INTER MIAMI
Inter Miami cause chaos with ticket details for China postseason tour
The MLS club have revealed new details about their upcoming trip to Asia, and the announcement has caused uproar with the fans.
Just a couple of weeks before Inter Miami and Lionel Messi make their long trip to Asia, the club have changed the match day information relating to the games in China against Chengdu and Qingdao, causing chaos for the fans.
The importance of the people attending football matches, for a long time coming, has been on a downward slope in terms of club priorities. In an age of the television rights and twitter exposure turning into two of the most profitable aspects of a franchise, as well as international shirt sales from garments that drive wildly away from tradition, those who actually attend football games so we don’t have to look at players celebrate awkwardly to empty stadiums like we did during the covid-19 pandemic are being forgotten about.
How to get a ticket to see Inter Miami in China
Through an official statement, Inter Miami informed that tickets for the clashes will go on sale on Thursday 26 October, meaning that fans of Inter Miami and Lionel Messi will be able to finally plan their trip to see the Leagues Cup 2023 champions. The tickets will go on sale as of 4:am ET on October 26 (4pm Beijing time).
All good, right? Well, the statement said that “fans will be able to purchase tickets through the Damai platform”.
We checked. The platform, which calls itself the ‘leading Ticket Company in Mainland China’, was unable to be accessed by AS USA. Furthermore, Damai themselves denied the information given out by The Herons, saying that they “have not received the ticket issue notice for the Miami China trip scheduled on October 26″. The company, which was only set up in August said, “Please refer to the domestic official channels of the event for release.”
How much are tickets for Inter Miami’s games in China?
A price range of 680 ($93) to 5,800 ($792) yuan was what was quoted by Qingdao Hainiu deputy general manager, Feng Wenjing, an increase from the 580 ($79) to 4,800 $656) range when Argentina visited China in July. That is, if you can get hold of a golden ticket, of course.
Miami cause travel chaos with late changes
As well as this, fans in China will also have to cancel their travel and hospitality plans after the MLS side revealed in the statement that the venue for the game against Qingdao on November 5 has changed. Some fans on China’s Weibo social media platform rightly complained they had already booked hotels in the city, as well as travel tickets in advance of match tickets going on sale.
“The venue for the match against Qingdao on Nov. 5 has changed; the match will now be played at Wuyuan River Stadium in Haikou, China. The match against Chengdu will remain at the Phoenix Hill Sports Park in Chengdu, China”, Inter Miami’s statement said.
You’re probably wondering about the distance between the two cities - surely it’s a bus journey away, in a neighbouring town? Not quite.
The distance between Qingdao and Haikou is 2,841km, or a 27-hour drive.
There’s more. Qingdao have a fixture scheduled at the Cangzhou Mighty Lions on November 4, just a day before the Miami match, as well as a Chinese FA Cup semi-final against Shanghai Shenhua at home on November 7. Nobody tell Pep Guardiola, this is real fixture congestion.