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Lionel Messi celebrates his second goal in the match between Honduras and Argentina at Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, September 23, 2022.
Icon Sportswear | Icon Sportswear | Getty Images
Three days have passed since soccer legend Lionel Messi shocked the soccer world by announcing his move to Inter Miami soccer club after parting ways with Paris Saint-Germain, and ticket prices across the league are already skyrocketing.
Secondary ticket market StubHub says sales of Inter Miami matches that began in July have increased about 28 times since the announcement.
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The ticket company said matches from July 2023 onwards already sold as many tickets as the entire 2022 season compared to this time last year.
The chance to see Messi, widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time and last year’s World Cup winner, won’t come cheap.
Average ticket prices on StubHub for the David Beckham-owned team have increased 4.5 times, jumping from $24.52 to $124.51 since the news broke.
Another secondary ticketing site, Vivid Seats, reported that the average price of attendance for a League Cup game between Mexico City’s Cruz Azul and Inter Miami had increased by 1021%. On June 4, the ticket cost $122, and six days later, the same ticket was worth $1,413.
In just a few days, Inter Miami went from being the 7th best selling team of the 2023 season to the 4th highest selling team for sales of the season on StubHub.
“Supply is limited,” sports business analyst Joe Pompliano said on CNBC’s “Last Call.”
“If you look at Miami Stadium, they only have 18,000 seats. When you look across Europe, in Barcelona specifically (where Messi spent most of his career), they have 100,000 seats. There is a fundamental imbalance in the supply and demand equation that we see.”
That’s it for a seated team last place in the MLS Eastern Conference and is now looking for a new coach after that recently Third year head coach Phil Neville sacked.
Not only is Miami seeing this rise, but Messi’s future rivals are also seeing a bump.
“Messi will be a draw for soccer fans across the country, drawing fans to away games like we see with the big stars of the NFL and NBA,” said StubHub spokesperson Adam Bodelli.
Messi and Inter Miami are set to visit LAFC at SoFi Stadium on September 3. Match sales have gone from the 15th best selling event of the season to the 2nd best selling event – and are on track to easily become the #1 match event. LAFC season, StubHub data shows.
In Miami, it’s not just ticket sales that are up nicely. Goods take off too.
Fanatics won’t start printing Messi Inter Miami FC jerseys until the deal is official, but fans have already begun collecting team gear in droves.
The digital sports platform says more Inter Miami merchandise has been sold since Wednesday than in the previous two months combined.
Since Wednesday, the Inter Miami are one of the top five best-selling teams in all sports across the Fanatics Network.
Meanwhile, Inter Miami is preparing to capitalize on its future global audience.
According to Josh Gerben, trademark attorney at Gerben Law, Team Apply June 5 to trademark the words “LIBERTAD PARA SOÑAR” the Spanish translation of the team’s motto “Freedom to Dream”.
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