UPDATE: Lionel Messi came on for Inter Miami in the 60th minute of the contest, officially making his Major League Soccer debut.
Lionel Messi is not in Inter Miami’s starting lineup and, unless he is substituted into the game, will not make his MLS debut at Red Bull Arena against the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, according to the league’s website.
The news will likely not go over well with the record-setting crowd expected in the building, the millions of fans around the world tuning in to Apple TV’s exclusive coverage and the Red Bulls executive who hoped to use the Argentinian magician’s debut as a catapult for interest in their club.
Messi has played six games in the past 20 days, leading Inter Miami to the championship of the Leagues Cup and the final of the US Open Cup, playing 120 minutes in the latter two contests. Manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino had warned of the possibility on Friday, saying Messi’s availability was in the air.
“We will assess further after this evening’s training,” Martino said, per ESPN. “It is inevitable that we will not have him at some point.”
A capacity crowd of 25,219 fans — 8,000 more than the Red Bulls have averaged through their first 13 home games, which ranks 24th out of 29 teams in the league per SoccerStadiumDigest — certainly would not have paid tens of thousands of dollars in ticket sales had they known. The contest will be their first sellout since a match against rival New York City FC in July 2022 — 20 consecutive matches. And that sellout was the Red Bulls’ only MLS regular-season sellout at home in 65 matches since May 2018.
Within 12 hours, the sold-out match set a record for gross gate revenue for a Red Bulls’ MLS regular-season game at Red Bull Arena, and the team’s season ticket sales for the 2024 season skyrocketed. While de Grandpre would not reveal specifics on the match’s sales, he called it a “multi-million-dollar increase” over the club’s previous MLS mark at their current home venue.
Fans that purchased tickets on the secondary market needed lot of cash. As of Saturday morning, the cheapest ticket on StubHub was priced at $400 after taxes and fees. The priciest seat was listed for roughly $10,000.
Fans will come from 10 different countries, 33 different states, every N.J. county but Cumberland, and all five New York City boroughs, according to Red Bulls data shared with NJ Advance Media. Roughly 400 media members from around the globe will be credentialed.
And unless Martino substitutes Messi into the game, they will all leave without seeing Messi play in person, a disappointment that cost many fans a lot of money.
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Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.