A historic game called for a historic crowd.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Colorado Rapids<\/a>\u00a0welcomed\u00a075,824 fans\u00a0for Saturday’s Matchday 8 visit from\u00a0Lionel Messi<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Inter Miami CF<\/a>, marking the\u00a0second-highest single-game attendance in MLS history.<\/p>\n Colorado’s 30th Anniversary Match was moved to Empower Field at Mile High, home of the NFL’s Denver Broncos, and supporters came out in unprecedented numbers to witness Miami’s 3-2 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n Only the 82,110 fans<\/a> in attendance for the July 4, 2023 El Tr\u00e1fico between\u00a0LA Galaxy<\/a> and LAFC<\/a> at the Rose Bowl have beaten that figure.<\/p>\n \n Historic numbers<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s showing bettered the Rapids’ previous record of 61,202 fans who watched Colorado take on Chicago Fire FC<\/a> on July 4, 2002.<\/p>\n It also continued a trend of historic crowds this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Three of MLS’s top-10 all-time attendances have come in 2026: Saturday’s record-breaker at Empower Field at Mile High, LAFC vs. Miami on MLS in Back weekend<\/a> (75,673 fans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum), and D.C. United<\/a> vs. Inter Miami on Matchday 3<\/a> (72,026 fans at M&T Bank Stadium).<\/p>\n All three took place at special venues as momentum builds in the lead-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n This summer’s tournament will unfold at 16 stadiums<\/a>, including five that are home to Major League Soccer clubs.<\/p>\n \n Messi factor<\/p>\n Big crowds have followed Inter Miami since Messi joined the club in 2023.<\/p>\n The back-to-back Landon Donovan MLS MVP has helped set record crowds in Chicago<\/a>,\u00a0Columbus<\/a>,\u00a0New England<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kansas City<\/a>, among others, in recent years.<\/p>\n It’s been more of the same in 2026, with Messi helping to fuel historic turnouts for LAFC, D.C. United and, most recently, Colorado.<\/p>\n The GOAT was up to the task on Saturday, notching a brace that included a vintage left-footed golazo in the 79th minute to earn the win.<\/p>\n Top 5 Highest Single-Game Attendances in MLS History<\/p>\n LA Galaxy vs. LAFC – July 4, 2023:\u00a082,110 fans\u00a0
\nColorado Rapids vs. Inter Miami – April 18, 2026: 75,824 fans
\nLAFC vs. Inter Miami – Feb. 21, 2026: 75,673 fans
\nCharlotte FC vs. LA Galaxy – March 5, 2022: 74,479 fans
\nAtlanta United vs. Portland Timbers – Dec. 8, 2018: 73,019 fans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A historic game called for a historic crowd. The\u00a0Colorado Rapids\u00a0welcomed\u00a075,824 fans\u00a0for Saturday’s Matchday 8 visit from\u00a0Lionel Messi\u00a0and\u00a0Inter Miami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17153,104466,5429,16163,123,125,124,76891,4959],"class_list":["post-237384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-colorado-rapids","tag-colvsmia-04-18-2026","tag-inter-miami-cf","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\/237384","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=237384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}