Inter Miami, Lionel Messi’s MLS season opener rescheduled on Saturday. What to know.

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami’s MLS season opener for the 2025 regular season will proceed Saturday with a later kickoff time, due to their rescheduled Concacaf Champions Cup match this week.

Inter Miami will host New York City FC at 7:30 p.m. ET, five hours later than the originally scheduled time of 2:30 p.m., to begin the MLS season at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, both teams and the league announced Tuesday.

The game change follows Inter Miami’s delay to start the Champions Cup. They’ll play the first of two games against Sporting Kansas City on the road Wednesday at 8 p.m., where subfreezing temperatures await Messi and his teammates. The match was originally scheduled for Tuesday night before severe weather conditions led to its postponement.

Sporting Kansas City’s MLS opener on the road at Austin FC in Texas will proceed at its scheduled time Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The National Weather Service in the Kansas City area issued a winter storm warning and cold weather advisory, meteorologist Brad Temeyer told USA TODAY Sports on Monday. About 5 to 7 inches of snow, single-digit temperatures and a wind chill 15-25 degrees below zero were expected Tuesday. The wind chill will be even lower on Wednesday night, approaching 15 to 30 degrees below zero.

Inter Miami and Sporting Kansas City are still expected to play the second leg of their first-round Champions Cup match next Tuesday at Chase Stadium as planned. Messi is healthy and expected to play in the first Sporting Kansas City match despite the weather concerns, Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said.

The schedule changes may not be ideal for Messi and Inter Miami’s start to the MLS season, but the club and league has adjusted.

MLS originally set Messi and Inter Miami to play in a standalone Saturday afternoon match to start their 30th season. The 2:30 p.m. ET window falls into a primetime slot in Europe, and would’ve been a lead into the rest of the Saturday night slate of matches during the opening weekend.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inter Miami MLS season opener vs. New York City FC has new start time