Timing is everything.
Tuesday night, the U.S. women's national soccer team defeated Germany 2-0 to advance to Sunday's World Cup final in Canada. Wednesday, tickets for the U.S. team's match against Costa Rica on Aug. 19 at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga went on sale to the public.
A few hours later, they were sold out.
The stadium holds 20,668 fans, which doesn't count 1,000 extra tickets sold for spectators to watch from the field level. Aside from some set aside for presale, all tickets went on sale at noon Wednesday and were solely handled by U.S. Soccer.
It was the first time an event at Finley was sold out the first day tickets were offered to the public, and it made for an overall good day for Paul Smith, the stadium's executive director.
"I'm excited," he said. "I can't believe that Chattanooga supports so well."
The sales confirmed the expectation the game would break the attendance record for a national team match in Tennessee. The previous record was 14,224 fans at LP Field in Nashville - a number that would have been eclipsed if Finley had been filled to 70 percent capacity.
United States' Carli Lloyd (10) celebrates with teammates Ali Krieger (11) and Morgan Brian after scoring on a penalty kick against Germany during the second half of a semifinal in the Women's World Cup soccer tournament, Tuesday, June 30, 2015, in Montreal, Canada. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) It seems as though that number will be crushed.
The stadium record is 23,010, which happened at the 2009 Football Championship Series title game between Appalachian State and Delaware. That number won't be reached next month, although there could be some additional tickets that become available.
Regardless, Smith put the upcoming friendly for the U.S. women - who will also play Costa Rica on Aug. 16 in Pittsburgh - in perspective.
"Those teams were the best in their division," Smith said of the FCS title game. "These players are the best in the world."
He noted the Finley Stadium staff will attend the U.S. men's national team's match against Guatemala on Saturday in Nashville.
"That'll give us a chance to meet the U.S. Soccer event team and see how they do business," Smith said. "We want to make sure things are seamless (for the match in Chattanooga)."
The women's match was announced just a week prior to ticket sales. Interest was immediately piqued from a number of fans who said they wanted to attend; their interest showed in the quick sellout.
Smith gave credit to Tim Morgan, director of the Chattanooga Sports Committee, as well as the Chattanooga Football Club, whose efforts played a big part in securing the match.
"I'm just standing at the steering wheel. They're the motor behind it," he said. "This is a result of a great organizing committee that helped make this happen."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.