyone about what's "good for the league" it's an odd position for you to take.
Touchy touchy, Bill. No one's say screw everyone else. What is being said however, is that right now support in Toronto is really high and away support can't expect to grab as many tickets as they want when they want them and get all of them. BMO holds 20,000. 16,000 is reserved for season seats, another 2,000, I believe, is for half-season seats. That leaves 2,000 for regular folk. Should the rest of Toronto be left out instead of the away supporters? If you ran the Crew, would you turn away your local fan base so that away supporters would get the tickets they want? You say that bad management pushed support for the Crew away, would stopping your local base from attending games not be bad management? You may be right that in a few years BMO will be half empty or worse (I hope not, but anything is possible). At that point the situation would be different and other teams can grab as many tickets they want. But right now, this is not the case. At the end of the day, I have to agree with the idea that something has to be worked out. But having Chicago turn around and say, "You only gave us 100 you only get 100 too." just seems childish. If we had the room they'd get the tickets, but we don't. If they have the room, then sell them. Being children is not the way to fix this.