Amidst the fervor of Lionel Messi’s MLS debut with Inter Miami, it was funny to recall that this Leagues Cup kickoff had been set long before he had announced his intentions to come to America—and that, however small their numbers, there would be fans attending the match who had simply intended to show up to support Cruz Azul. “When I heard they were coming I thought, Oh, I’ll just buy tickets later on,” Diana del Valle, a supporter for the Liga MX club, admitted when we chatted in the DRV PNK Stadium stands in Ft. Lauderdale. She did, albeit at a substantially higher price than anticipated: Inter Miami tickets haven’t exactly been hot ones over the club’s time in the league, the club’s middling-at-best performance and temporary stadium located well outside of the city hardly providing incentive for the city to show out. But that changed immediately upon the news of Messi’s signing. Resale tickets to the Cruz Azul faceoff were rumored to be selling for tens of thousands of dollars, with some tickets listed in the six-figure range.
For everyone in attendance, it was worth the money. Cruz Azul may be del Valle’s club, but she’s been a fan of Messi long enough to have once flown to Barcelona to see him play at the club’s legendary 100,000-capacity Camp Nou. On Friday she joined a crowd of merely 20,000 to see the greatest soccer player of all time take the pitch in a makeshift stadium with fold-out bleachers 45 minutes from Miami’s bustling center. From billion-dollar sportswear brands to hometown fans, the collective consensus seemed to be that whatever credit card charges racked up for this were next week’s problems.
The club’s loyal fanbase, however, had little to worry about. Like most MLS clubs, Inter Miami boasts a loyal and fervent band of supporter squads that show out for every game—and almost certainly had their tickets locked in long before Messi’s arrival to the States. A couple hundred fans flocked to Domino Park in Little Havana the day before the match at the height of South Beach’s midday heat and humidity. They banged drums and shouted along to the club’s signature chants and songs, almost all of which are performed in Spanish. Chris Moramarco, one of the founders of supporter squad Vice City 1896, confessed that this moment validated years spent building a community around a team that hadn’t so much as played a scrimmage. “At first people didn’t know what we were lining up to do. There was no team, no colors, no logo. But we were there,” he explained, “We’d heard for years [Messi] might be coming but we had our doubts it was ever going to happen.” Even after seeing him in the stadium the Sunday prior for his contract signing, Moramarco admits, he didn’t think it would sink in until he took the field for the first time. In just a day’s time, the club’s faithful would finally be rewarded.
