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Ticket sales for the United States' friendly against Nigeria on Saturday at Everbank Field in Jacksonville, FL are close to topping 50,000. The match is the final of the Americans' three-match Send-Off Series and will be the final contest the U.S. plays before leaving for the World Cup.
@ussoccer has announced that ticket sales for tomorrow's match have exceeded the previous Southeast record (held by Jax) of 44,438.
— Chad Cushnir (@CushCam) June 6, 2014
It was just two days ago that ticket sales were at 41,000 so Jacksonville has had a huge push. They've eclipsed their previous record of near 45,000 since then and are now taking aim at the 55,407 that Philadelphia, PA drew for the final Send-Off Series match before the 2010 World Cup, though are still a ways off.
That Jacksonville is going to pack Everbank Field isn't much of a surprise. They topped 44,000 for a meaningless friendly against Scotland in 2012 so Duval clearly has an appetite for the U.S. and in a World Cup year, that only figures to go up.
Everbank Field can hold about 72,000 seats (construction on the stadium this summer lowered capacity and they haven't announced an exact number yet) so it's unlikely that the place will be sold out, but now it looks like they may have a chance to top 60,000 if sales continue to pick up prior to Saturday and with a town known for big walk-up crowds. That would be an incredible turnout for this match and send the U.S. to Brazil with plenty of support.