Toronto FC already seeing ticket boost after successful MLS playoff run

Toronto FC may have fallen just short in the MLS Cup final but the team’s playoff run is already being felt at the ticket window.

While the club won’t make a profit this season, thanks in part to the US$18.4 million in salary going to designated players Sebastian Giovinco, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore this year, it is seeing a bump in ticket sales.

Team president Bill Manning said the franchise is at just under 19,000 season tickets already, surpassing the 18,673 for this season. New season ticket sales are their highest since the team started offering them for the inaugural 2007 season.

“There’s a lot of excitement about this team,” Manning told the club’s end-of-season media availability Tuesday.

The team has lured back more than 500 former TFC season ticket-holders who had dropped out in the last three years.

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“I said this a year ago — winning is the No. 1 priority that you need to have,” said Manning. “Because when you win and you have a good product on the field, you sell more tickets, you sell more season-tickets, you sell more sponsorships. And those things are very important, the business part of a Major League Soccer franchise is very important, because then it allows us to make DP decisions and it allows us to go scout all over the world and it allows us the financial resources to do that.

“And so we’re in a good place. And I think we’re going to be a very good place business-wise next year.”

The team played before record-BMO Field crowds of some 36,000 each of the last two games, thanks to temporary seating left over from the Grey Cup.

While Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment has spent more than $150 million enlarging and renovating the lakefront stadium the last two years, the increased demand for tickets has got them thinking about possible expansion in the north and south ends.

“Maybe. I think we saw the potential,” Manning said

Toronto ranked third in league attendance this season, averaging 26,583 fans a game. Seattle was No. 1 at 42,636 with Orlando second at 31,324.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press