It’s crazy! It will cost more for an individual ticket to attend the May 11 match with Lionel Messi at Stade Saputo than for a season subscription.
“The club prefers expanded profit instead of taking care of its supporters,” complains Jonah Presser, head of communications and media relations for the 1642MTL group.
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If the situation is disturbing, it deserves to be tempered. In fact, there are only a few hundred tickets left available for those who still hope to see the famous Argentine soccer player in action with Inter Miami CF on May 11 in Montreal. And, depending on the supply and demand model, these tickets will necessarily be sold or resold at a premium.
The pre-sale of individual CF Montréal tickets is officially announced for this Friday, starting at 10 a.m. However, it must be understood that the Montreal club has already made many efforts to make the most of Messi’s arrival.
A record number of season tickets
Beyond the last tickets available, CF Montreal will have mainly benefited from the situation to increase its number of season ticket holders to 15,000 whereas there were less than 10,000 last year.
Ironically, consumers who preferred to wait for individual tickets to be sold risk paying a price similar to, or even higher than, that of a season ticket for the single match on May 11.
A computer leak on an application suggested that individual tickets for the famous game against Miami would sell from $449 instead of the usual price of around $30. The price for the most affordable season ticket for the 2024 season, including the famous May 11 game, was $444.
- Listen to the interview with Jonah Presser, communications leader for the partisan group 1642MTL with Mario Dumont on QUB:
An insulting pre-sale
In its sales strategy, CF Montreal, which prefers not to comment on the matter, also gave consumers the opportunity to purchase packages of six matches, including that of May 11, for… $750. It’s still not cheap!
Where the organization has undoubtedly dropped the ball is in an “exclusive pre-sale” to soccer associations. These partners were offered, until last Tuesday, tickets for Messi’s visit. It was thus possible to obtain one for $518 in the supporters zone and for $639 in the white category. Many will obviously have preferred to pass their turn.
This is how the words of the 1642MTL group, regulars of section 114, resonate.
“We understand that the situation is unique and that the extreme demand for tickets justifies an increase,” said Simon Carignan, coordinator of the group of supporters, in a press release on Wednesday morning. However, we are disappointed that the club did not make a goodwill gesture to offer reasonably priced tickets to groups of supporters who accompanied the team when the stadium was at times half full […] The club has chosen to put the dollar before loyalty, it is regrettable.
Member of the 1642MTL group, Jonah Presser encouraged the team using a megaphone, on September 20, 2023, during a CF Montreal match presented at Stade Saputo.
“Photo courtesy of Jonah Presser/1642MTL”
“It’s more disappointment than frustration,” summarized Presser, during a telephone interview with The newspaper.
A transaction with Toronto
Since he himself is among the 15,000 season ticket holders, Presser will nevertheless have access to Stade Saputo on May 11. Like other soccer fans, he can now hope that CF Montreal will use the profits generated by Messi’s arrival to present a competitive club for the entire season.
At this level, CF Montreal announced on Wednesday that it had acquired an amount of $175,000 in general allocation from Toronto FC, including $125,000 in 2025, in return for a foreign player place in 2024 .