Some TFC faithful take back seat for final

Season-ticket holders not guaranteed same spots for MLS title showdown

When Toronto FC midfielder Benoit Cheyrou scored the overtime goal that sent the Reds into the MLS Cup final, Chris Wright celebrated the team’s first major success in a decade with friends and strangers sitting around him at BMO Field.

Their parting message on Wednes- day night? “See you Dec. 10 for the final.” But Wright won’t be sitting in the same place when Toronto faces the Seattle Sounders in Major League Soccer’s championship match next Saturday.

He’s one of a small but vocal number of disappointed season-ticket holders who found out Friday that they can’t get their regular-season seats for the big game.

Wright purchased two tickets across the field from where he usually sits, but said it won’t be the same.

“When Cheyrou scored, the hugs, the high-fives, you don’t do that with random people — at least, that’s not my experience,” he said.

Tickets go on sale to the public Monday afternoon, but season-ticket holders get an early chance to secure seats — from Friday morning through Sunday. They can buy as many MLS Cup seats as they have season tickets, or more, according to Major League Soccer.

But some locations are unavailable because of tickets allocated to the Sounders, corporate sponsors, broadcast partners and other MLS teams, as well as the need for more media space.

Ticketmaster prices range from $45 to $325. On ticket reseller StubHub, seats were priced from $275 up to $1,129 on Friday evening.

Mike Langevin, another day one Toronto FC fan, was offered three of his five regular seats for the final in the Supporters Sections. He said if MLS never intended to let him use the other two seats — in the centre of the front row of the 200 level — the club shouldn’t have sold them to a season-ticket holder in the first place.

‘We’ll have to be happy to sit somewhere else, but it really gets me that we’ve been in that seat for a lot of tough times,” he said. “It would be nice to be rewarded with the view we’ve had the entire time.”

Langevin and Wright both agree there’s nothing that can be done to solve the issue now, but hope to see the club resolve the matter for future big games and perhaps offer affected fans some sort of discount next season.