Fans flock to Messi’s Santana Row hotel as Messi-mania comes to San Jose

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — It’s more than 24 hours ahead of visiting team Inter Miami’s clash with the San Jose Earthquakes and fans are already camping out at the hotel where global superstar Lionel Messi is staying. Messi, a World Cup winner with Argentina, is staying with the team at the Valencia Hotel in San Jose’s Santana Row.

It’s unusual for a regular-season Major League Soccer match to be the hottest ticket in town — even the same week as a Golden State Warriors playoff game. But such is the impact of Messi mania.

The former Barcelona forward and his teammates arrived in the South Bay on Sunday ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with the Quakes at PayPal Park. Tickets for the match sold out almost as soon as they became available.

However, even on the resale market, the cheapest seat in the stadium for Wednesday’s match is $408.

On Tuesday morning, hopeful fans hovered outside the team hotel, hoping to catch a glimpse of the veteran Argentine No. 10. One fan KRON4 spoke to described the atmosphere outside Messi’s hotel as “a party.”

Miami come into Wednesday’s match sitting in fourth place in the MLS Eastern Conference. San Jose, meanwhile, sit in seventh place in the Western Conference standings. Messi, an eight-time Ballon d’or winner, leads the scoring for Miami this season with five goals.

The good news for local fans, is that that’s one fewer than leading Quakes scorer, Josef Martinez who’s netted six on the season for San Jose.