Violence-crazed Toronto sells out the 55,000-seat Rogers Centre UFC event in 48 hours

Violence-crazed Toronto sells out the 55,000-seat Rogers Centre UFC event in 48 hours

Montreal may have gotten the prime-time shout-out in last night’s Grammy Awards Arcade Fire speech, but Toronto can still lord some records over our cousins in Quebec: our crowds for UFC are insanely larger than theirs. While Montreal’s record for a UFC event is a paltry 23,152, Toronto managed to sell out the 55,000-seat Rogers Centre for UFC 129 in about 48 hours.

According to the CBC:

Organizers started at 42,000 tickets but quickly put more on the market after the first rush of sales Thursday.

The April 30 mixed martial arts show at the Rogers Centre doubles the largest gate and attendance records in UFC history. It has also set a single-day event gate record for the domed stadium…

More than 40,000 tickets sold Thursday in the first day of a pre-sale to members of the UFC Fight Club. The rest were snapped up Friday, in another pre-sale, and Saturday, when tickets were made available to the general public.

So, if we’re reading this right, something like the entire population of Milton, Ontario is going to flood onto Front, King and Queen streets fuelled by testosterone and overpriced Labatt Blue (actually, they’ll be right by the Metro Convention Centre, the scene of the last event to draw those kinds of crowds to our fair city). As April 30th gets closer and closer, our initial sense of foreboding has been replaced with resignation, and when the day comes we’re almost looking forward to the inevitable late-night chaos as Toronto’s Entertainment District hosts the aftermath.

• Toronto UFC sets sales record [Toronto Star]
• Ultimate Fighting Championship has record sellout in Toronto [Globe and Mail]