Jayme, Caroline, and I took a (really) quick trip down to Miami to see Messi and Inter Miami play Nashville. Given his recent retirement from international soccer, and everything that’s going on in his life, I wanted to make sure I saw him at home in Miami before he retires from soccer altogether.
I had two distinct feelings about our experience:
- For a destination venue, Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium blows Nu Stadium out of the water. For food variety alone, it is WAY better. At the same time, for watching the actual match, the more intimate feel of a 26,700 seat arena really makes the game come alive. Not that’s it’s bad at the Benz (not at all), but you are much closer to the players and the action. It really reminded me of our trip to Wrexham (albeit The Racecourse Ground is much smaller than even Nu Stadium).
- Miami (the city) continues to be a…disappointment(?). It’s prepetually a city that is not as nice as you want it to be. It seems like it’s never done. Never complete. But it also seems to be perfectly ok with not being done. Not providing a polished experience. Maybe that perspective was heightened because we limited ourselves to the area right around the airport and stadium (for convenience, to be honest).
Anyway, it’s exactly the experience I wanted. I got to see Messi play (and score) at least one more time in person. And I got to visit Miami’s new stadium. Mission accomplished!
P.S. One thing the Benz has going for it is it’s indoors. I spent way too much brain power on worrying/planning for potential rain durting the game. That’s something I never have to worry about in Atlanta. (Also, I might be a bit spoiled 😄)
