‘They signed Messi, and all hell broke loose.’ A look at how the Argentine changed MLS

Dave Zighelboim will never forget June 7, 2023, the day Argentine soccer icon Lionel Messi announced he was signing with Inter Miami.

As president of Miami-based Soccer Locker, which has been selling soccer supplies and apparel for 42 years, Zighelboim was having a hard time moving Inter Miami merchandise.

“I had tons of product because the team was losing and their stuff wasn’t selling much,” Zighelboim said. “Then they signed Messi, and all hell broke loose.”

Within hours of Messi’s announcement, customers began showing up at Soccer Locker’s Pinecrest store and calling on the phone seeking Messi jerseys. Nearly five months later, the Messi No. 10 Inter Miami shirts, especially the pink ones, are still flying off the racks. Zighelboim has seen a 20 percent increase in business and loaded up on every Messi shirt he can find for the holiday season.

Brian Berklich can relate. He is the chief marketing officer of soccer.com, the largest soccer specific retailer in the United States, which began 40 years ago as a mail-order catalog. He said Messi’s pink No. 10 exploded immediately and has been the site’s No. 1 selling jersey for the past four months.

“Before that time, Inter Miami would not have been in our top 20, the top sellers were jerseys from the typical global powerhouses like Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG; so, for a U.S. club to land in that spot was groundbreaking,” Berklich said. “That top spot has never been held by a player actively playing for a U.S.-based club.

“When David Beckham came to MLS (2007) there was a lot of interest and excitement domestically, but what we’re seeing now with Messi … there’s no parallel in recent history.”

Messi merchandise will likely get another bump next week, as he is expected to win his record eighth Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball) trophy for world’s top player when the award is announced in Paris on Monday. In addition to his contributions on the field, the World Cup champion has proven to have a Midas touch on the commercial side.

Although Messi has been with Inter Miami just four months, he has already had a massive impact on home and road attendance, ticket prices, merchandise sales, team social media followers and TV viewership.

“People ask me, ‘Has Messi affected your business?’ and I say, ‘Absolutely! I’m having a World Cup year, and it’s all because of one guy,’ ” Zighelboim said.

Fifty percent of Soccer Locker’s customers are tourists, and there has been a major shift in their shopping habits.

“They’re not buying Barcelona, Manchester United and Man City right now; they’re coming from Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Brazil, Colombia to buy Inter Miami jerseys,” Zighelboim said. “That’s been the biggest shocker. A person from El Salvador who couldn’t care less about Inter Miami four months ago, now with Messi, they all want the Messi jersey. Subsequently, that has destroyed my business of all the other jerseys. I’m not selling Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool. I’m not selling anything but Inter Miami and maybe Real Madrid.”

Messi’s shirt became the most sold jersey of 2023 within 45 minutes of his jersey launch on MLSStore.com, the league’s retail site, and became the most sold jersey in the history of MLSStore.com within three days. Inter Miami also set an MLSStore.com all-time unit and revenue record this season, despite being near the bottom of the standings all year.

“Almost instantly on the day he announced, people started coming to the store asking: ‘Do you have the Messi jersey?’ and the crazy thing is that there was no Messi jersey yet,” Zighelboim said. “When Messi signed nobody was prepared merchandise-wise. Adidas was not prepared, the distributors and retailers were not prepared because this business is based on booking futures, so we buy eight to 10 months in advance.

“But because we are based in Miami, we had the plain Inter Miami jersey in stock, and I buy the official team name sets, the letters and the numbers. So, boom, we just started putting ‘Messi’ and ‘10’ on everything. It was an explosion. It was unbelievable.”

Here is a look at how else the Messi Phenomenon impacted the soccer landscape in America:

ATTENDANCE

Inter Miami led all MLS teams with a home attendance increase of 40 percent, from an average of 12,637 fans per game at DRV PNK Stadium last season to 17,698 this season.

Inter Miami also became the first MLS team to average more than 30,000 fans per game on the road with an average of 30,834. Its six away league games after Messi joined the team — the Argentine played in three of them — averaged 45,764 fans. The MLS average attendance was 22,111 this season.

