Messi's impact on MLS is not comparable to Beckham's arrival: What was the difference?
The Executive Vice President of Sports Product and Competition of MLS participates in a forum of Ole newspaper and talks about the impact of the Argentinean in the United States.
The signing of Lionel Messi with Inter Miami caused an impact on MLS and placed it at an audience level never seen before, by accelerating its growth projection, which was consolidated little by little over the years since its creation in 1996, which had a first revolution with the arrival of David Beckham to the LA Galaxy in 2007.
To say that everyone wants to see Messi is an understatement, the madness is not only in Miami, for the good fortune of many, the Argentinean has already visited with the Herons two of the most important cities in the United States, where he brought together figures from other sports and an infinite number of artists, to make a catwalk of stars, first in New York and then in Los Angeles.
Tickets went up to 10 times their original cost, in the Big Apple the average was $500 per ticket, while in Los Angeles there were tickets priced higher than the entire season to see the NFL's Chargers.
The history of MLS has gone through stages in a sort of hit and miss, of learning to place the league in the fans' taste, which has been achieved little by little, in a task that has not been easy.
In its first years, the main figures were Mexican players such as Jorge Campos and Hugo Sanchez, some Latin stars such as Carlos Valderrama, as well as the best from the United States, among them Cobi Jones.
Then they tried with Cuauhtemoc Blanco and the best of the house with Landon Donovan, but the first blow to revolutionize MLS and begin to attract international figures came with David Beckham, who in 2007 left Real Madrid to sign with Los
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