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Here is a hypothetical question: If in fact Inter Miami does sign Messi, wouldn’t DRV PNK or the former Lockhart Stadium with a capacity of only 18,000 in Fort Lauderdale, be a little too small for a player his caliber?
I think they will have because they won't have enough space in Ft. Lauderdale. Only thing is, I hope they won't have to play on gridirons as that won’t look good on TV.
Why would you do that? The push would be season ticket holders getting first crack at season tickets for the new stadium. It would be far better to have a sold out DRV PNK Stadium with a with list for the future.
They will make more money if they play in Hard Rock Stadium and would sell almost 50k more tickets. Why wouldn't they want that revenue?
Would they? In the past its been reported that the cost to rent a bigger stadium for games largely offsets the added revenue. Obviously every case is different, but don't assume that just because they would sell more tickets they would make more money.
Even if they profit from 1/2 of every $30.00 ticket sold, (and I believe it will be way more than that) if you sell 50k tickets, that is $750k a game. Multiply this by 10 possible home (including playoff) games, that would amount to almost $8 million dollars. Not including DP salaries, that figure will cover the bulk of an entire roster for almost two seasons , so why would they pass on that? I doubt the club would want to throw away that revenue.
Also I don't think MLS is eager to rent a stadium from an owner who has an active lawsuit against the USSF trying to stage foreign league games in the US.
Good point on maybe not wanting to rent from Stephen Ross. Also have to consider the money that Miami receives for parking and concessions at their Fort Lauderdale stadium. Hard Rock Stadium may just keep all that money for themselves. For me, I could see renting the stadium most likely only once and then playing the rest of the games at their normal stadium. Especially when Miami is to be building their own stadium in the next year (fingers crossed) and that stadium being capped in size at 25k. Get fans used to having to buy season tickets or multi-game tickets instead of just assuming can show up the day of the game.
Beckham didn't want to play at Buck Shaw . I remember Quakes president Dave Kaval saying Becks refused to play there and I think Henry said the same thing so why would Messi want to play at 18,000 seat DRV PNK/Lockhart?
Welcome to MLS. This isn't the David Beckham era MLS and that extra revenue isn't exactly needed. They are building a stadium and why would they play at a stadium that they wouldn't play in to get the team five years ago? The whole point of building in Miami because the football stadium was not acceptable. They still have a few hurdles to get past to get shovels in the ground they aren't changing now with so much still on the line. Plus you'll still be paying bills for DRV PNK at the same time.
Ok but that is your reasoning not the leagues or the club. No one knows what Messi wants or will do. If Messi comes this summer, he will be over 36 years of age and will play less than half of a season so his time is limited. By the time Miami builds a stadium (which is still an unknown when that will be) , Messi would be pushing 40 and retired. Don Garber said just last week he would bend and change rules to sign Messi so of course they will do anything to accommodate and please him.
So the Miami Commission would be able to say, well it doesn't look like you need the new stadium because the players you sign won't play in it. No reason to sign him with that logic if you are taking the short term money gain and missing out on the revenue six/seven years from now playing in Miami proper with the revenue under their control.
Don Garber specifically said last week he will do anything to sign Messi. I’m sure he wouldn’t have said it if he did t mean it. Anyway ,I still don’t believe Messi will want to play in front of 18k fans when he is used to playing in front of 50,000+.
Yea i don't think be said be would do anything more like they would be flexible. This was the deal Beckham got and they didn't think if was possible when be got it. (Beckham) had to play in the league for five years, (and) at the time he came in, Toronto bought (the 13th MLS expansion spot) for $10 million,” Garber said. “And we basically said if you stay in the league long enough, and we have 20 teams in five years, and you have to play for that period of time, we’ll give you an option for $25million. And by the way, (the expansion team) can’t be in New York. You’ve got to pick a team, you’ve got to build a stadium. They still have to build that stadium and if Messi can't play in a small stadium I would think he's not coming but i seriously don't think that's in his list.
The median capacity of an MLS stadium is 22000 so of your correct, he wouldn't want to play in over half of the MLS stadiums due to capacity. The largest stadiums have artificial turf. He probably wouldn't want to play at them either. If you are correct, MLS isn't a good choice for him
Paris Saint-Germain F.C. Parc des Princes has a capacity of 47,929. Their average home league attendance this season is 46,000. That's almost 3 times more than what Ft. Lauderdale has to offer. For me anyway, I like DRV PNK and think it’s a great place to play. If it were up to me, I actually can care less if Messi comes or not. As a matter of fact, I hope he doesn’t because I’m sick of seeing Over 36’s coming to get their last paycheck. If they do in fact sign him though, I still think he is going to want to play in a bigger stadium. Also, knowing European based players as I do, many hate playing on turf. I just herd an interview in Italy on why Gonzalo Higuain quit before he was 35 and one reason was because he didn't like playing on turf or the traveling. Messi will probably end up thinking the same way.