Lionel Messi sent shockwaves across the world when he announced his decision to join David Beckham’s Inter Miami. Ever since, American soccer culture has witnessed an incredible upside with celebrities and brands uniting to drive a soccer craze in the United States.

One of the biggest benefactors from this craze would obviously be the media rights holders. Messi’s on-field brilliance combined with this budding soccer craze is surely going to garner a lot of eyeballs. Recent data on Apple‘s reported season pass membership pass confirm this theory.

Apple’s season pass membership reaches 1 million subscribers after the arrival of Lionel Messi

Last year, Apple got into a 10-year tenured media synergy with the MLS. The media rights contract of the $3 trillion worth company with the league started from this year. Half a year into the deal, Apple’s season pass membership has already recorded a massive 700,000 subscriber base. Things have, however, fast-tracked after Lionel Messi’s arrival.

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On the 15th of July, Inter Miami officially confirmed the arrival of La Pulga. Since then, the season pass membership numbers of Apple have skyrocketed. In just 17 days, the subscriber base rose by 300,000, thus touching the important milestone of 1 million.

The fact that Messi still has the rest of the year to play means that the first-year projection of the membership pass will witness a nitro boost. MLS Commissioner Don Garber also echoed the same sentiment.“It’s still early in the relationship, but so far, we couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Garber.

Apple plans to integrate MLS media into their ecosystem

Apple, being a trillion-dollar multi-platform company, means that there will be more avenues to integrate MLS media. MLS Commissioner Don Garber agreed with this thought and explained how Apple is a holistic media rights partner.

“It’s truly a partnership. It’s not a rights deal where it’s just about ‘we have these available windows, we’ll pay you to put your product on in those available windows, we’ll promote them to our audiences,’” said Garber.

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The MLS commissioner explained that Apple will also integrate MLS media into their reputed ecosystem making the league accessible on a global scale. “It’s more about how can we be integrated within the entire Apple ecosystem and create a global offering for fans in a very easy and an accessible way,” said the commissioner, explaining the vision.

Truly exciting times are ahead for American soccer culture!