One of the greatest soccer players of all time comes to Los Angeles this weekend when Lionel Messi and Inter Miami face LAFC at BMO Stadium on Sunday.
If you want to be there, expect to pay up.
Ticket prices start at $550 on Ticketmaster, MLS’s official ticketing site. Normally, regular season games can cost as little as $25.
On the resale market, namely, StubHub and Vivid Seats, tickets ranged from $584 to more than $5,000 on Thursday – roughly on par with what Taylor Swift was commanding during her run of six shows at SoFi Stadium earlier this month.
Messi, 36, made his first MLS start on Wednesday when Inter Miami faced Nashville at home. He had entered Miami’s previous match against the New York Red Bulls in the 60th minute.
Messi is a seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or, the soccer world’s most prestigious individual award. He signed with Miami last month after two years with Paris Saint-Germain.
In a career spanning more than 17 years with Argentina’s national team, Messi has scored more than 100 goals.
Messi played his first Miami game on July 21 in the Leagues Cup and scored 10 goals in seven games in that competition and a U.S. Open Cup semifinal.
“It’s been in Ohio as early as the mid-1850s at least, brought in as an ornamental plant because of its unique foliage and white flowers,” Gardner said. “It was actually planted in people’s landscaping, and it has been spreading.”
It is unclear, however, how long Messi will play during Sundays game, or if at all.
The superstar, who just won his first World Cup in 2022, will travel to Argentina for the FIFA International break for qualifiers, and is scheduled to travel the day after the LAFC match, according to reports.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.