Lionel Messi’s impact on Inter Miami seemingly knows no bounds as the football star is set to quadruple his turnover, the club’s commercial director said.
Since his arrival in mid-July, Messi, presumably offered a $60 million a year contract including new deals with Adidas and Apple, has taken Inter Miami by storm, scoring 11 goals in nine games, a fairytale win in the Leagues Cup, reaching the final of the US Open Cup, and his MLS debut.
But the reward of the Herons swoop for the World Cup winner extends beyond the confines of the pitch, with Messi undeniably the club’s greatest asset.
Inter Miami commercial director Xavier Asensi, who joined the club in 2021 after 11 years at Barcelona, claimed Messi’s arrival has boosted the club’s revenues to more than $200 million.
“This needs to be clarified: Leo’s arrival is mainly about winning on the pitch,” Asensi said. Mark.
Lionel Messi will quadruple Inter Miami’s revenue next year, claims the commercial director
Xavier Asensi, pictured left with David Beckham, joined in 2021 after 11 years at Barcelona
It is clear that Leo is the player with the most commercial sales in the world. Modric, Ramos, Griezmann or Busquets give you a push, but Leo is another dimension commercially, he is out of this world. To get an idea, in 2024 we will quadruple Inter’s revenue before Leo. There is a before and after Messi for Miami and for the whole of MLS.’
According to figures from Inter Miami, the company generated $56 million in 2022 Joe Pompliano, This means that if Asensi’s projection is correct, the club could see a huge windfall of $224 million in 2024.
And Inter Miami could already be feeling the economic benefits of the World Cup winner’s arrival, as Jorge Mas, majority owner of the Herons, told CNBC last month that he expected Messi to double the cub’s income to $110 million this year. .
Mas was a big driving factor in Inter Miami’s coup of Messi with his plan to sign the Argentine in 2020, Asensi revealed.
“When I arrived in Miami, I saw that Jorge Mas’s idea was to become the reference for football in North America. And even though football is business, it’s mainly about the players. When what’s happening inside is good, business is bigger. For this reason, there was no better case than Leo Messi, the all-time number one. And I told Mas if he was the man for the job. This was almost my first conversation with Jorge at the end of 2020.’
“When they threw him out of Barca, the door opened. If they hadn’t kicked him out, he’d still be there for sure. But the option opened up, and that’s where the rest of us came in. Then he went to Paris and until June 2023 we couldn’t do anything. It is true that everyone was looking at Saudi Arabia, but we kept working on ourselves and planned his arrival. I’ll give you a fact: if you look closely, no one played number 5 or number 10 in Miami…”
Inter Miami had to add about 3,000 seats to the DRV PNK Stadium to meet the demand of screaming fans who wanted to see the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner.
But Miami will get a bigger and better home to house their superstar with its 25,000-seat soccer-specific stadium in the proposed $1 billion Miami Freedom Park complex.
Beckham is pictured with majority shareholder Jorge Mas (left) and co-owner Jose Mas (right)
Inter Miami is expected to move into its new stadium, Miami Freedom Park, in 2025
Messi, David Beckham and co. will move into their new home in 2025 after playing at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida since Miami’s inaugural season in 2020.
“It will be next to the airport,” Asensi said. “Plans are to start construction in October this year, with 30,000 seats, plus a gigantic recreation area and a huge park.
“For now, we are managing Lionel’s size with what we have. On the other hand, it is a luxury to see Leo play there, on a site with only 21,000 spectators. It gives you magic that one in 50,000 doesn’t have.”
The target timeline for the new stadium matches the final year of Messi’s contract in 2025, after he joined the Herons in mid-July, but Asensi teased that the 36-year-old could stay in South Florida even longer.
“The idea is 2023, 2024 and 2025… or more. Hopefully it’s on,” he added. “There’s something incredible happening here: and it’s that one player, Leo, is bigger than a whole club or a whole league. There will be a new stadium; the 2026 World Cup is coming; than the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles… A lot will happen here.”
Inter Miami have been rocked by demand for tickets and shirts since Messi confirmed his MLS transfer.
Messi has already won the Leagues Cup final and booked a spot for the US Open Cup final
Young fans wear the superstar’s jersey ahead of Inter Miami’s victory over New York Red Bulls
Since the news broke, MLS e-commerce partner Fanatics has sold more team merchandise than in all of 2023, while Inter Miami was the company’s top-selling MLS club.
Asensi admitted it has been challenging to keep up with demand; jerseys with Messi’s name on the back are impossible to find in stores.
“There has been a tsunami, but the tsunami was Inter Miami, which flooded the MLS,” he said.
“I spent 11 years at Barca and everything was planned a year and a half earlier. Of course we ran out of time here. It was difficult to foresee this ‘Messimania’. A large amount of product will arrive in October and we have already made good predictions worldwide for 2024.’