Global soccer superstar Lionel Messi will play his first — and possibly only — game in Utah in April when Real Salt Lake hosts Messi’s Inter Miami.
Real Salt Lake has seen an “unprecedented” demand for tickets, according to Trey Fitz-Gerald, the team’s vice president of communications.
Roughly 30,000 fans signed up for the “priority waitlist” to purchase tickets for the April 22 match as soon as it was open, per Fitz-Gerald. Half of those came overnight, and 6,000 were submitted in the first 30 minutes.
“He’s a unicorn,” Fitz-Gerald said of Messi. “When you think of athletes that have transcended their sport, it’s a pretty short list, right? It’s Michael Jordan, it’s Muhammad Ali, it’s Tiger Woods, it’s Wayne Gretzky. I might be showing my age. LeBron James for sure, and Lionel Messi has done that. I think most soccer people believe he’s the greatest of all time.”
Fitz-Gerald acknowledged that some may believe that title belongs to Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Maradona or Pele.
“But Messi with everything he’s done with all of his teams across his entire career, it almost defies description, and like I said, it’s transcended the sport,” he said.
Messi and Inter Miami are coming off being crowned MLS Cup champions.
“He’s still playing at an incredibly high level,” Fitz-Gerald said. “He had a record-setting number of goals and assists in the playoffs this year. It doesn’t feel like he’s slowing down anytime soon.”
There’s a chance this could be the only time Messi plays in Utah. Inter Miami played its inaugural season in 2020 but has never played Real Salt Lake at America First Field.
“We’re so, so elated to finally welcome him and Miami to Utah for the first time, and who knows? It might end up being the only time because the way, the kind of scheduling formula works we don’t get every Eastern Conference team here in Utah every year, so we just don’t know when or if we’ll see him again,” Fitz-Gerald said.
Before the priority waitlist opened to the public, RSL reached out to current season ticket members to see if they were interested in purchasing additional tickets.
They then reached out to previous season ticket members and fans who had previously purchased ticket packages. The waitlist was then opened to the public.
Due to the current demand, Fitz-Gerald thinks it’s “probably unlikely” that there will be any single-game tickets available for the general public when they go on sale in January.
“It shows the appetite for soccer in our community,” Fitz-Gerald said.
Messi and Inter Miami’s visit will come less than two months before the U.S. hosts the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Real Salt Lake’s very own Diego Luna and Braian Ojeda could be playing in the tournament for the U.S. and Paraguay, respectively.
“They’re in the same group, and they could honestly kick off the World Cup in the first game against each other, which is a crazy possibility,” Fitz-Gerald said.