Lionel Messi finally made his MLS debut last weekend against the NY Red Bulls.
While Messi has been playing since July for Inter Miami in the League Cup, he didn’t make his official regular season debut until the end of August.
Since the signing of Messi, Inter Miami has absolutely changed the league. His blockbuster deal has led to extra subscribers on Apple TV, increased ticket prices, and way more engagement on social media.
The Messi effect has changed Inter Miami as well, as they are projected to bring in $200 in revenue in 2024, more than triple the target set before Messi’s arrival.
Inter Miami Projects Revenue in 2024 at $200 Million
In 2022, Inter Miami reported revenue of $56 million. The league’s highest-earning club at the time was Atlanta United, which brought in a total of $103 million in revenue.
Now with Messi, Inter Miami is expected to be the highest-earning club by a wide margin with $200 million in revenue.
The projection would outpace the best single-year revenue for any team in the MLS history. In fact, Inter Miami will be among the world’s highest-earning soccer clubs.
Globally, there were only 33 teams with over $200 million in revenue in the 2021-2022 season. The list only includes one team from the Americas, Brazil’s Flamengo.
All it took was signing Messi to turn the last-ranked MLS team into one of the top-earning soccer teams in the world.
Last year, Inter Miami was valued at $585 million, good for 10th highest in the league. Now, the club’s valuation could reach $1.3-$1.5 billion next year.
Inter Miami Increases Revenue by 257% in Just One Year with Messi
Before even signing Lionel Messi, Inter Miami crafted sponsorship deals for built-for future success.
In the sponsorship contracts, Inter Miami has included clauses in some of their deals that increased payments to be made to the team if they signed players of Messi’s caliber. While the contract doesn’t mention Messi’s name, it does state signing players of multiple Ballon d’Or awards, which only two active players in the world have more than two: Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.
A lot of Inter Miami’s revenue increase comes from ticket sales and the corporate partnerships that they signed a few years ago.
Many of Inter Miami’s sponsorships are expected to expire at the end of the season, which could boost team revenue even further. With Messi under a 2-and-a-half-year deal, Inter Miami has a chance to maximize club value while he’s still under contract.
One of the deals set to expire is XBTO and Inter Miami will be looking for a new jersey partner which is expected to drive the club’s revenue to new heights.
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