Inter Miami’s new stadium to have Nubank as naming rights partner

Inter Miami and Lionel Messi will open their new home on April 4, and the stadium now has a naming rights partner.

Nubank, a digital bank that operates in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, reached a long-term naming rights agreement with the club as it looks to move into the U.S. market.

The new stadium at Miami Freedom Park, part of a broader 131-acre development, will serve as Inter Miami’s permanent home from this year, marking a significant milestone in the club’s journey. The club previously played its home matches at Chase Stadium.

With 131 million customers in Latin America, Nubank was seen as an ideal partner for a club that has become a global brand thanks to the influence of Messi, its Argentinian star, Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas said.

“Since we signed Leo Messi, since we really focused on taking Inter Miami global, we have entered into every single partnership and every single partnership category with elite brands, where we could add value,” Mas told The Athletic.

“If we cannot add value in a relationship, then we won’t pursue them. When we looked at the stadium naming rights partner, and there was extreme demand to be our stadium naming rights partner, we wanted a partner that: one, shared our mindset and philosophy of being global; and two, of being disruptive in whatever space that they are engaged and involved in.

“In this case, obviously, what Nubank has done has been to disrupt banking and personal finance in, first, their home country of Brazil, and what they’ve done in Mexico, and now they’re going to be entering the U.S. market. So it fits a profile of a firm and a company that does things like Inter Miami does.”

The agreement comes at a time in which Nubank filed for, and received conditional approval for, a federal bank charter to operate in the U.S. as it looks to expand into the American market.

As part of the agreement, Nubank will also be Inter Miami’s back of jersey sponsor, a new asset introduced by MLS this year. Inter Miami’s pink shirts, buoyed by Messi’s enormous international appeal, have been one of the most sold jerseys in global soccer.

Nubank will also anchor two premium spaces in the stadium.

Cristina Junqueira, co-founder, and CEO of Nu’s emerging U.S. business, said in a phone interview with The Athletic that during discussions with Inter Miami she was in Vatican City at St. Peter’s Basilica and saw a family there with all three kids wearing Messi’s pink jerseys.

“It’s a brand recognized all over the world,” Junqueira said.

“As we think about business, building a business in the United States, we we are going to have a tough time doing a lot of things…but the hardest thing that we’re going to do is building a brand in this country.

“It’s such a tough country from a marketing perspective, because it’s very competitive, it’s very expensive in media buying, people are fragmented, there’s a lot of competition for attention. So we knew that we’d have to find interesting, different ways, unique ways to start building our brand here.”

Junqueira added: “And it just so happens that Inter Miami sits at the intersection of everything great and that matters to us. They’re, of course, a soccer team, and soccer is growing so much in the U.S., especially this year with the World Cup coming here, so that’s a big tailwind for the sport.

“But even before the World Cup, it’s a sport that has been growing in all the right demographics. It’s been growing younger, it’s been growing more affluent, it’s been growing for families, for more international families. And then, of course, Inter Miami is in a league in and of itself, with the top players in the world. It’s a global franchise.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, however both Junqueira and Mas described it as a “long-term” partnership and a source indicated the deal will extend beyond Messi’s current contract, which runs through the 2028-29 MLS season.