Pan Am tickets now on sale

(Updated)
The Pan Am games may be ten months away, but tonight we have a chance to gauge how popular the event could be. This was the first day of ticket sales — meaning would be spectators had their first chance to get directly involved with the six-thousand athletes, from 41 countries, competing in 36 different sporting events.

It’s a little different. Organizers of the games wanted to give everyone a fair chance to get their hands on tickets for the games — including opening and closing ceremonies.  And to do that they devised a lottery system that, in the case of soccer, or football if you prefer, may come with a built in surprise.

It was an all-star cast, for what organizers hope will be the biggest show in Toronto’s history.

David Peterson, 2015 Pan Am Games Chair: “It will engage more people more tourists more tourist dollars or economic activity, and there’s something for everybody.”

Tickets for the 2015 Pan Am Summer games officially went on sale today — or at least fans now officially have a chance to ask for some. The ticket process is actually a lottery. Fans ask for tickets, and pay in advance. After October 6th, ticket requests cannot be changed.

Organizers then draw the winners, and notify them by email — by December of this year. But the winners will have to wait until next spring to find out which teams are playing and when. Meaning, you may not know who you’re going to be seeing on the pitch, when you buy your tickets.

Doesn’t matter says CEO Saad Rafi. The tickets will be a hot item, and are going fast — 20-thousand requests in the first hour they were available. He’s especially optimistic about soccer sales, here in Hamilton: “Neighbouring cities to Hamilton like Burlington and Oakville have some of the largest minor soccer clubs in the province.”

Dwayne De Rosario knows something about that. The Toronto FC player was four times Voted Canada’s most outstanding male football phenom. He knows all about soccer in the steel city: “Hamilton is a soccer community. I used to train there when I was young. In fact, I went to Ivor Wynne stadium for provincials. So to have the opportunity for it to host there, it’s kinda’ come around full circle.”

And in terms of the level of competition, De Rosario says the influx of new teams from South and Central America is going to raise the standard for everyone: “Oh, definitely. It’s intense competition. There’s intense rivalries, the games are passionate.”

And these organizers are hoping that some of that passion will help to ramp up fan interest, and ticket sales very soon.

So what will be happening here at the new CIBC Pan Am Soccer stadium between July 10th and 26th? Well, 32 soccer games featuring both men’s and women’s teams. But there are only 16 ticketed events. So how does that work you’re wondering? Well tickets for soccer are available at some of the lowest prices for any sport in the Pan Am games.

$20 gets you not one but two different matches. Seniors and kids get an even better deal at half that price, 10 bucks. It’s a two for one special, and organizers think that at that price they will have no trouble filling 22-thousand seats per game. Over the 16 day spectacle in July, of next year.