THE Vancouver Whitecaps In the semi-finals, advanced a prestigious international tournament in the semi-finals, which has hoped that one of the biggest football stars in the world will play in front of fans of British Columbia.
The caps will compete against Inter Miami later this month, the club led by the legend of football Lionel Messi.
But Vancouver fans can be dead, shy twice compared to the match. When Miami played Vancouver last year, in the middle of massive marketing and high prices of tickets, Messi chose not to travel with the team leaving many bitter fans.
“What broke my heart was to hear the stories of this little boy, whose parents spent thousands of people in a hotel and tickets and so on to come here to say oh yes, sorry, Messi does not come,” said the fan of Whitecaps Tony Gabriel.
“It breaks my heart.”
While the Whitecaps were apologized, there was little compensation and some fans went so far as to launch a collective appeal.
Now, with the prestigious CONCACAF champions cut on the line, will the April match be Messi or messy?
The CEO and director of the WHITECAPS sportsman, Axel Schuster, said that fans should above all come to Whitecaps, who have one of their best seasons and sit at the top of the league.
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“This is an attractive opponent, that there are a lot of superstars is a beautiful side effect, but he first came to support the Whitecaps of Vancouver in an important match,” he said.
“This team deserves the greatest possible crowd. This team deserves that the city takes it and supports them.”
Whether Messi plays or not, he said, is outside the club control. The same goes for the liability prices of the tickets, he said, although he pointed out that the club sold them at the box office at a “fair price”.
Tickets are currently available for subscription holders, some already online sale at prices as high as $ 1,600.
But while Messi was clearly the draw when Inter Miami was in town last year, Global News fans spoke Thursday compared to more people on the prospects of the Whitecaps tournament than stars on the ground.
“You win the Concacaf Champions League, you left for the club World Cup playing people like Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG, no matter,” said Whitecaps fan Tony Gabriel.
To get to the semi -finals of the tournament, the Whitecaps had to eliminate two popular teams from Mexico, first Monterrey, then Pumas – which they eliminated with a dramatic expedition goal on Wednesday.
“It’s a big problem for us. We are in the semi-finals of the best tournament on the continent, so we are delighted, “said Peter Czimmermann, president of the Whitecaps Supporters Club The Vancouver Southsiders.
“I think there will be a big buzz and it will be a big day.”
Czimmermann said that if megastars like Messi Play are outside the home club control. But he thinks that if the league will promote the stars as it does, it should force them to travel with their teams.
“Regarding sport, I don’t want to force anyone to play because it is important that they remain healthy and that they can play as many games as they wish,” he said. “He thinks that’s how marketing overlaps this.”
With international status at stake, fans like Gabriel believe that Messi is more likely than not taking the ground.
“Messi, when he comes, not if he comes-it’s going to be such a hostile environment here,” he said.
“I know that there will obviously be people who applaud them, but the south of his south will go crazy, everyone will go crazy, I think it will be an environment that he will never have known outside of Europe.”
Tickets for the April 26 match should be sold to the general public on Friday at noon.
& Copy 2025 Global News, A Division of Corus Entertainment Inc.