Lionel Messi bounced from MLS play-offs but league feels the boost
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Inter Miami's Lionel Messi will not win the Major League Soccer title this season but he has massively boosted the league in terms of visibility.
PHOTO: AFP
NEW YORK – Lionel Messi's first trip to the Major League Soccer (MLS) play-offs ended in shock disappointment but the World Cup winner has injected new life into Inter Miami and the North American top flight, even as he finishes his first full season without the league title.
Miami had the best regular season in MLS history with a record 74 points, but they could not keep up the momentum and were stunned by Atlanta United in the play-offs on Nov 9.
It was bad news for those hoping to cash in on Messi reaching the finale, including Apple TV, who signed a blockbuster streaming deal with the league in 2022, and for broadcaster Fox, who will also air the Dec 7 match.
But the 37-year-old has more than proven his worth for the league and his team, experts say, at a vitally important time for the sport in North America where the World Cup will be staged in 2026.
“Messi has been the type of boost that MLS has needed,” said Andrew Zimbalist, a professor at Smith College and co-author of National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer.
“The special thing about Messi is that he is one of the top five soccer players of all time and even though he is now 37, he still can play, or at least have spurts of truly dominant soccer.”
Despite the weekend’s setback, Miami will still compete in the expanded 32-team Club World Cup, which will be held in 2025 in the United States.
The club co-owned by David Beckham were awarded a spot reserved for the host nation after they won the MLS Supporters’ Shield, which is given to the MLS side with the best regular-season record.
The league announced in October an attendance record of more than 11 million fans across the regular season and Miami told ESPN that they had nearly doubled their revenue since Messi signed in July 2023.
Apple said that Messi’s play-off debut was its most-streamed sporting event ever.
There were 72,610 fans packed into Arrowhead Stadium, home of the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs, when Miami came to town to play Sporting Kansas City in April.
It was the fourth-largest standalone crowd in the league’s history, MLS said.
“Messi carries with him a different vibe than past superstars, who made many fans feel as if they were embarking on a US farewell tour of sorts,” said David M. Carter, principal of the Sports Business Group and an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina.
“Messi helped demonstrate to the world that MLS remains serious about improving its global credibility and competitiveness.” REUTERS
