On April 27th, 2024 we saw a very sought-after match of the best team in the MLS Inter Miami taking on the New England Revolution in Gillette Stadium. Any other year this would’ve been just another match for both teams and wouldn’t see much revenue being made, but the catch is that Inter Miami now had Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, and Lionel Messi.
Attendance
If this match had been played even a year before, it would’ve been just another discounted ticket price match, but Messi and company made all the difference. For this match tickets skyrocketed upwards between $200-$1,000. It is a huge price increase especially because Revolution tickets can get as cheap as $30. Although the prices were absurd, fans didn’t seem to mind this as the New England Revolution had to open up the top balcony section seats of Gillette Stadium which they usually never do. This match saw an attendance of 65,612 fans. This number broke the single-match record for the Revolution. The previous number was 61,316 that attended the 2002 MLS Cup Championship between the New England Revolution and Los Angeles Galaxy. The average attendance for a Revolution game is 23,940 fans (2023). This game in itself doubled and almost tripled the average attendance for these games. The influence that just one player can have over an entire stadium is incredible. Views and pictures of the match showed us that there were a lot more supporters of Lionel Messi than anyone else. A variety of Inter Miami, Barcelona, and Argentina jerseys were spotted all across the stadium.
Game Recap
On this special night for over 65,000 fans, It was inevitable that both teams would put on a show. To start the game, we saw the revolution strike first in the first minute off of a miscommunication between Inter Miami’s goalkeeper and defensive back. This put the Revs up early in the game. The problem is this lead wouldn’t be held for long and it would be the only goal the small amount of Revolution fans in attendance would see that night. After this goal, it was all Inter Miami. At around 32 minutes of play, the main man to score got Inter Miami on the board. Messi would go on to score and make the crowd go wild. Going into half-time the score was 1-1 and the game looked winnable for both sides, although Inter Miami being one of the best teams in the MLS would go on to dominate the second half and the rest of the game. Messi would not only score once but scored twice as he struck again in the 67th minute giving Inter Miami the lead. About 20 minutes later youngster Benjamin Cremaschi scored a goal to put Inter Miami up 3-1. 5 minutes later Luis Suarez would put the nail in the coffin and scored in the 88th minute to lead Miami to a 4-1. Whether you were an Inter Miami fan, Revolution fan, or just a supporter of Messi this game was a thriller and worth the watch.
Statistics
Inter-Miami dominated this game in all aspects. They lead in shots having 12 compared to NE’s 7 and shots on target being 6 compared to NE’s only 1 shot on target being their first goal. The better team came to play and showed why they were the top team in the MLS.
Conclusion
This game was a thriller and will go down in history as one of the greatest Revolution games to be played at Gillette Stadium. Messi and Miami made sure that the people got their money’s worth and fulfilled the dreams of many Messi lovers by watching their idol play and score not once but twice.
