Tickets for Canada’s hugely popular FIFA World Cup qualifier against the United States at Tim Hortons Field have been sold out again.
It took less than an hour on Tuesday for 12,000 stumps to be snapped up in a resale initiated by Canada Soccer to comply with Ontario COVID-19 public health measures that limit the capacity for sporting events.
This week’s resale was limited to just the initial 24,000 ticket holders who bought tickets in mid-December’s sale before new provincial measures.
“Due to the reduced capacity of 12,000 spectators, all tickets purchased as part of the original sale date … will be canceled with full refunds provided to all ticket holders on their credit cards within two to four weeks,” Canada Soccer said in a statement. said a statement.
The match is set for a 15:00 kick-off time on Sunday, the day before the province eases more restrictions for large events.
Canada will be in the middle of a three-match FIFA window for the national men’s team, which faces Honduras on January 27, and then travels to El Salvador on February 2.
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The US schedule includes home games against the same teams – El Salvador on January 27 and Honduras on February 2.
Two Alberta games in November drew large crowds, more than 40,000 each. Temperatures hovered around -11C during the November 16 victory over Mexico, dubbed the “Iceteca”.
Canada’s senior team is expected to play again between snowbanks with clouds, storms and -6 C temperatures expected by game time.
So far, Canada is at the top of the CONCACAF leaderboard in the third round, one point ahead of the United States.
The three top teams in the pool of eight advance to the group stage of the 2022 World Cup scheduled for Qatar in November and December later this year.
Canada Soccer had pre-resale dialogue with city over COVID
Hamilton’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and public health have confirmed that Canada Soccer was issued before tickets for Sunday’s game were resold amid a current COVID-19 wave.
The city’s medical officer of health, dr. Elizabeth Richardson, said the sports body had done their “due diligence” to keep within provincial parameters.
“We worked with the organizers of the event to look at how best to implement the spirit of those rules, not just the actual per-letter rules of regulation,” Richardson said.
The MOH acknowledged that there was no event like this and that the last Gray Cup match was “no risk” when it came to COVID, but considered the stipulations for spectators laid out for the match to be adequate in terms of the maintaining physical distance and masking.
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“There’s still a risk associated with events like this where people are together, and we absolutely encourage the community to look into this,” Richardson said.
“You know, we still recommend limiting contacts.”
Jason Thorne, EOC boss, said the organizers’ plan includes spreading capacity around the entire stadium to maximize distance, in addition to changes to concession and food service.
“Organizers did give us the opportunity to comment on their safety plan,” Thorne said.
“They have introduced the measures that go beyond and beyond the minimum requirements of those provincial regulations.”
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