The Chicago Fire drew a record crowd of 62,124 at Soldier Field for the game against Inter Miami and averaged crowds of 15,422 against everyone else. As it turned out Messi did not play in that game due to injury, but more than 50,000 fans had already purchased tickets months in advance and most of them showed up anyway in Messi shirts.

Messi is a big reason Charlotte FC had 66,101 fans at the season finale after averaging 34,476 for other games. Atlanta United, which leads MLS with 47,526 average attendance, drew 71,635 for the game Messi was supposed to play but did not as a last-minute scratch due to injury.

Several teams had a bump in their average attendance directly after the Miami/Messi match. The biggest increases were Chicago (+2,931), Charlotte (+1,860), Atlanta (+1,675).

TICKET PRICES

The average Inter Miami game ticket soared from $152 to $935 shortly after his arrival. Before Messi, the cheapest seats, behind the goals, went for $40. They were listed as high as $400 for his debut against Mexican club Cruz Azul on July 21.

The average ticket for the Miami at Los Angeles FC game on Sept. 3 was selling for more than $600, a 500 percent increase from the $110 average MLS ticket pre-Messi. Tickets at Red Bull Arena that went for $36 jumped to $500 for the game against Messi/Miami.

The addition of Messi, whose $20.4 million salary is more than the entire payroll of 25 of 29 MLS teams, is reflected in the steep price hike for Inter Miami season tickets for 2024. The cheapest ticket package pre-Messi was $484 for 17 games ($28.50 per game). That same season ticket will cost $884 next season ($52 per game).

Meanwhile, a $3,600 ticket in the lower-level midfield club section in 2023 is now going to cost $7,650, or $450 per game. Those seats include access to a lounge area with premium food and beverage options. Premium lounge packages are being advertised as high as $45,900.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Before Messi joined the team, Inter Miami had 1 million Instagram followers (largely due to Beckham being co-owner). The club now has 15.3 million, more than all U.S. pro sports teams except the Golden State Warriors (32 million) and L.A. Lakers (23.5 million).

Messi has 490 million Instagram followers, second among athletes only to Cristiano Ronaldo (609 million). The second-biggest following for an MLS player is Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez with 6.1 million.

FAMOUS FANS

Among the celebrities who showed up to see Messi at MLS venues: Prince Harry, Serena Williams, LeBron James, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, Owen Wilson, Selena Gomez, Gloria Estefan, Magic Johnson, Will Farrell, Jaime Camil, Jason Sudeikis, Usain Bolt, Tom Holland, Toby Maguire, James Harden, Tyga.

TV VIEWERSHIP

Apple TV does not release viewership numbers, but according to analytics firm Antenna, Apple had 1,690 percent growth in sign-ups for its MLS Season Pass streaming service the day of Messi’s Inter Miami debut. Antenna reported that subscriptions went up 110,000 and Sports Business Journal reported a gain of 300,000 for the month of July, bringing the total to 1 million.

Messi’s Leagues Cup debut in Inter Miami vs. Cruz Azul (1.75M) was the most-watched linear telecast featuring an MLS club in Spanish language of all time (back to 1996). It was the second most-watched Spanish language club soccer telecast played in the U.S. behind Chivas vs. Barcelona at Soldier Field in 2008 (1.93M).

Looking ahead, the Messi impact is expected to continue. Berklich and Zighelboim both are preparing for heavy demand over the holidays and well into the new year. A new adidas pink Inter Miami jersey is in the works for early 2024, which will likely create another frenzy. Zighelboim added that behind Messi, the next two top sellers are Inter Miami teammates Benjamin Cremaschi and Leo Campana.

“Prior to Messi, parents were reluctant to buy their kids the pink shirts,” Zighelboim said. “Dads would say, ‘My kid’s not wearing pink.’ Now, that’s all they want. Pink. For them and their kids. Because that’s what Messi wore. The black shirt outsold the pink 10 to 1 before Messi got here, and now it’s totally flipped. That’s Messi Mania.”