Heart of Midlothian chief executive Andrew McKinlay confirmed more than 16,000 tickets for the upcoming Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers at Hampden Park have been sold - but warned that failure to sell out the 21,000 allocation could lead to the club struggling to get half the stadium for similar fixtures in the future.

The club fought hard to ensure they got an even allocation, putting forward "an extremely strong case" when representatives met with Ibrox counterparts and the Scottish FA last month to discuss the ticket split.

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Hearts were not given half the allocation for the previous meeting between the sides at Hampden, the League Cup semi-final earlier this season.

McKinlay provided an update on the situation in an interview with HeartsTV.

"We have got about 4,000 left to sell," he said. "As has been well documented, we fought hard to get half the ground. Why did we do that? One, because we thought it was important and fair but also because we think it will be massive for the team to come out and look around to see half that ground to be full of maroon. Therefore it is really important for us to fill that.

"I also think it is really important for those who have already put their hand in their pocket to thank them for doing that because there are over 16,000 of them who have already done that and that's not to be sniffed at."

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As part of the agreement with the SFA, Hearts will have to pay for any unsold tickets from their allocation. 

"Yes, there will be a cost to us if we don't do that, that's been talked about," McKinlay said. "But more importantly for me is that if we don't do that in the future we may struggle to get half the stadium. So it's really important we do that so we get half the stadium. 

"I know people are struggling financially at the moment and I know there are a lot of calls on money so I would just ask if people are able to, to come or bring people with them so we can absolutely sell out our end at Hampden a week on Sunday."