Lionel Messi has just added another award to his vast treasure trove: Best Athlete of 2023 voted by Time magazine. It was a reward for the Argentine superstar who, after convincing the world that he was the greatest player on the planet with his 8th Golden Ball, created a fever in America, sweeping the country of basketball, rugby, baseball into a sport called football.

Messi’s impressive moments at Inter Miami. Photo: Getty Images

Statistics show that the number of spectators attending Inter Miami’s home stadium has increased by 40%, the largest spike in the tournament. Inter Miami also became the first MLS team to average 30,000 away fans. This also leads to a sharp increase in revenue, expected to reach 200 million USD in 2024, 3 times higher than before.

Messi’s presence also benefits the rest of the tournament. Dan Hunt, President of FC Dallas, said that the match against Inter Miami was “the club’s highest-grossing night of all time”, or that the number of spectators coming to Soldier Field to watch the match between Chicago Fire and Inter Miami reached A record number of 62,124 people, many times higher than the average number of 15,422. MLS also happily said that Messi’s shirt is the most sold shirt in the tournament’s history.

Messi’s debut, alongside the owners of Inter Miami. Photo: Getty Images

And according to analytics firm Antenna, on the day Messi made his Inter Miami debut, Apple added about 110,000 subscribers to its MLS Season Pass service, the biggest single-day spike ever and more 1,700% compared to the previous day. These numbers show the investment of Inter Miami, MLS and even Apple, the league’s partner, is willing to share a portion of the revenue from MLS Season Pass subscriptions on Apple TV+.