📉 Why Messi Is Bad for MLS

CJ Stroud (whom I left on my bench as he scored over 40 points for my fantasy team last week) is quickly becoming one of my favorite athletes, and he just dropped one of my all-time favorite quotes.

I’ll link it at the end of today’s newsletter.

In the meantime, here are today’s topics.

🗞 The Big Story: Messi is Bad for MLS

📉 Biggest Loser: German Turf Wars

🏆 Winner’s Circle: NFL’s Fine Empire

⬇️ Listen: I don’t think the NFL actually wants to expand into Europe, click below to hear why…

🗞 The Big Story

The notion that Leo Messi could possibly be “bad” for MLS seems ridiculous.

But I guarantee you that Major League Soccer executives are having that exact conversation right now.

Messi’s Impact: Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard to argue that attendance being up 36% over last year and a reported 100,000 new MLS Season Pass sign-ups on the day of Messi’s debut is a bad thing.

In fact, the GOAT’s impact on the league has been far-reaching:

• Messi’s jersey sales surpassed every other jersey sold by MLS this season in the first 45 minutes of its release

• Inter Miami searches on Google are up 1,200%

• Ticket prices increased by 1,000%

• Inter Miami’s value increased from $56M to $600M

But what about the perception of the league?

Is Dominance Bad? Messi and two other aging, international stars were able to take Inter-Miami, the worst team in the league, and help them win the 2023 League Cup just a few weeks after his arrival.

What does that say about the talent of the MLS? A league that has been around for decades and one that has already struggled to earn the respect of soccer fans around the world.

Well, to many it means that any team could could spend enough money in a single transfer window to alter the balance of the entire league.

But maybe that isn’t such a bad thing…

US Soccer-nomics: It’s clear that in America, our sports teams are optimized for one thing:

Big, fat valuations.

And with no relegation structure in MLS, that means none of its teams are at risk of losing half of their value overnight.

This, paired with the arrival of Messi, has helped explode the values of MLS franchises, the top seven of which are up 114% since 2018.

Per Forbes, that’s more than the top teams in:

• MLB (+72%)

• NBA (+46%)

• NFL (+100%)

And at the end of the day, I’m sure MLS doesn’t really care how they get people to watch their games as long as more people are aware of them it’s all a positive for the value league and its clubs.

Proven by the fact that the league’s 30th team was just bought for a record $500 million expansion fee and the collective value of all clubs is now said to be $15 billion.

📉 Biggest Loser

The NFL seems to care more about football in Germany than in America, and players are fed up.

2022 Turf Troubles: Last year, players and fans spoke out about the atrocious field conditions during the NFL’s first-ever game in Germany. Buccaneer and Seahawks players could be seen slipping and taking massive chunks of grass out of the field while running.

In fact, the field was so beaten up, that Byron Munich had to fully replace the grass once the NFL left town, which led to the NFL committing to likely spending over $1M to install hybrid grass in Germany ahead of its two games in Frankfurt this year.

Not So New Grass: This hybrid-style grass already exists in Green Bay and Philadelphia, and is comprised of 90% real grass with the remaining 10% being synthetic turf woven in to help increase the field’s durability.

But it also makes you wonder: why doesn’t the NFL do that in its own stadiums?

It’s Actually Pretty Cheap: Reports estimate that it would cost the NFL less than $12 million to make the permanent switch from artificial turf to natural grass across the league.

A change even the NFLPA is calling for, but still, the league refuses to do it.

Owners cite the high cost of maintaining real grass, especially indoors, but reports estimate that it only costs about $20,000 a year to maintain a real grass field as compared to the $5,000 it costs to maintain a turf field.

Not to mention the fact that cities like Chicago, Green Bay, and Philadelphia all have majority grass fields that they’re able to keep green, even in freezing temperatures.

So why couldn’t a stadium in Dallas or Atlanta do the same?

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💰 Pick of the Week

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🏆 Winner’s Circle

The NFL makes more in fines every year than most players will make in their entire career.

But where does all of the money even go?

Professional Athletes Foundation: The NFLPA runs a charity to help support former players with financial and educational assistance, healthcare and even counseling.

Some of the money also goes to help provide funding for youth and community football programs across the country.

But not all of the money…

NFL’s Bad Accounting: The league states on its website that it has donated $4 million per year since 2011 with money it collects from fines, but these days, it collects way more than that.

• 2002-2015: $1.3M/year

• 2020: $12.7M

• 2021: $7.13M

• 2022: $15.4M

• 2023 (through Week 9): $14.18M

This means that this year the NFL is on track to fine players over $26M.

Roger Goodell must be sitting pretty on a pile of money in New York right now.

⏱ In Other News

• These three cases could decide the future of NIL.

• Monday Night Football is hurting NFL ads sales.

• The Sphere has already lost $98.4M.

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👋 I mean, CJ’s not wrong here. Have you seen those baseball contracts?