Want to see Lionel Messi play against the Union? It’s going to cost you.

Fans have been shelling out big bucks for a glimpse of Messi, the world's greatest player. Philly is no different, much to the chagrin of some, although certain loyal Union fans got a discount.

by Kerith Gabriel

Published Aug. 14, 2023, 5:26 p.m. ET

Corey Furlan will be in the building tomorrow night when his beloved Union host Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in the semifinals of the Leagues Cup.

As of Monday, the cheapest ticket to be in the stadium hovered around $249 for standing room only.

Furlan received his ticket for $29 — plus fees.

He was one of a handful of season-ticket holders who opted into buying a ticket throughout the entirety of the tournament, one that began in mid-July, locking in his ticket cost. However, for season-ticket holders who didn’t have a crystal ball, their decision to opt out proved costly — literally. Their same seats, depending on location, have a going rate of nearly four to five times their original value, all for the chance to see one of the world’s greatest players play inside Subaru Park.

According to a Leagues Cup official, season-ticket holders who chose to opt in following the Union’s quarterfinal win over Querétaro found tickets starting for as low as $48.

“I gave my ticket [representative] my credit card and told them to run it,” Furlan, an original Sons of Ben member and a founding member of the group who implored MLS to consider Philadelphia as its 16th franchise in 2008. “We were on a collision course and I felt like this could happen. I wasn’t going to get stuck out of this game and I wasn’t going to get charged a premium just to get in.”

The premium has been charged to catch the traveling caravan that has been Messi Mania, where tickets to Leagues Cup matches, the only tournament Messi has played to date, have seen prices of no less than $200 and generally upwards of $300 just to bear witness. Leagues Cup is a conglomeration of both Major League Soccer and Liga MX teams competing for one of three spots into the larger Concacaf Champions League, with the winner receiving a bye to the Round of 16. The Concacaf Champions League is the gateway for a club that wins to move on as the Concacaf representative in the larger FIFA Club World Cup.

But while it may seem a wild notion to spend so much on a ticket, demand has dictated Messi Mania to be as real as a ticket to the Super Bowl — or as many witnessed this summer, the mania that was Taylor Swift’s Eras world tour where some tickets were going for as much as mortgage payments cost. The Union tweeted that the semifinal tickets were sold out after just eight minutes.

You read that correctly. Eight minutes.

“I never in my life would think that literally, the hottest ticket of the summer would be — maybe outside of Taylor Swift, all the Swifties out there — the hottest ticket of the summer would be in Chester, with the Philadelphia Union playing Lionel Messi,” said Union coach Jim Curtin on Monday. “It’s something that’s really cool. It only grows the game. And I’ll just say the amount of ticket requests I got myself individually, it’s probably over 250 people reaching out. Some I haven’t talked to in 20 years. But no, it’s just the way it is, and it creates buzz around the game.”

The “buzz” had led to a number of Union fans getting priced out of seeing the Union play live in their own stadium, with many believing that the Union dictated the high cost of tickets for the event. Also, the high cost sparked vitriol on social media sites like X, formerly known as Twitter, with diehard Union fans calling out those who sold their seats or chose not to opt in.

However, while the Union is a club that’s still alive in the tournament, Subaru Park is the venue, with pricing and availability dictated by a collective of officials representing both MLS and Liga MX — and prices are dictated largely by what people are willing to pay, according to Leagues Cup spokesperson Felipe Martinez Amaral.

“The prices reflect the market demand for tickets similar to playoff pricing in all major sports events,” Amaral said. “This semifinal match has seen unprecedented demand from fans, and we have ensured that Philadelphia Union season-ticket holders who chose to opt in to the Leagues Cup matches at the beginning of Leagues Cup paid their regular-season ticket prices and that loyal Union fans were able to purchase tickets prior to the general public.”

As of Monday, two tickets to sit in a premium section were still hovering around $1,260 apiece in Section 107, the center of the park on the players’ side of the field. That would be enough to cover a full season-ticket cost for a seat in six sections of Subaru Park, according to the Union’s 2024 season-ticket pricing.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I can’t not be there,” said Brian Spencer, a contractor from Downingtown who purchased two seats in section 111 off StubHub on Sunday night for $980. “I’ve been a Messi fan since he was at Barcelona. For him to be less than an hour from my house? It’s a done deal for me. People might say I’m crazy, but seeing Messi play a team in my hometown, to me is worth every penny.”