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Soaring ticket prices and a social media

boom: How Lionel Messi has already had an
impact on US Soccer
By Matias Grez, CNN
Published 4:55 AM EDT, Wed June 14, 2023

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Lionel Messi's impact is already being felt in the US.

(CNN) — Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami is yet to be finalized, but already
his impact on Major League Soccer is being felt.

US soccer is no stranger to welcoming some of the sport’s biggest stars; David

Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney and even Pelé have played in the
States.

However, it’s possible that Messi will have a greater influence on the sport in
the US than any of the names that went before him.

As Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin said: “It’s the biggest day in
probably MLS history.”

Inter Miami has already benefited from a huge boost in

social media followers, while ticket prices all around the
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league are soaring as fans eagerly await Messi’s first visit
RELATED ARTICLE to play against their teams with his new club.
‘Messi mania’ in
China as fans But are the prices and level of interest sustainable in the
clamor for a
long term? Kieran Maguire, author of The Price of Football
glimpse of
Argentina star and a football finance lecturer at the University of Liverpool
Management School, expects them to eventually flatten out
again.

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“To a certain extent, it’s similar to what we were seeing with the prices for
NEWS & BUZZ
Arsenal’s tickets for their final home match of the season,” Maguire told CNN
Sport, in reference to the English team when it was leading the Premier Tennis great Martina
Navratilova
League last season. “When Arsenal were eight points ahead of Manchester
diagnosed with…
City, you had £50 tickets going on StubHub and similar for £1,000. throat and breast
cancer
“For those people who want to be able to say: ‘I was there at Lionel Messi’s Look of the Week:
first MLS game,’ demand will exceed supply. Hunter Schafer's
ethereal Oscars…
“He’s not playing at every ground in every week so I don’t see a huge ripple after-party look
effect and also I think there will be a sharp spike and then things will return to
some form of normality, especially if he doesn’t transform things for them.”

In the minutes after it was reported that Messi would be moving to the US,
ticket prices for Inter Miami matches soared by more than 1,000%.

According to resale website TickPick, the cheapest ticket for Inter Miami’s
Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul on July 21 – potentially Messi’s first
game with his new team – was just $29. How To Tighten Saggy Jowls
In the 24 hours after news of Messi’s pending move emerged, the cheapest Saggy skin? Throw away your
moisturizer and do this instead.
ticket was $329, TickPick said – a surge of 1,034%.
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The biggest increase, however, was for Miami’s game against the New York
Red Bulls, with ticket prices soaring by 1,236% for Messi’s first trip to the Big
Apple in August.

There has been a similar impact on StubHub, which has seen sales for Inter
Miami’s games from July until the end of the season increase 28 fold since
Messi’s deal was announced.

Other MLS teams have also enjoyed a boost in ticket sales; Miami’s game away
to Los Angeles FC has gone from the 15th highest-selling event in LAFC’s
season, StubHub said, to the second highest-selling event – and is on track to
be No. 1.

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George Tiedemann /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images

Before Messi, Pelé was arguably the most famous face to play soccer in the US.

Breaking America
Messi’s pending arrival at Inter Miami, which currently sits bottom of the MLS’
Eastern Conference, has already given a huge boost to the club’s global reach. [Photos] Her Dress At The Oscars Will
Be Spoken About For Centuries
Street Insider
Before the announcement, the club had around one million followers on
Instagram; as of June 13, it now has 7.8 million – more than every NFL, MLB,
NHL and MLS team account.

“Converting followers or monetizing followers is always a challenge,” Maguire

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“So it will help from that perspective, A) in terms of the
prices that Inter Miami can charge and B) with the number
of commercial partners, who all of a sudden they want
their product next to Lionel Messi.”
RELATED ARTICLE
Lionel Messi’s last
Of course, a large part of Messi’s remit in Miami will be to
game for Paris
Saint-Germain help boost interest in MLS and soccer in general in the
ends in defeat United States, as has been the case for every major star
since Pelé moved to the New York Cosmos in 1975 in what
was then the North American Soccer League.

While the Argentine won’t have to ‘crack America’ in the same way Beckham
was asked to, with the sport growing exponentially in both popularity and Advertisement Ad Feedback
value since Beckham moved to Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007, soccer could
certainly still do with an uplift in the US.

According to a Statista report from 2022, MLS still lagged behind the US’ four
other major sports leagues – the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB – in terms of
popularity among fans.

Maguire says part of Messi’s “objective” while in the US will just be to “keep
the trajectory growing” but believes soccer is “never going to break into” the
US sports scene.

“The NFL and NBA are part of the US culture and those cultural norms are so
established that there is no chance of soccer, football ever, ever competing
with them,” he explains.

“I think he will help the game to grow, we’ve got the 2026 World Cup taking
place in the USA, Canada and Mexico, but in my view there is a natural ceiling
for the MLS and he’s going to help the sport get to that ceiling that much
quicker, rather than being a disruptor or a challenger for the traditional big
sports in the States.”

While Inter Miami is unable to contend with the salaries on offer from Saudi
Arabia’s clubs, the reported structure of the deal means Messi’s earning
opportunities are much higher than his basic MLS salary.

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Inter Miami fans have had very little to cheer this season, sitting bottom of the Eastern Conference.

According to multiple reports, Messi’s new deal with Miami includes an option
for part-ownership of the club and a cut of revenue from new subscribers to
Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass streaming service.

Last year, MLS announced a 10-year deal with Apple to stream every US top-
flight men’s game worldwide.

This season, viewers can watch every MLS, Leagues Cup, MLS NEXT Pro and
MLS NEXT match through the men’s professional soccer league’s streaming
platform, which is available through Apple TV.

Apple recently dropped the price of a soccer subscription to $49 from $99 for
the remainder of the season. The company doesn’t disclose viewership
figures, but Apple SVP of services Eddy Cue recently said it’s doing “much
better than forecasted” for number of subscriptions and viewership numbers.

CNN has reached out to Major League Soccer, Inter Miami, Messi’s
representative, Apple and David Beckham, who is part of Inter Miami’s
ownership team, to confirm the financial details.

Despite that agreement, Maguire says he believes the offers from Saudi Arabia
would have still been “far more lucrative.”

“He’s been offered a nine-figure salary in the Middle East,” he says. “There’s
no way he’s going to be getting hundreds of millions [in Miami].”

Regardless of the details of the contract, Messi will have to perform on the
pitch for his stay in the MLS to remain relevant.

The Argentine has his work cut out, too, with Miami languishing bottom of the
Eastern Conference with the third-worst points total in the entire league.

But if there is one player who can turn around the fortunes of the club and the
MLS, it’s Messi.

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