Tickets for a football match between Lionel Messi’s club Inter Miami and a Hong Kong team sold out within an hour of being made available to the public on Friday.
On February 4, the Argentine great will face a Hong Kong XI at the 40,000-capacity Hong Kong Stadium, with former Barcelona colleagues Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.
Football enthusiasts checked into the ticketing app on Friday morning to find a massive queue for tickets ranging in price from $110 to $625.
“We are absolutely thrilled with the response from the fans,” said Michel Lamuniere, chairman and CEO of Tatler Asia, which is assisting with the game’s production.
Some social media users shared images of the app that displayed an error message stating “traffic overload.”
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Former Hong Kong football team captain Chan Wai-ho commented in a radio interview that the upcoming matches will liven up the atmosphere.
“People who don’t normally watch the game might come because of one or two [famous] players. They will become enthusiastic after feeling the atmosphere of watching the game. The craze is not over yet. There is a game in January, and then there’s the Messi game, and another one on the thirteenth. I think it will spice up the atmosphere of the football matches,” he said.
Miami co-owner David Beckham, who played in Hong Kong shortly after joining Real Madrid in 2003, previously stated that the MLS club was excited to play in a “beautiful city with a great sports scene.”