YOU could put your house on Lionel Messi being a sensation in the USA.
Or you could BUY one for the cost of a ticket to see his Inter Miami debut.
The most expensive tickets to see Lionel Messi’s first game for David Beckham’s Inter Miami are way tattoo much for average fansCredit: instagram
Maybe you’d choose to have the world in the palm of your hand with amazing stop-overs if you splashed out for a nine-month cruiseCredit: Getty
Some homes close to the Morecambe seafront are going for around £81kCredit: Alamy
You could take a Cab ride for life rather than buy a Messi debut ticket if you bought this BMW M4 CabrioletCredit: Handout
Some fans are paying $110,000 (£84k) to watch Messi at home to Mexican team Cruz Azul in the first round of the 2023 Leagues Cup on Friday.
David Beckham’s capture of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner on a free transfer from PSG is the greatest coup ever for Major League Soccer.
And it could make the largest sporting dent in the bank balances of a few super-rich supporters.
Friday’s average entry price is $487 (£352) but a survey by CNN Business of ticket-selling website Vivid Seats discovered fans coughing up, for just one ticket, the equivalent of two years’ pay for a typical American.
So instead of splashing out £84k to watch Argentinian World Cup winner Messi, what could you buy instead?
Sporting options include 785 tickets (available from £326 each to £755) to watch his old club Barcelona take on Real Madrid in the El Clasico.
More incredibly, you could buy 9,349 tickets for Oleksandr Usyk’s world heavyweight boxing title unification fight with Brit Daniel Dubois in Poland on August 26 – because prices start at £9.
That’s enough to take virtually all of Luton Town’s average home crowd in the Championship last season (9,854) fans to celebrate promotion to the Premier League.
And if you’re the type of person who likes to feel safe and secure, rather than excited and awe-inspired, you could fund a whole year of private security.
Not only that, you can chuck in a mid-range Rolex watch with the spare change – to check that your personal guard arrives on time.
But what of the “classic” big spends – home, super-car and holiday?
The price of a ticket goes a long way – and indeed for a long time, if you fancied a cruise.
You could join legendary boxer Tyson Fury as a resident of Morecambe on the North West coast of England.
Among the cheapest places to buy a home in the UK are Middlesbrough, with an average price of £55k, Bradford at £59k and £65k for Sunderland.
But if you’d prefer a one-bedroomed home that, in the words of the estate agents, is “close to stunning views of the Bay”, they are on the market in Morecambe for around £81k.
“Close” in this case must be the naked truth because one such “Victorian terraced house” is in Park Street, BARE.
If, on the other hand, you’d prefer a car to parade yourself along that seafront – or zoom along the famous Route 66 through Miami to buy an AVERAGE-PRICED ticket to see Inter – how about doing it in a BMW M4 Convertible?
Tickets for Ukrainian’s Oleksandr Usyk’s title fight with Brit Daniel Dubois in Wroclaw, Poland, on August 26 range from £9 (11 euros)Credit: Richard Pelham / The Sun
Messi fever has erupted in Miami following the legend’s signingCredit: instagram @ intermiamicf
You could pay a knock-down price for a seaside home in Morecambe and bump into knock-out star Tyson Fury, who lives near the bayCredit: Twitter @Tyson_Fury
You’d get the same fresh air on your face as if you paid the same sum of £84k for the top ticket.
AND you could probably keep cruising in it for well past the rest of 36-year-old Messi’s playing days.
You’d just have to negotiate down the £89k asking price – or perhaps save money with the £83k BMW 4 Series Coupe.
Of course, you might decide that, if you are diverting the cash from a luxury purchase to see Messi, then the alternative should also be an opulent treat.
For a similar outlay, you could tour the world on a high-class cruise for the length of a football season – nine months.
Royal Caribbean are offering a 274-night voyage with 150 glamorous stops around the globe.
About £64k gets you a “Balcony Stateroom” for one person – which, as we all know, is far superior to an “Interior Stateroom” (£46k) and even an “Ocean View” one (£50k).
Taxes, fees and port expenses come to an extra £4k.
So that leaves you a paltry £16k spending money for nine months … unless you “pushed the boat out” to pay over £90k for a Junior Suite.
Seaside home, supercar, nine-month luxury cruise, or a ticket to watch Messi in Miami?
As the great man himself must have thought when he rejected hundreds of millions in Saudi Arabia in favour of joining Becks, it’s a tough choice but someone has to make it.
Some might opt for a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Pearlmaster 39, which at around £64k would still leave you enough cash left over for a family car with your £84k