MLS commissioner Don Garber has spent most of his 24 years in the role hearing jokes or outright condemnation directed at his league’s quality of play.

By some rankings, MLS still rates well outside the world soccer’s top 10 pro leagues. Much of Garber’s job over the years has been boosting MLS — including expansion, new stadiums, attendance, and franchise values — to help dispel those attacks.

Now, he and MLS have a powerful ally in Lionel Messi, the Argentinian legend who Garber described as the best player of all time.

MLS still isn’t the foremost global destination for top players in their primes — a key difference compared to most other major North American pro sports leagues. Messi is 36, four years older than Inter Miami president David Beckham was when he joined the LA Galaxy in 2007.

But after a generation of aging European and South American stars using MLS as a late-career destination, Messi’s arrival less than a year after leading Argentina to World Cup triumph feels fundamentally different.

Before Messi’s introduction on a soggy Sunday night in South Florida, Garber spoke of MLS being a “league of choice” globally, and he continued on the theme before MLS’ All-Star Game Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

“We want to be one of the top soccer leagues in the world,” Garber said. “We proved to the world that we can at least compete with the top player in the world, but how do we capture the hearts and minds of fans around the world? The hearts and minds of every player?”

When Apple signed its 10-year, $2.5 billion deal for MLS broadcast rights just over a year ago, the tech giant certainly wasn’t anticipating becoming the exclusive worldwide home of Lionel Messi in its first season.

But that’s exactly what happened. Now, Messi’s debut with Inter Miami against Liga MX club Cruz Azul can only be viewed on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+ at 8 p.m. ET.

When the rumors of Messi’s interest in MLS really started heating up, Apple didn’t want to miss out. The effort to lure Messi was so great that the league’s sole media partner agreed to share revenue from MLS Season Pass with the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner.

With Messi’s arrival, Apple’s global rights to distribute MLS games become that much more valuable. Before, it would be hard to understand why many fans outside the U.S. would be interested enough in purchasing a subscription — but now the possibilities are endless as fans from every corner of the earth want to get a glimpse of the superstar in Miami.

“It makes Apple look really smart,” sports attorney Irwin Kishner told Front Office Sports.

Priced at $99 per season for non-Apple TV+ subscribers — now down to $49 for the remainder of the 2023 campaign — MLS Season Pass had already been beating internal expectations for signups and viewership.

Next season could be the real money-maker for Apple as Inter Miami gets a full season of Messi and will look to make a championship run.

Lionel Messi’s MLS debut comes 16 years to the day that David Beckham played his first game for the LA Galaxy on July 21, 2007. 

The English superstar’s move to the U.S. — via a uniquely structured, precedent-setting deal — marked the league’s first true blockbuster signing, one that paved the way for others. Now, Beckham has brought arguably the greatest player of all time to American soccer.

While playing for Real Madrid, Beckham played against Messi’s Barcelona squad just twice before leaving for MLS. Now, the two soccer icons are set to be long-term business partners in South Florida, as Messi’s contract reportedly has an option for equity in Inter Miami.

Part of MLS’ push to lure Beckham was allowing him to purchase an expansion franchise at any point for $25 million. When Inter Miami was officially granted a place in MLS in 2018, the most recent expansion fee was $150 million for Nashville, while Charlotte was awarded a team for $325 million the very next year.

As Beckham struggled to get local support for a new stadium, many looked down upon the cost-friendly deal, which appeared to be costing MLS money. Now, any trepidation is certainly gone. 

The fact remains that there’s no guarantee that Messi would have been drawn to MLS without the option of playing in Miami or playing for Beckham.

It’s now clear that what started as a wild fever dream to have a European star in America began a decade-and-a-half-long process to secure MLS’ future. Whether by design or luck, MLS bringing Beckham to L.A. also brought Messi to Miami.

Miami has seven major pro titles between the NFL’s Dolphins, MLB’s Marlins, and the NBA’s Heat, and just enjoyed a unique double-finals appearance between the Heat and the NHL’s Florida Panthers.

But never before has this long-derided sports market — which has often underperformed for its market size in ratings and attendance — seen the level of interest and cultural relevance generated by Lionel Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami.

Even before the Argentinian legend plays a single minute for the club, both the club and its home market have been transformed by his decision to play in MLS.

Inter Miami managing owner Jorge Mas told CNBC that the club’s revenues are now expected to double over the next year, and that the franchise valuation could reach between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion by 2024 — a figure more than double Forbes’ most recent estimate of $600 million.

That type of escalation beats even what the Heat experienced when LeBron James took his talents to South Beach in 2010.

“When does an athlete truly have the opportunity to change the sport? I think that’s the opportunity Messi has ahead of himself,” Mas said.

Fanatics, meanwhile, could set sales records with Messi jerseys, days after fans filled the club’s DRV PNK Stadium in a torrential downpour for Messi’s formal introduction.

Tickets for his debut in Inter Miami’s Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul on Friday are beginning at around $200 each on the resale market. The Marlins, enjoying their best season in years, can be seen the same night for as little as $4, before fees.