Messi Mania Moves K.C. MLS Match to NFL’s Arrowhead Stadium
The highly anticipated game between Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami and Patrick Mahomes-backed Sporting Kansas City at GEHA Arrowhead Stadium is expected to be the largest MLS crowd since the Argentine superstar joined the North American league.
More than 72,000 fans are projected to attend the match Saturday night at the home of the Super Bowl champions, setting a new record for a soccer match in Missouri. The current mark is 52,424, when Sporting KC beat Manchester United in an exhibition in 2010, while the high mark for an MLS game since Messi’s arrival was 71,635 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta last season—a game he did not play in.
Saturday is also expected to be among the top 10 crowds in MLS regular season history, depending on how ticket sales unfold in the final hours before kickoff, the league said.
“We expect to sell over 70,000 tickets by the time the game kicks on Saturday,” said Jordan Kelsey, the vice president of ticket sales and service at Sporting KC. “While the majority is from Kansas City, we did a lot of regional marketing to draw from as many states in the area as possible.”
Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium will host two Copa America matches this summer. The 76,416-seat venue is also one of the 11 sites for the 2026 World Cup.
The team debated keeping the Inter Miami game at its home ground, Children’s Mercy Park, which has 18,647 seats, but recognized the opportunity to reach a larger audience. It worked closely with the Chiefs and the World Cup host committee to move the match.
“You are going to get a lot of first-time people at a Kansas City soccer game,” Sporting KC CEO Jake Reid said in an interview with Sportico earlier this year.
Still, Sporting KC did not raise season ticket prices or opt for bundle ticket sales for this match. “That was a deliberate strategy to keep things fairly priced, and the ancillary effects of getting that match, we did sell a significant amount of season tickets,” Kelsey said.
The team ran a few different price models and settled on a less aggressive price strategy for non-season ticket holders, selling tickets in the primary market between $125 to $150. The club worked with a business intelligence team to move its season ticket holders to similar seats in the new venue and offered Chiefs season ticket holders and Jackson County residents tickets during presale.
On the hospitality side, Sporting KC suite holders were given similar accommodations at Arrowhead. The Chiefs team handles the rest of the premium hospitality for this match. “I believe the suites are completely sold out,” Kelsey said. Mahomes, who is part of the Kansas City club’s ownership group, is expected to attend the match on Saturday.
Sporting KC is one of many local businesses that will thrive thanks to Messi.
“There is a huge Latino community here in Kansas City,” said Raul Villegas, the owner of El Padrino KC, a local gift shop. “Messi is the biggest soccer star in the world after winning the World Cup in Qatar. Kids are euphoric about seeing him play.”
Villegas expects to triple the shop’s merchandise sale revenue this week.
Messi is coming off his first start in nearly a month and after a 90-minute performance in Mexico, where Inter Miami was eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions Cup following a 3-1 loss to Liga MX’s Monterrey. Inter has 10 matches remaining until Copa America this summer, which is likely to be Messi’s final major international tournament of his 20-plus-year career.
“It’s kind of test run for the World Cup,” Kelsey said. “We’ve done everything else we can do. We are hoping for a good show and a win, of course.”
