New England Revolution announced on Wednesday that the upcoming visit of Lionel Messi to Gillette Stadium next month is poised to surpass the club’s long-standing single-game attendance record, with more than 60,000 tickets already sold for the Inter Miami matchup.
According to the Revs, less than 5,000 tickets are left for the MLS clash scheduled for April 27. This figure is expected to exceed the club’s previous attendance record of 61,316 set during the 2002 MLS Cup when they hosted the LA Galaxy.
The Revolution’s previous regular-season attendance record dates back to 1997 when they hosted the Tampa Bay Mutiny in a doubleheader alongside a World Cup qualifying match between Mexico and the United States.
Gillette Stadium, home to the six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots, opened in 2002. The highest attendance for a Revolution regular-season match at the stadium was 42,947 in 2015.
In the NFL last season, the Patriots’ average home attendance was 63,018.
Miami manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino has stated that Messi’s fitness is being assessed on a week-to-week basis after he was forced off during the club’s Concacaf Champions Cup second leg against Nashville SC on March 13. Martino aims to have Messi fit for Miami’s Champions Cup quarterfinal matches against Mexico’s Monterrey on April 3 and April 10.
This wouldn’t be the first time that an MLS team sold a large number of tickets in anticipation of watching Messi play, only for him to be absent from Miami’s team sheet.
Last season, with Messi expected to miss out due to injury, the Chicago Fire provided over 61,000 ticketed fans with a $250 account credit “toward new memberships for the 2024 season — or a $50 account credit for anyone unable to use the new member credit — to all single-game ticket buyers” to encourage attendance at Soldier Field.
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