This was the crowd at kickoff for the first leg of NYCFC’s Round of 16 match vs. AD San Carlos. (FrontRowSoccer.com Photo)

A crowd of slightly less than 10,000 is expected at Red Bull Arena for New York City FC’s Concacaf Champions League quarterfinals game against Tigres UNAL on Wednesday night.

That is the capacity of the lower bowl in the stadium in Harrison, N.J. as NYCFC’s rental agreement with the Red Bulls was for that section of the stands, according to a club spokesman.

So, in essence the game can be considered a sellout because the MLS club sold all of the tickets that were made available to NYCFC. All of NYCFC’s hospitality tickets are sold out as well.

Tigres supporters were allotted about 600 tickets for the first-leg match. The second leg will be played in Mexico on March 17.

In the home leg of the Round of 16 series against AD San Carlos (Costa Rica), NYCFC drew an announced crowd of 4,396. Many NYCFC supporters stayed away because they were angry with the club because it was forced to play the CCL match out of New York City and at the venue of their enemy.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.