With 10 days to go before the "biggest coast-to-coast sports event in Canada’s history begins," ticket sales for the '15 FIFA Women's World Cup "had hit 831,000" at the start of the day yesterday, according to Terry Jones of the EDMONTON SUN. By comparison, the event four years ago in Germany "drew 845,751 fans from beginning to end." Canadian Soccer Association General Secretary Peter Montopoli said the success of ticket sales so far "tells us we’ll get to that million mark by the start of the tournament or very shortly thereafter." Montopoli: "Some of the cities now are just coming fully on board. And there is potential to have some very large days of sale leading into opening weekend. Then, when it starts, we’ll push very hard to get to that 1.5 we declared as our goal.” Jones notes the final in Vancouver, with a "massive USA sale, is long sold out." The opening ceremonies and Canada-China and Netherlands-New Zealand opening games in Edmonton in 10 days are "getting there." Montopoli said of Commonwealth Stadium capacity being reduced for VIP and media tribunes, “We’re just shy of 40,000 and we’re now selling an extensive number of tickets every day. ... I don’t have any doubt that we’re going to get that sellout of over 50,000 as we get closer to June 6." Jones writes there is an "excellent chance" for total ticket revenue to reach C$10-12M "inside of a month for women's soccer." That, from some perspectives, "would be nothing short of mind-blowing." Montopoli: "If we hit all of our targets, you would be fair to be writing that." Jones notes to get to 1.5 million tickets sold -- "assuming they hit the million mark by opening day -- will require about 12,000 more tickets to be sold per session before they get to each one" (EDMONTON SUN, 5/27).
