You can see Lionel Messi's Inter Miami vs. Nashville SC, but it'll cost you | Estes

First, the good news. If you’d like to go to GEODIS Park on Thursday night and witness the return of Lionel Messi’s team, you can. As of Monday, plenty of tickets were available.

You’ve got to really want to be there, though.

The bad news is that Nashville SC has marked up ticket prices for this CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal game against Inter Messi — pardon me, Inter Miami — to where face-value seats for a family of four in the upper deck behind one of the goals would run you close to $500.

A lot of Nashville SC supporters have been grumbling about this. But hey, that’s capitalism. Nashville SC raised prices because it expected — and still expects — to fill GEODIS anyway. Because it’s Messi, and the previous time the world’s best player was here, it was electric. It was easily our city's hottest sports event of 2023.

Can’t knock Nashville SC for trying to make a buck if it’s there some to be made.

Criticism is due, however, if people aren’t willing to pay, and a sparse crowd on Thursday reveals that Nashville SC overestimated demand for this Messi sequel.

That’d make it just another example of how Major League Soccer keeps making its product more exclusive and less accessible to casual fans.

Costs a lot to be an MLS fan these days. You’d need about $15 a month to watch all of the games on Apple TV. An authentic version of this year’s snazzy new Nashville SC jerseys will run you about $160 — $195 if you want it customized.

MLS should want fans to be able to easily watch games without cost. It should want the walking billboards of people wearing its jerseys.

We haven’t even started yet on concessions or parking.

Nashville SC also marked up tickets when Inter Miami and Messi won the Leagues Cup final here in August. This week’s visit is for another tournament that the average American sports fan wouldn't recognize: The CONCACAF Champions Cup is similar to the UEFA Champions League, except with the best teams from North and Central American countries. Nashville and Miami are among the MLS contingent, and they were drawn against each other.

MLS has prioritized these in-season, regional tournaments while many of its teams — including Nashville SC — unfortunately opted to sit out the U.S. Open Cup in 2024.

The U.S. Open Cup has its faults, but it's ours. It isn’t a cash cow, but it’s fun and it means something to American soccer fans of all areas. It’s the one tournament that's open to pro teams regardless of league. That means a smaller league club in, say, Louisville or Birmingham or Chattanooga or Memphis or Knoxville could earn the right to host an MLS big-leaguer like Nashville SC.

Such a matchup is a big deal in those places, and it’s a great way for a young club like Nashville SC to expand its following. In 2022, I traveled up I-65 to watch Nashville SC beat USL's Louisville City, and it was a good time.

Meh — too many games on the schedule already and not enough money in the U.S. Open Cup — MLS said in 2024, while turning up noses and again carving a month out of its summer calendar to accommodate the Leagues Cup alongside Mexico’s top clubs.

Nothing against the Leagues Cup, mind you. That was a good time, too.

For Nashville SC, last year’s run to the Leagues Cup final was a high-water mark. It earned the club its spot in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, and in terms of local interest, that Miami game in August was a perfect storm. It was Nashville's first cup final. Messi had just arrived in MLS to global headlines, and the game itself was on a Saturday in the summer, with little competition for attention.

Thursday’s rematch is an 8 p.m. game on a school night. It’ll be up against a home game for the red-hot Nashville Predators and the TSSAA girls basketball state tournament.

This time, too, Nashville SC won’t be playing for a trophy. It’s the round of 16, and it’s only the first leg. The teams will face off again in Miami the following week, with the scores of both games being combined to decide who advances.

Miami should be heavily favored, given its 5-0 thumping of Orlando City this past weekend and how Nashville’s best offensive players — Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge — have been out injured.

So yes, it’ll be Messi and Miami against Nashville SC in a tournament game.

But it sets up differently.

And if that results in a bunch of empty seats at GEODIS Park, it’ll be a shame.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville SC raised ticket prices for Lionel Messi's return with Miami