Tourism and Miami: which brands will join the Messi-Inter boom

By Martín Bal, CEO at GMB Press

Finally, the official statement arrived. Messi is already a player for Inter Miami. He also had his presentation with a party at the stadium,
and a great debut with a great goal from a free kick included.

Now, beyond sports, what about the movement of brands, fans and Miami... As Xavier Asensi, the club's commercial director, commented:

"It is a historic moment for Inter Miami, MLS and soccer in the United States, both in terms of sports and in the generation of new business opportunities."

Logically, as the days progress, new business agreements will become known. Currently, on the official website of the club they appear as a sponsor XBTO, AutoNation, Baptist Health, Heineken, Florida Blue and Adidas.

What will happen to brands linked to tourism?

The Argentine star arouses the interest of international visitors from all over the planet. In fact, there have already been increases in air purchases, hotel reservations and ticket sales for future matches.

The city has been experiencing an important development of sports tourism for some time, with F1, Open tennis, NBA, NFL and NBL, among others. The big unknown is which tourism brands will take the first step in starting commercial relations with the MLS, and therefore with Messi... for now, none appear on the list, except for Hard Rock, which had already been doing business with Messi, but for now, not with other teams, officially with Inter or with the MLS...

In our analysis, Atlanta United is the "sponsor champion" team, with 16: Mercedes Benza, American Family Insurance, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Delta, Equifax, Lottery, Georgia Power, IBM, Novelis, Scana Energy, The Home Depot, Ticketmaster, Truist, Globalpayments, Adidas, etc.

The team from the city of Atlanta (Georgia) was founded in 2014 and belongs to Arthur Blank, owner of The Home Depot, an 80-year-old businessman with a fortune of more than 7.9 million USD, according to Forbes.

Toyota, the automaker with the largest presence. Audi with Orlando, also to Inter Miami? The Japanese brand Toyota has sponsorship in at least 4 teams: Portland, Colorado, Dallas and Los Angeles Soccer Club; then Hyundai appears with Nashville, Volkswagen with Galaxy, Subaru with Philadelphia, and Audi with the named Atlanta.

Will the one with the 4 rings be the automotive sponsor of Inter Miami? On the other hand, the classic rival Orlando has the support of Ford, and also two other brands that do not frequent the MLS: Disney and Publix. There are teams that have only one sponsor, but they will surely manage to increase their support in these times.

Adidas, the queen of MLS.
Adi Dassler's company dresses all the MLS teams. Recently, Adidas renewed its sponsorship agreement for 830 million until 2030. The German brand provides footwear, training equipment and the official ball of the tournament from 2024 to 2030, in a technical sponsorship agreement in force since 2017. Some of Messi's business.

In addition to what the Inter Maimi-Messi association can generate, the Argentine player already has (of those that are known) agreements with his commercial agreements with Adidas, Pepsi, Budweiser and Hard Rock International. He also owns the MIM Hotels chain (6 hotels in Spain), The Messi Store clothing brand and his own L10 wine (Bianchi winery).