Gone in 60 minutes: World Cup qualifying game at Tim Hortons Field sold out

Of course, it didn't take long.

All the available tickets to Sunday's much-anticipated men's World Cup qualifying game at Tim Hortons Field between Canada and the U.S.A. were sold out in less than an hour Tuesday morning.

They were snapped up by those who had originally purchased tickets to the game back on Dec. 16.

When the provincial government extended its 50-per cent of capacity restrictions for outdoor sporting events to Jan. 31 last week, Canada Soccer - the national governing body for the sport - was forced to do a resale. All 24,000 seats in the stadium had been sold in December, before the Omicron variant emerged, but the extension of attendance restrictions meant that only half that number could attend that game.

Original purchasers are to be fully refunded for their now-useless tickets and were the only ones eligible to go on line to buy the some of the 12,000 seats now allowed to be filled for Sunday's game. Had any been left unsold, they were to be made available for a public sale Wednesday but there was no chance of that happening: the original 24,000 had sold out in less than three hours in December.

I wish it was at full capacity but we have to adhere to health regulations," said Dr. Nick Bontis of Ancaster, who is the president of Canada Soccer. But it's better to have 12,000 than an empty stadium and it's certainly better than playing the game in another country."

The men's national soccer team, which has not lost in its eight regional qualifying games so far to catapult itself into a favourable position to reach the men's World Cup in Qatar in November, has grabbed the Canadian public's attention with its on-field success and entertaining offensive style of play. The team plays in Honduras Thursday night, plays in Hamilton Sunday afternoon (3 p.m.) and then again in El Salvador, Wednesday Feb. 2.

Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com