It’s Lionel Messi’s world; we’re all just lucky to live in it. That is not much of an exaggeration, and when you realize just what he’s meant to the Major League Soccer, the Inter Miami CF franchise, and the Miami economy, you’ll see what I mean.
In the first two games that he’s worn the pink uniform of his new team, he scored three goals, so he is going to thrive playing against a lower level of competition than he is used to.
But off the field, the color green is what Messi is really affecting.
Let’s start with the local Miami franchise he’s playing for. His presence has changed everything overnight. Case in point is Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas said he believes annual revenue could double this season just because of Messi—no other reason. But that’s nothing; Mas also speculated that his club’s valuation could increase by a billion dollars.
What? Could that be possible?
Take a look at his social media impact; in the last 30 days, Inter Miami added 11 million Instagram followers. So that means Inter Miami has more followers than every other MLS team combined. Let that sink in. And when it does, here’s another doozy; Inter Miami has the fourth most followers of any team in U.S. sports, eclipsing every NFL and MLB team.
That type of social media power means the team can cash in with big new corporate sponsorship deals.
Merch will be flying off the shelves, just like it did when he played for Barcelona, and reports say over 2 million shirts and jerseys with his number were sold each year.
Ticket prices for when Messi plays on the road will increase a hundredfold in some cases, and each stadium will be packed and rocking with excitement.
And Apple owes a big thank you to the soccer legend, too, considering they agreed to give Messi a cut of all new MLS Season Pass signups, and for most fans, this would be the only way for them to be able to watch Messi play without buying a ticket.
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