Union president Tom Veit is certain the team will sell out its new 18,500-seat stadium in Chester, basing his analysis on current sales, trends in ticket purchases, and the depth of the regional soccer market.
"I'm very confident we'll sell out, and could sell more if we had them," Veit said in an interview last week.
The team sells additional season tickets every day, the total now nearing 9,100, he said. The Union plan to cap those sales at 12,000.
That would leave 6,500 seats.
About 1,500 would be held for purchase by league officials, players, and sponsors. An additional 500 would go to fans of visiting teams. Maybe 1,000 more would be sold in partial-season packages, a move the club is still considering.
That would leave about 3,500 seats, a fraction of the demand expected from businesses, youth groups, soccer clubs, and fans who can't afford to attend every game.
"There's not a lot of magic to what we did," said Paul Beirne, Toronto's senior director of business operations. "We tried to fish where the fish were, and I believe the Union is doing the same thing."
Toronto executives aimed at the soccer community, reaching into Irish pubs and Italian cafés to connect with fans. They pursued grassroots marketing on Internet sites, a campaign that's become standard operation.
Beirne said that in January 2007, as Toronto prepared for its first season, it had sold about 9,000 season tickets. The Union, in the January of its first year, have sold the same.