Inter Miami bet that Lionel Messi would transform its flamingo logo into a globally recognised brand. But the backlash over the Argentine World Cup winner’s failure to play in a Hong Kong friendly match has shown the perils of pinning commercial dreams largely on one superstar.
The Florida football club, which counts former England captain David Beckham as a co-owner, beat Saudi Arabia to lure Messi to the US last July, a boost to a country that will co-host the Fifa World Cup in 2026.
Messi’s arrival was heralded as a seminal moment in the US’s conversion to the world’s favourite sport, following the arrival of Brazilian icon Pelé, who played in the US in the mid-1970s, the hosting of the 1994 World Cup, and Beckham’s own stint as a player in 2007.
Inter Miami, which is backed by investment group Ares Management and co-owned by construction billionaire Jorge Mas and his brother Jose, has emerged as a symbol of the convergence of sports, entertainment and finance.
But the club’s first international tour, a global opportunity made bigger by arguably the best player of all time, mutated into a mis-step that has shown the perils of the club’s dependence on Messi to attract crowds.
His failure to play in the friendly match on Sunday provoked a fierce backlash from fans in the stadium, the Hong Kong government and online commentators across China. Beckham, who thanked fans after the game, was drowned out by jeers from the crowd.
Tatler Asia, the luxury lifestyle publication that arranged the Hong Kong friendly, said on Friday it would partially refund ticket holders and could lose HK$43mn ($5.5mn) on the event. Inter Miami said in a statement it was “sorry” Messi and Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez had not played in Hong Kong, citing injuries.
Peter Schloss, managing director of CastleHill Partners, an Asia-based merchant bank focusing on media and sports, said “everybody” botched the tour and questioned how someone with Beckham’s experience of being the star attraction had allowed the situation to unfold.
“It’s a PR nightmare for the Beckham brand and for Inter Miami,” Schloss said, adding that the former England star should have known better than to put the team in such a position. “It is outrageous that he didn’t handle it better.”
In Messi, Inter Miami signed a star with the power to attract eyeballs all over the world to Apple TV, which had already agreed a 10-year deal worth $2.5bn to screen Major League Soccer matches globally.
Fans clamoured to buy Inter Miami’s distinctive black and pink jerseys, emblazoned with “Messi 10” on the back. Basketball star LeBron James and other US celebrities lined up to watch Messi’s debut last August, and were rewarded with a stoppage-time free-kick winner.
But with more than 1,000 matches under his belt, the task for the 36-year-old, eight-time Ballon d’Or winner is not just to provide magic moments but to preserve a body that has jinked and dribbled through defences all over the world. Injuries also disrupted Messi’s first season at Inter Miami.
“You already saw it during the MLS season. When Messi got hurt that created real problems,” said veteran football promoter Charlie Stillitano, an instrumental figure in exporting European football to the US.
“People forget these guys are not machines, they’re human beings,” he said.
Stillitano said Messi had changed how US fans watch the game, but warned injuries remained a risk.
“God forbid Lionel Messi gets hurt again. What happens to the league? What happens to Inter Miami? It really is reliant on one guy and I guess we haven’t seen that since Pelé, but it was a very different landscape then.”
The US is hungrier for football than when Pelé played for the New York Cosmos in the 1970s.
The English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and European competition organiser Uefa have landed deals with US broadcasters that are collectively worth billions.
The demand extends to American celebrities and billionaires, who are investing in a sport that historically struggled to gain traction in the country. European clubs, from Real Madrid and Barcelona to Chelsea and AC Milan, have attracted cash from US investors.
“Who’d think Tom Brady would buy a soccer team,” Stillitano said, referring to the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback’s investment in English club Birmingham City. “Iconic American sports figures are interested in soccer now because of Messi.”
Jack Boyle, a senior executive at ecommerce group Fanatics, which sells Inter Miami jerseys and other sports merchandise, said Messi’s impact on the club would outlast his playing career.
“Everything is becoming a much more global event,” Boyle said. “I think they’ll go from pre-Messi to post-Messi with a bigger fan base and brand.”
MLS denied the league was overly reliant on one man. Communications chief Dan Courtemanche pointed out that the league’s Apple deal and top 10 attendances predated Messi.
“The greatest player in the world wanted to make MLS his league of choice, a guy who could’ve played anywhere,” Courtemanche said. “The magnitude of his decision was monumental, but MLS had tremendous energy and momentum before Messi joined our league.”
The league is hoping a series of high-profile tournaments in coming years, including the Copa America and culminating in the World Cup, will continue to boost the sport.
For Stillitano, however, a “simple question” remains: “How reliant are we on one man? We won’t know until he’s gone.”
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