“Historic night right for our franchise, I think, for the city,”
“Historic night right for our franchise, I think, for the city,”
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“Historic night right for our franchise, I think, for the city,”
A soccer match at Arrowhead Stadium, featuring Lionel Messi, set new attendance records on Saturday, marking a significant milestone for the sport in Kansas City.
Sporting Kansas City President Jake Reed commented on the event’s significance.
“Historic night right for our franchise, I think, for the city,” Reed said.
Reed also shared his optimism about the future of soccer in the city.
“I think it’s a great segue into first Copa (América) this summer, and then certainly the World Cup will be on a whole different level,” he said.
The match between Sporting Kansas City and Miami attracted a crowd of over 72,000. This set a new attendance record for a soccer match in Missouri and was the highest-attended Inter Miami match since Messi’s arrival last summer.
Reed acknowledged Messi’s crowd-pulling power.
“He brings big crowds,” he said.
The match also ranked second in global soccer attendance this weekend. It was the second-highest-attended sporting event in the United States this year. In terms of Major League Soccer (MLS), it was the third-highest single-game regular-season crowd in history.
Reed expressed his confidence in Kansas City’s soccer fans.
“People show up in Kansas City. I think it has a proven track record that when the stars are brightest, they’re going to turn out,” he said.
However, the event was not without its challenges. A number of fans ran onto the field, a phenomenon Reed says is unfortunate but common with superstar players like Messi.
“Unfortunately it’s pretty standard wherever he goes. You could have double security and at some point people are still gonna sneak their way through,” he explained.
Reed compared the Messi phenomenon to David Beckham’s arrival in the MLS but on a much larger scale.
“That’s not disrespectful to David. I think what David did was had to happen for Messi to happen but now you’re seeing it on a scale I think the league has never seen before,” he said.
The match ended with Messi and Inter-Miami defeating Sporting Kansas City three to two. Sporting Kansas City will return to Children’s Mercy Park this weekend.
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