The impact of Lionel Messi on Major League Soccer can be quantified in multiple ways. Subscribers to MLS Season Pass doubled in the two months after the Argentine’s arrival at Inter Miami in July. Inter Miami had around 1 million Instagram followers when Messi joined – now they have over 15 million. The South Florida club have also sold out their season tickets for 2024 – and at nearly double the price.
By Graham Ruthven, MLS Expert
Messi has changed the landscape in MLS, but the league must ensure his impact is a lasting one. MLS must use the presence of the greatest football player in history to change the sport in the United States forever. Inter Miami’s signing of Messi was big, but what happens next will be even more significant.
Many club owners want MLS’s roster rules and transfer restrictions to be loosened. Stung by the collapse of the NASL in the 1980s, MLS has exercised financial caution as it has grown since its inception in 1996. Now, though, that caution is holding the league back from fulfilling its true potential as one of the best leagues in the world.
Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas is reportedly pushing for an expansion of MLS’s salary cap which would allow clubs to spend more freely. At present, teams are permitted three Designated Players outside the salary cap, but some speculate the roster allowance could be raised to four or five DPs. Others want rid of the league’s roster rules entirely.
This, however, would eliminate the parity that makes MLS so unpredictable. FC Cincinnati went from the league’s worst team to Supporters’ Shield winners in just two seasons while Toronto FC finished rock-bottom despite having the biggest wage bill in MLS. There are no guarantees season-to-season.
MLS has a difficult balance to strike between allowing clubs to build winning teams and preventing the league from becoming a one or two-horse race, like so many of Europe’s ‘Big Five’ leagues. Nonetheless, there is a sense that Messi’s arrival has highlighted the need to loosen the purse strings.
Commissioner Don Garber recognises that signing Messi alone won’t turn MLS into one of the best leagues in the world. “We’ve had so many great players in the history of our league. It’s not just about that one player,” he said. “It’s about: How do you feel about your club, and can that player give you something that might make it a little more special?”
In terms of attendances and fan culture, there’s no denying the strides MLS has made over the last decade or so. It is now the eighth best attended league in the world, averaging 21,034 fans per match last season, with fanbases across the USA and Canada renowned for the atmosphere they create.
Garber is right to highlight this as the true driving force behind the growth of MLS. How many of the Messi fans who have snaffled tickets to see the man himself play for Inter Miami, either at DRV PNK Stadium or an away stadium, feel a genuine connection to what they watched on the pitch? How many of them will be back when Messi moves on or calls it a day?
New fans of the league will only stick around if they are shown MLS is about more than just Messi, highlighting just how important it is for the league to capitalise on this opportunity. This isn’t the time for MLS to rest on its laurels and Inter Miami have set the precedent by building out their squad as a whole.
Messi wasn’t the only game-changing signing made by Inter Miami over the summer. Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba joined their former Barcelona teammate in South Florida to add even more star power to Tata Martino’s team, but the addition of youngsters like Diego Gomez, Facundo Farias and Tomas Aviles were just as significant.
These signings said Inter Miami recognised the need to balance their squad. Messi, Busquets and Alba still have the talent that made them legends, but they’re well into the twilight of their respective careers. To play a dynamic, high-energy game Martino needed some youth who could give his team legs and Inter Miami found that.
Luis Suárez’s expected arrival in South Florida this off-season runs the risk of making Inter Miami too top-heavy, but Martino is one of the best coaches in MLS and already has a solid team structure to build around. Suárez’s signing could be the thing that makes Inter Miami a Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup frontrunner in 2024.
16 years ago, David Beckham changed the game in MLS. The league created an entirely new rule to allow the LA Galaxy to sign him and used Beckham’s arrival to mark the start of a new era for football in the USA. Messi’s arrival could have a similar impact, but only if MLS allows it to. The hard work has only just started.
(Images from IMAGO)
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