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Messi to Miami!!!!

 It was just reported by Fabrizio Romano with his infamous "Here we go" tagline that Lionel Messi has agreed to go to Inter Miami CF. There's still a ton of information regarding this contract that will be coming out in the next days, weeks, months but I have to imagine it is the most significant and complex contract for the most significant signing Major League Soccer has ever seen. 

Messi will be far from the first star to come to MLS. Those that have came before him include Inter Miami's co-owner David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Chicharito and Carlos Vela are some of the most significant names that come to mind. However we are talking about Lionel freaking Messi! Considered to be one of the greatest soccer players to ever live Messi turned down reportedly around $400M per season to join the Saudi league and turned down a reunion to Barcelona in favor of South Beach. 

Messi changes everything for Inter Miami and MLS. American soccer fans have filled up stadiums like the Citrus Bowl in Orlando for Chelsea-Arsenal and the historic Lambeau Field for Manchester City-Bayern Munich. Inter Miami would be throwing money down the drain by not moving all of their home games to Hard Rock Stadium for the rest of the season. Hard Rock holds 65,000 and their current home in Fort Lauderdale DRV PNK Stadium holds 18,000. If you average $65 per fan increase that's $3 million per game in potential lost revenue that they are going to need to pay this man's wage bill. 

On that note here are Miami's road games the rest of the season following League's Cup (I'm sure Messi will take his time to vacation, settle in, and get primed for the rest of the season): New York Red Bulls, Atlanta, Orlando, Chicago, and Charlotte. Luckily Chicago, Charlotte and Atlanta already play in large NFL stadiums. The Red Bulls should try to move their game to the Meadowlands and Orlando should try to shift their game to the Citrus Bowl. 

On top of the obvious potential commercial revenue between gate receipts and MLS Season Pass subscriptions Messi now makes MLS more compelling. Players considering MLS are going to want to play with and compete against Messi. Maybe this opens the door for MLS to get into European competitions. UEFA has already flirted with the idea of playing a Champions League final in the United States, but you would have to assume that they would be very intrigued at the idea of getting American clubs involved in the competition. 

If this Inter Miami squad can get and stay in the playoff chase, you would think with Drake Callender, Kamal Miller, DeAndre Yedlin, Josef Martinez, Leo Campana and now Lionel Messi that they could REALLY make a deep run in the MLS playoffs. 

I'm sure I will have another blog detailing the salary details as they come out. 

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