Inter Miami, MLS Leaning on Messi Effect for 2024 Season

Major League Soccer kicks off the 2024 season on Wednesday with a match between Lionel Messi‘s Inter Miami FC and Real Salt Lake in Miami’s newly rechristened Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Ticket prices for Wednesday’s opener—which will be played with replacement officials as the Professional Soccer Referees Association announced a lockout of its members—are running as high as $5,400 in the secondary market.

While it’s too early to assess Messi’s long-term impact on the league, both Inter Miami and MLS are working to leverage the Argentine’s star power ahead of his first full season in the United States, through ticket sales, sponsorship, merchandising, broadcasting and a Drive to Survive-style reality show.

“We’re glad Lionel Messi, the best player of all time, chose to continue his career in MLS,” Camilo Durana, MLS’ EVP of Apple partnerships, properties & events, said in an email. “While we’re certainly focused on the opportunities that come with Messi, we’re equally focused on making sure new fans fall in love with the incredible clubs, players, supporters and communities that make MLS what it is.”

Since Messi’s stateside arrival in July, the demand to see the soccer star drew record ticket sales both for his team and its opponents. Inter Miami’s ticket sales have skyrocketed since Messi’s arrival, and fans have filled the 21,000-seat stadium whether Messi played or not. Last season, Chicago Fire’s Oct. 4 home game against Inter Miami drove record ticket revenue for the host, passing $9.5 million in ticket sales, according to someone familiar with the details.

Messi’s team is capitalizing on the demand this season. The club sold out of 2024 season ticket packages last November, and it added temporary seating over the offseason, raising newly renamed Chase Stadium’s capacity from 18,000 to 21,550. 

Leaguewide, season ticket sales are up 15% compared to 2023, MLS said, with season ticket revenue up 25%. Preseason ticket sales analyzed by the ticketing platform StubHub show that the sales have increased by seven times compared to last year, with sales for every team up from last season, fueled mostly by Messi. Inter Miami’s match against the LA Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park on Feb. 25 is the best-selling game of the season so far, according to StubHub.

“Kansas City is moving the game [against Inter Miami] to Arrowhead [Stadium, where the NFL’s Chiefs play]; you can see New York City FC or Red Bull, they are all doing campaigns around Messi,” Inter Miami’s chief business officer Xavier Asensi said. “It’s good for the league. It is not just Miami benefiting from it; other teams are benefiting, too. I’m sure that in Los Angeles, they’re super happy to have that game on Sunday.”

The Argentine’s impact goes beyond ticket sales, especially among Spanish-speaking audiences. MLS’ official broadcaster, Apple, does not share viewership numbers, but last year it reported Messi’s first week with Inter Miami—while the team was playing in the Leagues Cup—had the three most-watched games ever on MLS Season Pass. Messi’s MLS debut against Cruz Azul of Liga MX, which also aired on Univision, drew 1.75 million viewers.

The league said subscribers to MLS Season Pass on Apple TV have more than doubled since Messi’s arrival, and Spanish language viewership on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV has surpassed over 50% for his matches. Inter Miami’s first preseason game against El Salvador, where Messi played the first half of the match, generated the most single-day traffic in MLSSoccer.com’s history, the league said, with 49% of viewership on the site in Spanish via MLSes.com. The preseason match was broadcast on the league’s website instead of MLS Season Pass.

Additionally, demand from Spanish-speaking audiences prompted Apple to launch a new Spanish-language version of its studio show, MLS 360, with broadcaster Tony Cherchi and former soccer players Miguel Gallardo and Giovanni Savarese. 

Messi is propelling sponsorship and merchandise sales for his franchise and the league. Messi’s No.10 jersey was the best-selling jersey at MLSstore.com since the site launched in 2015.

In December, the South Florida franchise added Royal Caribbean as its front-of-jersey sponsor (the financial details of the deal were not disclosed), and the team expects sponsorship revenue to double in 2024 from $27 million last season.

“I can tell you that besides Barcelona’s, Man United’s, Real Madrid’s and some other deals, ours would be next [in terms of value],” Asensi said.

The league said sponsorship revenue is up 17%, and clubs’ sponsorship revenue is up 15% year-to-date over 2023. MLSstore.com’s sales are also up 44% from last year, and traffic on the site is up over 102% year-to-date compared to the previous year. 

According to Sportico’s latest valuations, Inter Miami is worth $1.02 billion, up 74% since 2022. The club’s 2023 revenue is an estimated $127 million, up from $55 million.

While the Messi-led growth strategy has risks—including overreliance on a single player’s star power and the potential for uneven attention across teams—the consensus is that his arrival has been a watershed moment for MLS.