{"id":182858,"date":"2026-03-08T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T05:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/182858\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T05:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T05:00:23","slug":"dc-united-draw-historic-crowd-for-lionel-messi-inter-miami-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/182858\/","title":{"rendered":"DC United draw historic crowd for Lionel Messi & Inter Miami visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Messi and the Herons\u2019 Matchday 3 visit to D.C. United<\/a> drew 72,026 fans to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore for a new Black-and-Red home attendance record<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s memorable turnout topped D.C.\u2019s previous home attendance record of 57,431 fans that witnessed the club\u2019s 1997 MLS Cup triumph over the Colorado Rapids<\/a> at RFK Stadium.<\/p>\n

It also ranked as a top-10 all-time standalone crowd in Major League Soccer history.<\/p>\n

United shipped to Baltimore\u2019s M&T Bank Stadium – home of the NFL\u2019s Baltimore Ravens – to accommodate Messi & Co.\u2019s visit. The Herons delivered as advertised, earning a 2-1 victory<\/a>, with the legendary Argentine No. 10 scoring the game-winning goal.<\/p>\n

Big crowds have been the norm for Inter Miami road games since Messi\u2019s blockbuster 2023 arrival. The two-time reigning Landon Donovan MLS MVP helped draw 72,610 fans to Arrowhead Stadium for IMCF’s\u00a03-2 victory<\/a>\u00a0over\u00a0Sporting Kansas City<\/a> in April 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later that month, Miami\u2019s 4-1 win<\/a> over the New England Revolution<\/a> drew\u00a065,612 fans\u00a0to Gillette Stadium, surpassing the club’s previous home attendance record (61,316) from hosting MLS Cup 2002. \u00a0<\/p>\n

And just last month, Miami\u2019s MLS is Back visit to LAFC<\/a> at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum drew\u00a075,673 fans\u00a0\u2013 making it the highest-attended game in MLS opening weekend history<\/a> and the second-highest attended league match of all-time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Messi and the Herons\u2019 Matchday 3 visit to D.C. United drew 72,026 fans to M&T Bank Stadium in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34246,84655,5429,1660,16163,123,125,124,76891,4959],"class_list":["post-182858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-d-c-united","tag-dcvsmia-03-07-2026","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-lionel-messi","tag-match-reaction","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-priority-match","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}