Nippert Stadium will be packed next Tuesday night when FC Cincinnati takes on the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer in the semi-finals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.The team says tickets for the Aug. 15 match sold out with seven hours Tuesday, making it the largest sales day in team history.
"To sell out on the first day of our public sale is tremendous and we are confirming that we do not have any seats available," says FCC President and General Manager Jeff Berding in a statement. "Our sales team sold 16,000 tickets in roughly seven hours and we are thrilled that our fans are excited about our match-up against New York Red Bulls. The atmosphere at Nippert Stadium is going to be spectacular."
High demand crashed ticket sales site Glitnir Tuesday afternoon. The site was back up by 7 p.m.
FC Cincinnati is declining to announce exactly how many tickets have been sold. However, the team'sfirst sellout was against Crystal Palace of the English Premier League in July, 2016. The official attendance for that match was 35,061. Nippert Stadium has been reconfigured since then.
The winning side Tuesday will advance to the U.S. Open Cup final. Only three lower division teams have made it to an Open Cup final since 1996. The Red Bulls have played in four Open Cup finals, but have never won.
FC Cincinnati will be without star forward Djiby Fall who must sit out the match because of yellow card accumulation. Djiby's four game winning goals during the tournament set an 'modern era' Open Cup record, according to The Cup, a website that tracks the Open Cup.
