‘Excited to see him’: The sky-high prices to watch Lionel Messi play with Inter Miami
Lionel Messi hasn’t officially signed with Inter Miami, and no announcement has been made when he’ll join the team. The Messi Effect is in full force, anyhow. You want a ticket to see him play for Inter Miami? Get ready to pay a price as sky-high as the hopes for Messi.
Ticketmaster’s lowest price on the resale market for the July 25 game against United Atlanta at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale is listed at $3,000. That’s for Section 114, Row 1 in the stadium — or about the 20-yard line by American football measuring. The highest is listed at $6,000 for Section 124, Row 5.
The $3,000 price is about 50 times a comparable $60 seat selling for a July 1 game against Austin, before Messi is expected to join the club.
Those three tickets for the United Atlanta game seem to be the only tickets available for that game — or any game thus far that could involve Messi. The July 4 game against Columbus in Fort Lauderdale doesn’t have tickets for sale on the Ticketmaster site.
“On sale date and time are in the works — please check back!” the site said.
Ticket prices often surge when star players join a sports team. Dan Cornely, the assistant director for the Sport Management MBA Program at Florida Atlantic University, likened it to when LeBron James joined the Miami Heat.
“It’s a buzz,” he said. “And it drives prices.”
As far as he is aware, there is not a name for this phenomenon.
“Maybe we call it the ‘Messi Rule’ moving forward,” he said.
Mario Gonzalez, 25, of Atlanta, rushed to book tickets to a September game when Miami would be playing in his hometown. But as soon as the Messi announcement broke, the prices soared.
With fees, he paid $574 for one seat. The most he said he would have paid is $800.
“I’m not going to go in debt just to watch my idol,” he said. “I just feel lucky that at least I got affordable tickets.”
“Affordable” in comparison to thousands of dollars, that is. “September can’t get here any faster,” he said. “I’m excited to see him.”
The July 25 game against Atlanta is the next home game for Inter Miami. They then go on the road until Aug. 20. Those ticket also aren’t for sale by Ticketmaster.
On the road, the Messi Rule is happening, too. The cheapest resale ticket for an Inter Miami game at St. Louis on July 15 is $310. That’s roughly triple the lowest available price of other St. Louis games. The next cheapest is $420 before tickets jump to $590.
When Inter Miami plays at the New York Red Bulls on Aug. 25, the cheapest ticket on Ticketmaster resale is $400. The previous game against D.C. United has tickets going for $25 on the site.
For a game at the Exploria Stadium in Orlando on Sep. 24, ticket prices on Ticketmaster ran as high $9,000 each for seats close to the field. For general admission tickets, prices start at $290.
