Neil Malik
Should the Vancouver Whitecaps pay out ticket holders for the Messi mess?
Photo via Shutterstock
The Topline
- The Vancouver Whitecaps have settled a class action lawsuit that accused the team of misleading ticket buyers for their May 2024 match against Inter Miami CF
- The suit alleges that the Whitecaps sold tickets to the match at inflated prices based on advertisements prominently featuring soccer superstars Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, and Sergio Busquets, who never ended up attending the match
- Instead of paying out ticket holders, the Whitecaps will pay $475,000, minus up to one-third the legal fees, to be split between three charitable organizations
Buyer beware
If you’re buying tickets to a movie, the stars on the poster are guaranteed to be in it. Same with a concert. The musical act you’re paying to see is undoubtedly going to perform for you.
But sports are an entirely different story. Buying tickets to a sporting event always comes with some inherent risk. The only thing you’re guaranteed is a match between the two teams.
And as much as you might hope for a perfect experience, nothing is a given. It might be a lousy game. It might get rained out. Or your favourite player might not play. That’s just how it goes.
Keeping that in mind, the odds of Messi playing in the match against the Vancouver Whitecaps were never great to begin with, and that’s why fans were lucky to get the little bit of compensation they’ve already received.
For starters, BC Place has a history of being shunned by global soccer stars who don’t like its artificial turf, which is not a surface used in any top league outside North America. Thierry Henry famously skipped out on Vancouver due to the BC Place turf, when he suited up for the New York Red Bulls from 2010 to 2014.
And while Messi himself has said he isn’t bothered by artificial turf, the 38-year-old is still often kept out of matches by his own club in an effort to keep him healthy. ESPN reported that in 2023, over the 10 or so matches before the playoffs, he missed 25 per cent of his available MLS regular season matches not due to injury, but just so he could rest.
The regular season schedule in 2024 had Inter Miami travelling to Vancouver for a one-game road trip, followed by a home game only a few days later. If you’re Inter Miami’s manager looking for a window to rest your superstar, that was an obvious opportunity to keep him at home.
It’s understandable that 51,000 fans would be disappointed after paying big bucks to see Messi play. He is one of the greatest soccer players of all time. His Instagram account is the third-most followed on the entirety of the platform. He would have brought a certain level of global celebrity status to Vancouver that doesn't come around too often.
The Whitecaps acknowledged the disappointment and tried to smooth things over with half-priced concessions and a free future ticket to a 2024 match.
But it was ultimately a gamble buying expensive tickets (or in one guy’s case , flying across the globe) to see a single player from a team, no matter whose faces were on the ads.
A bait and switch
This was never about Messi, Suárez and Busquets skipping their match against the Whitecaps.
The class action lawsuit centres on the Whitecaps prominently featuring the players in their ads to sell tickets, while also jacking up their ticket prices accordingly.
The suit claims that because fans paid a higher price than normal as a result of these ads, and some also incurred extra losses (travel, accommodation, and loss of income) tied to attending the match, this amounted to misleading or deceptive practices under different consumer and competition laws.
In other words: Those ads created the perception that attending the match would include seeing Messi in person. That’s why some fans were rightfully upset after realizing the prices they paid for the match were misaligned with the match they actually received.
And the fans might actually have had a case.
According to the suit, the promotional materials that referenced or suggested Messi, Suárez, and Busquets would play were “representations” that could deceive or mislead consumers about what they were buying. Pricing tickets at around ten times a normal Whitecaps home game because of those representations could be an unconscionable act or practice — the defendants “ought to have known” the players might not play.
Both of those points add up to an allegation that the Whitecaps and Major League Soccer broke the British Columbia Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act that prohibits deceptive advertising and unconscionable pricing.
There were also alleged violations of the Competition Act and the British Columbia Sale of Goods Act .
As we've already noted , buying a ticket to a sporting event is inherently volatile. What you hope might happen is never guaranteed. And the same clues that suggested Messi was a high-risk to skip the match should have also resonated with the Whitecaps – even more than with casual fans – since the Whitecaps should know better.
The minute Messi joined Inter Miami in 2023, fans in Vancouver likely started anticipating the possibility he might visit. It would have sold out regardless of how it was advertised. But because some fans felt like they were duped, they called up their lawyers.
Ultimately, the Whitecaps’ error was they decided to sell the players of the match, rather than the match itself. And they, more so than the fans, should have known better not to do that.
