{"id":351984,"date":"2026-06-26T22:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T22:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/351984\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T22:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T22:20:12","slug":"big-question-hovering-over-ticket-prices-will-lionel-messi-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/351984\/","title":{"rendered":"Big question hovering over ticket prices: Will Lionel Messi play?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uncertainty surrounding how much Lionel\u00a0Messi will play in Saturday night\u2019s Argentina-Jordan World Cup<\/a> match at Dallas Stadium has done little to suppress ticket prices on the secondary market.<\/p>\n

In fact, last-minute ticket sellers on third-party platform StubHub are asking for more than $2,000 for an upper-deck seat to watch Argentina\u2019s second group-stage match in a week in Arlington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That was roughly the same asking price<\/a> for the cheapest ticket for the Argentina-Austria match on Monday, during which\u00a0Messi scored two goals<\/a> to become the all-time leader in total goals in men\u2019s World Cup history.<\/p>\n

Argentina has already clinched the top spot in Group J, fueling speculation that the global superstar<\/a> may rest for most, if not all, of the match against Jordan to ensure he is refreshed for the knockout round.<\/p>\n

Fans who won the\u00a0FIFA ticketing lottery months ago had the opportunity to purchase World Cup tickets primarily in one of three price categories. Ticket buyers still didn\u2019t know exactly what section they\u2019d be sitting in, but FIFA provided a rough idea based on color-coded seating maps\u00a0\u2014 and the prices were fixed.<\/p>\n

With Saturday\u2019s Argentina-Jordan match at Dallas Stadium, those who want to make last-minute ticket purchases on the secondary market will encounter a different, and more expensive, market.<\/p>\n

Four years removed from lifting the World Cup trophy for Argentina in Qatar, Messi still possesses an unmistakable aura. This is like watching Michael Jordan\u00a0\u2014 1998 Jordan with the Bulls\u00a0\u2014 an icon who still levitates above mere mortals.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers who change the trajectory of a league or a sport come once in a lifetime,\u201d Camilo Durana, chief business officer at Major League Soccer, told The Dallas Morning News. \u201cGuys like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Lionel Messi is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noelle LeVeaux, the chief marketing officer for the North Texas Organizing Committee, said in April to expect upward of 80,000 people to travel from Argentina to D-FW for his matches.<\/p>\n

For Major League Soccer teams, there has been a solution to satisfy the virtually insatiable appetite to see Messi: Play games in bigger stadiums.<\/p>\n

So far this MLS season, three matches featuring Messi and his Inter Miami team have surpassed 72,000 fans, each ranking among the top 10 largest crowds in league history. Five clubs have set new single-match attendance records in 2026, all of which have included Messi and Inter Miami.<\/p>\n

A Colorado Rapids\u2019 attendance record of 75,673 filled Empower Field at Mile High in Denver in April. A crowd of 75,673 filled the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in February, a LAFC home attendance record. And 72,026 filled Baltimore\u2019s M&T Bank Stadium in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now fans again will pack Dallas Stadium for the chance to see him \u2014 a coveted ticket if there ever was one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uncertainty surrounding how much Lionel\u00a0Messi will play in Saturday night\u2019s Argentina-Jordan World Cup match at Dallas Stadium has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[40502,150,152,151,95926,26984,73993,3692],"class_list":["post-351984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-argentina","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-dallas-stadium","tag-jordan","tag-lionel-messi","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}