Soccer fans are clamouring to get their hands on tickets to see one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, with Lionel Messi's Inter Miami CF set to play Toronto FC at BMO Field this October.

Ticketmaster launched sales for the forthcoming 2024 Toronto FC season on January 31, and Messi's October 5 match in Toronto proved the hottest ticket of the year, selling out in literally seconds.

Like many other high-profile events sold via Ticketmaster, fans had little opportunity to purchase tickets at face value, stoking a resale market where tickets are now being sold at over six times the price of other matches this coming season.

Tickets for Messi in Toronto sold out in seconds. Now resale tickets are up for close to $1000 for the upper seating section. This is bullshit @TorontoFC and @Ticketmaster My 7 year old is a real fan. Not these bots taking advantage of us. pic.twitter.com/7lHUG6CYSM

— Gregory Astill (@gregzky17) January 31, 2024

As of Friday afternoon, the cheapest general admission tickets available to catch Messi play in Toronto were selling for a steep $267.75. The cheapest assigned seat for the match currently sits at $357 for an individual ticket.

Prices for seats soared as high as $2,000 on Ticketmaster before tickets once again sold out before 2:30 p.m, while some tickets are being resold on other sites like StubHub at up to $1,900.

Ticketmaster

The 36-year-old Argentine footballer inked a deal with the MLS' Inter Miami in July 2023 after an impressive career playing for major European clubs FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, instantly becoming the hottest star in North American soccer.

And demand to see this talent has swept the nation, coast to coast.

An almost identical situation occurred just days earlier when pre-sales launched for Vancouver Whitecaps tickets to overwhelming demand, crashing Ticketmaster immediately.

To get a sense of how desperately fans want in on this match, ticket sales to other games this season, like a Sept. 18 match hosting the Columbus Crew, are selling for between $40 and $400.

That's just a mere fraction of what some Toronto fans are paying to see Messi's first appearance in the city.

Chaotic sales through Ticketmaster is just the latest crossover episode between sports fans and Swifties, as a similar situation occurred in Toronto last year following the launch of sales for Taylor Swift's six-show Eras Tour run coming to the city later this year.

A chaotic sales launch and resales gouging fans for exorbitant sums, led to Swifties declaring war on the ticket seller, and triggering a string of bills and laws cracking down on the increasingly automated business of online ticket scalping.

However, Ontario hasn't quite kept up. In fact, it could be argued the province moved in the opposite direction in 2019 when it scrapped part of a law capping ticket resale prices at 50 per cent above face value.