Toronto FC Fans Plan Road Trip
Red Patch Boys, U-Sector and Proway Tours Organize Chartered Buses
Toronto FC's support groups will bring their chants, drums and streamers on the road when Toronto opens its second Major League Soccer season in Columbus, Ohio.
According to the Vice-President of Ticket Sales and Services for the Columbus Crew, over 2000 Toronto fans are expected to make the 700-kilometre trip to Crew Stadium.
Columbus fans can expect to see a sea of red in their stadium’s South end, where all seven sections, 1190 seats in total, have been reserved by Toronto fans. Three sections in the stadium’s East end will also be occupied by Toronto FC supporters. The team is currently working with Columbus Crew stadium staff to open another two sections for Toronto fans that are still in need of tickets.
Toronto FC’s support groups, including the Red Patch Boys, U-Sector, North End Elite and Ceilidh House Hoolies, have all organized trips for their members on as many as 15 chartered buses. In addition, many fans will drive themselves to Ohio for the game.
According to Rudi Schuller, one of three members who run the U-Sector, around 400 members of their support group will travel to Columbus, the closest away venue for Toronto.
"[There were] four months of downtime in which the four supporters groups involved had nothing else to do but to focus their entire collective energy on this trip,” he says. “All of the positivity that came of the first season was channelled into this one game.”
Toronto FC’s largest supporters group, the Red Patch Boys, are sending 630 fans on five chartered buses. The Ceilidh House Hoolies will have 84 members in attendance, while the North End Elite will have 69.
Toronto FC has worked with Proway Tours owner Doug Matthews, one of Toronto’s largest sports tour organizers, to organize a trip for fans outside of the support groups. Proway Tours is providing 10 chartered buses to the game and expects 540 fans to make the trip. They have worked with the Columbus Crew stadium staff to reserve sections 208, 209 and 210 of the 22,500-seat stadium.
Proway’s trip was advertised on Toronto FC’s official website, offering a roundtrip with tickets to the game for $90. They are currently filling up the last bus and are expected to sell out by Feb. 29. To build on the fan support Toronto FC receives at away games, Proway Tours has also planned trips to New York, Chicago, Washington and San Jose throughout the 2008 season.
The trip to Columbus will see the largest fan support in the team’s young history outside of BMO Field.
“The largest [away] turnout thus far was a Toronto FC game at Giants Stadium last August, which drew roughly 300 total Toronto supporters,” said Schuller. “Obviously, we are going to completely shatter that number on this upcoming trip.”
