A Langford, B.C., family who spent thousands of dollars to give their son a chance to see his soccer idol is slamming the MLS and the superstar himself.
News broke on Thursday that Argentinian forward Lionel Messi would not show up for Saturday’s match between his club Inter Miami and the Vancouver Whitecaps.
“Prices were only extremely high because of this superstar that was coming,” Karyn Theeparajah told Global News.
“It’s a robbery, if I’m honest, and the MLS knows that. They get away with it and I think it’s a shame.”
The Theeparajah family bought Golden Era tickets for four games – at a cost of about $2,000 – plus round-trip boat fares for her son Carter’s ninth birthday, mainly because of the Miami match and the Messi-centric marketing.
Breaking the news to her son on Thursday was difficult, she said.
“He started crying and asked to read the article himself and was really angry, to be honest,” she said. “He was angry and sad.”
Like many of the 55,000 other fans who bought tickets for the game, they expected the star to at least travel with the team.
“It was on the front,” Carter said of the ticket package. “I was so excited to see him play that I couldn’t sleep.”
“They made a bad decision. They should have made sure he came or not, and then they should have done all that.
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Inter Miami did not specify why Messi did not make the trip to Vancouver, and it is unclear whether his coach told him to rest or if he simply did not want to come. The star is not currently listed as injured.
As fans in British Columbia fumed over the no-show, Inter Miami posted a video of Messi on its X account (formerly Twitter) saying the star would be a “special guest” for a weekend youth tournament in Miami.
Vancouver ticket broker Kingsley Bailey said many BC fans feel like they have been victims of a bait and switch.
“Fans were willing to pay whatever it took for the opportunity to see this man play on Canadian soil in the MLS. It didn’t matter what the price was,” he said.
Single-game tickets for the event started at $329, and Bailey said many fans paid much more than that. The Whitecaps, he said, relied heavily on Messi marketing to justify those prices and move season and multi-match ticket packages.
Without Messi, he said the club would have to do something to make fans healthy.
“A full refund, a full credit, something like that. Because they should not benefit from this problem that the fans are suffering from.
The Whitecaps have said they empathize with the fans, but while they are offering half-price food and drinks during the match, the club has made no mention of possible refunds.
“The first thing I have to say and want to say is: I hear them, I feel for them, I understand their frustration, and I can tell them that we share their frustration. As I said before, I don’t think anyone is more disappointed and frustrated than our players,” said Axel Schuster, CEO of Whitecaps.
Theeparajah believes ticket holders should be refunded the difference between what they paid and the normal value of a Whitecaps ticket – usually well under $100.
She also wants the league to be proactive in communicating that superstar players will not be allowed to travel for high-profile games so that ticket buyers are aware of the risks.
“People have saved up to get this opportunity and now they go to what I would call a regular Whitecaps game and they would have paid 10 times what a normal seat would cost – that really hurts,” she said.
She also had a message for the Argentinian star himself, if he’s listening.
“My son just had an injury, he plays football, and he had an injury for a month. He came to every practice, every game, to be with his team even though he couldn’t contribute,” she said.
“(Messi) should be ashamed.”
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
