The arrival of Lionel Messi to Inter Miami CF less than six months after claiming his first FIFA World Cup title with Argentina has captivated long-time soccer fans and welcomed new ones. As Inter Miami heads into the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final for a chance to secure the club’s second trophy, the spectacle of Messi Mania is one part of a greater, long-term vision that Inter Miami ownership is instilling in the club and its communities: the Freedom To Dream.
“So many people are of course coming to see Messi at DRV PNK Stadium and around the country, and they are watching on Apple TV from around the world. This has always been part of the design. But there is more to it,” says Inter Miami Chief Business Officer Xavier Asensi.
Inter Miami’s journey over the past two months has been filled with many highs and highlights. If it was a Hollywood movie, “you would watch it, but you would not like it very much because you would think, ‘Things don’t usually happen like this in life, they are not this perfect,’” Asensi said. “But here we have something that everyone is enjoying because it is not a movie. It is a reality.”
One of those moments happened on an evening in the middle of August, when a sold-out crowd of 26,276 fans turned out to watch New York Red Bull playing host to Inter Miami. Millions more people were tuned in to televisions and personal devices streaming the MLS match on Apple TV+, and thousands crammed in front of a large screen above the main thoroughfare in New York City’s Times Square. In the 89th minute, with Inter Miami leading 1-0, the team executed a play that, in years to come, could be one of many labeled a defining moment in club history.
Messi initiated the play with some dribbling and then passed the ball to Robbie Robinson. Robinson, in turn, sent the ball back to Sergio Busquets, who lobbed a pass to Jordi Alba up the left wing. Alba leaped into the air and connected his foot with the ball for a volley directed precisely at Messi in the center. Messi dribbled one way, then spun around in the opposite direction and dribbled through three defenders before side-footing a pass to Benjamin Cremaschi, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere charging down the right wing. Cremaschi, with a defender on him, received the ball and centered it back to Messi, who was sprinting toward the net and finished the play with a touch for a score.
The Leagues Cup championship marking the first trophy in club history is meaningful in its own right. But in reaching the final of that tournament, Inter Miami also earned a spot in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup; the winner of that annual continental club football championship qualifies for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, which will feature 32 clubs that emerge from league competitions around the world. The team will have an opportunity to win another trophy when it hosts the final of the U.S. Open Cup, the oldest continuous national soccer competition in the United States. Meanwhile, Inter Miami is making a late-season run for a spot in the MLS playoffs.
Fans will soon have some access to seeing how it all transpired. Last month, Apple TV+ announced a six-part series that is the first and only behind-the-scenes account of Messi’s latest chapter. It follows the recent announcement of an Apple TV+ docuseries featuring Messi’s career with the Argentina national team and his five FIFA World Cup appearances, including the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 win. Again, “the reality has surpassed the fiction,” Asensi says, “and for this reason, the documentary is must-watch TV.”
All of this is part of the vision that Inter Miami owners Jorge Mas, Jose Mas, and David Beckham began converting into action in 2019, when they began assembling the personnel who would make up the front office departments for the club that was established the year prior. It laid a foundation for the decisions that are now being seen having an impact on key sports business metrics.
Tickets sales and attendance figures at both Inter Miami’s DRV PNK Stadium home and for the team’s away games around the country are among the most sought-after on the secondary market for sports and entertainment events, with prices rivaling those of the sold-out concert tours headlined by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Subscriptions to MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+ have more than doubled since mid-July, including Spanish-language viewership rising upwards of 50 percent. Inter Miami’s social media channels now tally more than 30 million followers across platforms, eclipsing the numbers held by all professional teams in the NFL, NHL, MLB, MLS, and NBA (except for the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers), and many major European football clubs. The demand for Inter Miami CF jerseys has team gear supplier Adidas logging a months-long backorder, despite increased production efforts.
Inter Miami’s recent rise is translating into financial gains that have the club projecting $200-million in revenue for the next year, marking an almost four-fold increase based on current figures. Ownership is projecting that the team’s valuation, most recently estimated by Forbes at $600 million, will more than double to about $1.5 billion within the next year. Ares Management has invested a total of $225 million during the past two years, including $75 million of fresh capital last month, aimed at supporting the growth of various parts of the Inter Miami business. Royal Caribbean, the locally-based global cruise industry enterprise, has joined as the club’s main partner and official vacation partner, adding to a cluster of organizations that Asensi says “provide an authentic partnership” focused on commitment to the community.
The club is also creating new types of partnerships. The newly-launched Major League Rugby franchise Miami Sharks will use Inter Miami’s state-of-the-art Florida Blue Training Center on a daily basis and play home games at the facility’s AutoNation Sports Field, which is set to undergo enhancements that include seating additions to accommodate about 5,000 fans. It is a collaboration that extends into introducing additional mutually-beneficial business partnerships, connecting with local community groups, and further advancing the South Florida sports landscape.
These achievements have Inter Miami putting even more pieces into place for the $1-billion, 131-acre stadium-led development project at Miami Freedom Park. The 25,000-seat soccer-specific venue is scheduled to open in 2025. Messi’s current playing contract happens to run through that season, the same year that the area is likely to host FIFA 2025 Club World Cup matches, a year ahead of it hosting FIFA 2026 World Cup matches, and two years in advance of potentially hosting FIFA 2027 Women’s World Cup matches should the sports mega-event be awarded to the U.S.-Mexico joint bid.
Messi’s equity stake in the ownership of Inter Miami positions him to remain an active and contributing part of the club even after his playing career ends. By then, Inter Miami will be that much further along in realizing its vision for club and community. Beyond the game-changer that is Messi Mania, there is the Freedom To Dream.
