{"id":229949,"date":"2026-04-13T16:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229949\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:29:13","slug":"inter-miami-f-lionel-messi-helps-elevate-miami-as-global-soccer-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229949\/","title":{"rendered":"Inter Miami F \u200cLionel Messi helps elevate Miami as global soccer destination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-events-and-attractions \">Inter Miami F \u200cLionel Messi has \u201chelped cement Miami\u2019s status as a center for soccer and other international sporting events,\u201d according to Arian Campo-Flores of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Miami Gardens hosted the final of the 2024 Copa Am\u00e9rica, eight matches for the FIFA Club World Cup and is now preparing for seven matches of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/04\/03\/lego-taps-messi-ronaldo-vini-jr-mbappe-for-sets-ad-campaign-ahead-of-world-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/04\/03\/lego-taps-messi-ronaldo-vini-jr-mbappe-for-sets-ad-campaign-ahead-of-world-cup\/\">FIFA World Cup<\/a> this summer. Messi has also \u201cbolstered Miami\u2019s standing as a main hub for soccer in the U.S.\u201d In 2024, FIFA opened a new legal-and-compliance division office in the Miami area that had previously been housed at the association\u2019s headquarters in Zurich. La Liga club FC Barcelona, the club where Messi launched and spent most of his career, last year moved its U.S. commercial operations to Miami from N.Y. This year, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/03\/24\/inter-miami-deepens-adidas-ties-adds-retail-presence-at-new-stadium\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/03\/24\/inter-miami-deepens-adidas-ties-adds-retail-presence-at-new-stadium\/\">Argentine Football Association<\/a> is \u201cscheduled to unveil a new office and training complex in the Miami area to promote its brand in the U.S.\u201d Those plans had \u201calready been in the works,\u201d but when Messi signed with Inter Miami, \u201cthey were hastened.\u201d Greater Miami Convention &amp; Visitors Bureau CEO David Whitaker said that Messi has \u201cinfused Miami with buzz, drawing more tourists to the area\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/how-lionel-messi-became-miami-billion-dollar-economic-engine-75ec6eb7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/how-lionel-messi-became-miami-billion-dollar-economic-engine-75ec6eb7\">WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4\/11<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inter Miami F \u200cLionel Messi has \u201chelped cement Miami\u2019s status as a center for soccer and other international&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1209,123,125,124,2062],"class_list":{"0":"post-229949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-culture","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-news","12":"tag-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}