The Montreal Impact will be in hostile territory on Wednesday night, but they’ll still have plenty of support in Leg 2 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series against rival Toronto FC at BMO Field (7 pm ET; FS1 in the US, TSN 1/3/4/5, RDS in Canada).
According to Impact executive vice president Richard Legendre, the Impact have sold out their entire allotment of 500 tickets for Wednesday’s second leg in Toronto. Members of the Ultras Montreal and 1642MTL supporters groups, Impact staff and other fans will travel on Wednesday from Quebec to Ontario, where they’ll take in Leg 2 from the far northeast corner of BMO Field.
Legendre said that it won’t be the largest Impact crowd to see a match in Toronto (that record was set in 2013, when the Impact and TFC teamed for a promotion for supporters of both clubs to travel to each city), but that the sizable contingent is fitting for a game of Wednesday’s import.
“It’s a minimum of 500,” he told MLSsoccer.com over the phone on Tuesday. “Of course we don’t know how many people bought tickets on their own, but we had at least 500 [through the allotment]…. We were about a little bit more than 200 in New York for [Leg 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals] against the Red Bulls, but 500 in the middle of the week, in November? That’s a good number.”
The Impact’s traveling party is smaller than the 1,400 TFC fans who traveled to Montreal for last week’s first leg at the sold-out, 61,000-seat Olympic Stadium. But Legendre is confident that they’ll make plenty of noise at BMO Field, which has been expanded to 36,000 seats for Wednesday’s match.
“It’s our biggest group organically, for our biggest game ever,” he said. “Because of the Canadian factor, because the winner goes to MLS Cup, because of the rivalry, because of the players involved. So that’s what we experienced last week in Montreal, now again with the final game.
“Of course, with 500 in 36,000 seats, we’re going to have to be loud. But we were in New York. We'll make ourselves heard."
