{"id":34142,"date":"2026-05-10T17:33:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T15:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=34142"},"modified":"2026-05-10T17:33:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T15:33:36","slug":"toronto-draw-record-crowd-against-messis-inter-miami-in-world-cup-dress-rehearsal","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/toronto-draw-record-crowd-against-messis-inter-miami-in-world-cup-dress-rehearsal\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto draw record crowd against Messi’s Inter Miami in World Cup dress rehearsal"},"content":{"rendered":"
Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC attracted their largest attendance at BMO Field in the club’s history on Saturday for a clash with Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami that served as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup \u200bmatches being held at the venue.<\/div>\n
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Nearly 45 000 fans, many in Miami’s pink and black colours and Argentina\u2019s \u200cblue and white, packed into the World Cup\u2019s smallest venue to see the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, giving the city a taste of what’s to come when it hosts six matches.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThis weekend will serve as a real life test run with a number of high attendance sporting events in \u200btown,\u201d Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said on Friday, also referring to a pair of Toronto Blue Jays games \u200band the Sporting Life 10K event.<\/div>\n
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The allure of Messi, who scored in Miami\u2019s 4-2 win, helped \u2060draw a crowd of 44 828 that offered Toronto services a chance to see how they will perform with similar large crowds, \u200bfrom getting fans in and out of the stadium to transit operations.<\/div>\n
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BMO Field security was put to the test on Saturday \u200bwhen several pitch invaders tried to race across the field hoping to reach the 38-year-old Argentine as the clock wound down.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThis weekend\u2019s match is a valuable opportunity for city divisions, emergency services, transit agencies, venue operators and other partners to work together in a live event setting, to \u200btest and refine as required before the matches begin,\u201d Sharon Bollenbach, executive director of the World Cup 2026 Toronto Secretariat, said \u200bin a statement to Reuters.<\/i><\/div>\n
The World Cup is expected to bring more than 300 000 visitors to Toronto, the city has previously said.<\/div>\n
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Saturday’s match \u200cwas Toronto \u2060FC’s final outing at BMO Field before the June 11-July 19 tournament.<\/div>\n
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The stadium had a $158 million facelift that added 17 000 temporary seats behind the goals to meet World Cup capacity standards. The seating was used for the first time on Saturday.<\/div>\n
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The steep stands drew criticism online in March over the safety of the scaffolding, with one person writing on X: \u201cJust saw a photo \u200bof BMO\u2019s temporary seating. Respectfully, you \u200bcouldn\u2019t pay me to \u2060climb, stand or sit on that.\u201d<\/div>\n
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But the temporary seats did not appear to be an issue for fans on Saturday, with some in the highest back rows opting to stand with their \u200bbacks against the railings to watch the match and take in the views of Lake \u200bOntario after the \u2060final whistle.<\/div>\n
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Metrolinx, which runs the city’s GO train service, said in a statement on Wednesday it was using the match as a \u201creadiness test\u201d with more frequent service to the station near BMO Field for games plus extra safety and crowd management measures.<\/div>\n
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The World Cup, \u2060co-hosted by \u200bCanada, the United States and Mexico, is expected to bring approximately half a \u200bmillion additional riders on its services, Metrolinx said on Friday.<\/div>\n
Canada open their World Cup campaign against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the BMO Stadium on June 12. They \u200balso face 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar and Switzerland in Group B.<\/div>\n
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–Reuters–<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14870,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-34142","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The allure of Messi scored in Miami\u2019s 4-2 win.","published_date":"","news_description":"The allure of Messi scored in Miami\u2019s 4-2 win.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34166,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34142\/revisions\/34166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}