Messi hasn’t played on turf. Charlotte FC won’t swap. Could that change in October?
Charlotte FC plans on playing the rest of its 2023 home regular-season MLS matches on turf — even, perhaps, the most important one of all.
Charlotte is scheduled to play at Bank of America Stadium on Oct. 21 against Inter Miami, the new home of World Cup champion and all-time great Lionel Messi. But the team has no plans to install natural grass for the contest.
“All of our Major League Soccer matches are scheduled to be played on turf,” a Charlotte FC spokesperson said via emailed statement to The Charlotte Observer, “and there is no plan to change to natural grass.”
The statement is an interesting one considering the 36-year-old left-footed legend has almost exclusively played on grass throughout his career, and thus not changing the surface for him potentially risks his willingness to play.
Messi has not yet explicitly said he wouldn’t play on artificial turf. He has not granted an interview with local or national media since his arrival in the States.
In a recent interview with Don Garber, the MLS commissioner stated that the decision for changing artificial turf for natural grass falls on the club.
There are only six MLS teams that play home matches on turf. Charlotte FC is one of them. Atlanta United FC is another, and the squad said Wednesday that it has no plans to install a natural-grass pitch when the Argentine star comes to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sept. 16.
“That’s going to be the decision of every club when they travel to those stadiums that don’t have natural grass,” Garber told The Miami Herald and a small group of other outlets. “My expectations are that’s what they will do, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to figure all of that out. As you know, MLS promotes a lot of international games. We have been able to bring natural grass into those stadiums, but we’ve never done that for regular-season game.”
Messi’s agreement to come to Inter Miami sent shockwaves across the world’s most popular sport — and that impact certainly made its way to the Queen City. Just hours after Messi’s arrival news circulated, Charlotte FC resale ticket prices jumped to astronomical numbers for a seat in the lower level, the Observer previously reported.
The team shortly thereafter announced that it would open up the upper deck on Oct. 21 for Messi’s arrival. Tickets, which are still available for purchase, now range from $2,500 for the best seats in the lower level to $150 for the cheapest seats in the upper level, per TicketMaster.com.
Bringing in natural grass to Bank of America Stadium isn’t unprecedented. The stadium saw grass installed earlier this month when a pair of CONCACAF Gold Cup matches were played in the uptown Charlotte venue. Charlotte FC also played on grass on a magical night last summer — when the team defeated Chelsea in penalty kicks in an inter-league exhibition match.
Michelle Kaufman of The Miami Herald contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 21, 2023 at 6:30 AM.
