In the spring of 2023, long-running rumors that soccer megastar Lionel Messi would make the move to Inter Miami in Major League Soccer started getting serious. Ticket sales for D.C. United’s home game last July against Miami ticked up as area fans took their chance to glimpse the recent World Cup winner, widely considered the sport’s Greatest Of All Time. In the end, the match came and went before Messi could join the team, but join he did, thanks to an unprecedented partnership between Inter Miami, the MLS, league kit sponsor Adidas, and media giant Apple. Since then, Messi mania has spread across the country, boosting interest in the league and blowing up a team’s home ticket sales any time Miami comes to town.
Fast-forward to Saturday, March 16, and it was deja vu all over again for D.C. area fans. After all the hype, 36-year-old Messi aggravated an injury in a midweek Concacaf Champions Cup game against Nashville, ruling him out for the trip to the District. Unsurprisingly, fans (and players) were disappointed. “I would not have taken a day off of work for it,” says Martin Patience, an occasional D.C. United match attendee and producer on NPR’s Weekend Edition. While appreciative of any chance to indulge his soccer-mad 9-year-old with a visit to Audi Field, Patience’s excursion came at a premium: $500 for four tickets, including two to the Miami game, available through his son’s youth team partnership. In the grand scheme of things, that was a steal.
Even in his absence, Messi’s aura was inescapable. Foreign club and national team jerseys are a familiar sight at D.C. United games, an example of the sport’s international appeal and the greater currency held by clubs in Europe. It was different this time, as Miami’s pink-and-black colors came dangerously close to matching D.C.’s black-and-red. Unsurprisingly, Messi’s name predominated, partly thanks to canny vendors hawking imitation jerseys to fans taking the long walk from the Navy Yard-Ballpark Metro station.
Rising prices and massive hype are all aspects of the Messi effect. While the diminutive Argentine might play in Miami—or Fort Lauderdale, technically—his arrival is touted as a net gain for the league itself, guaranteeing more interest, more ticket sales, and more credit to American professional soccer. The potential benefits are not lost on Danita Johnson, president of business operations at D.C. United. “It’s an exciting moment in sports,” she says. “For us in this organization, and many of us in this league, we see the positives.”
Still, D.C. United is one of 28 clubs in the MLS who do not benefit from Messi’s goals, assists, and jersey sales. And as Johnson is quick to note, the club has always believed in the league, regardless of which late-career icons join up. So, what exactly are the positives for clubs who cannot claim the GOAT—and what gets lost in the margins when he takes center stage?
From a financial perspective, the list of positives starts with ticket sales. Every season, James Armold, senior vice president of ticket sales and services at D.C. United, sits down with his team to grade each match on an A to D pricing scale, with prices set to change dynamically according to demand. When the 2024 home schedule was announced, the club rated the Miami match an A-plus and preempted interest by offering fans a chance to guarantee access in one of four ways: full season tickets, nine-match “partial season tickets,” group sales, or multi-match suite and hospitality packages. According to Armold, the group sales and nine-match packages sold out in five days.
Meanwhile, single ticket prices soared. Armold estimated the average ticket cost for the Miami game was 3 1/2 times what it would for any other home match—and that’s just the averages. Typically, the cheapest tickets run under $30 for the standing-room only supporter section; if you checked Ticketmaster a few days after single tickets for Saturday’s game went on sale, you were looking at north of $300 for the cheapest seats anywhere in the stadium. (Of course, dynamism goes both ways: Verified resale tickets on the same platform plummeted to $115 by last Thursday, as some fans looked to recoup some of their outlay.)
While D.C. United could obviously bank on this game, Armold is quick to point out that the club is already operating from a position of financial strength. Since coming out of the pandemic, ticket sales and overall revenue have increased 8 to 10 percent year on year, and that’s despite underperformance on the pitch. From Armold’s vantage point, a lot of that comes down to maintaining a positive relationship with fans. “All the feedback we heard from our fans, our season ticket members, all the people we engage with on the ticketing side, is very optimistic,” he says.
Engagement is a key facet of the club’s profile under Johnson’s leadership, who describes the club’s role as “being good stewards of the sport in the area.” She cites young breakout star Kristian Fletcher, a homegrown talent, as an example of their investment in the region through a youth academy and ties to junior and lower-league organizations in the region. Fletcher’s ascension makes a compelling counterpoint to the elite stars brought in under the Designated Player Rule, which allows clubs to break the MLS salary cap for special talents like Messi.
Apart from nurturing the next generation of players, a significant aspect of the club’s stewardship falls to Shanell Mosley, D.C. United’s director of community relations and the executive director of the nonprofit D.C. United Foundation. “We focus through the lens of empowerment, opportunity, and service,” she says of the club’s community ethos. That means doing everything from participating in volunteer efforts, setting aside seats for community partners like DC SCORES, publicly honoring veterans at each game, and creating opportunities for young people to shadow professionals in the front and back offices.
For Mosley, engaging the community is something that serves both the public and the squad. Rather than simply assign athletes to charity events, Mosley and her team consult with the players to gauge their passions and help them get to know the community. “They see themselves in the community members and the community sees themselves in the players,” she says of the experience. Mosley cites the global quality of the game as a unifying element, particularly in an area as diverse and international as D.C.
Of course, die-hard fans have their own perspective on how the club does business, not to mention what Messi’s entree into MLS represents. Jim Ensor, one of the key organizers behind the LGBTQIA supporters’ group 202 Unique and a member of fellow supporters’ group Screaming Eagles, gives the club credit for its community engagement. “The Foundation is doing really good work, it’s visible, it’s obvious,” he says. He points to the club’s support of Pride, which went to a new level last year when D.C. United staff, led by Mosley, marched in the local parade after only tabling in previous years.
Despite, or perhaps because of, their fervent support, fan groups are also quick to hold the club accountable—say, by publicly criticizing the club for playing four preseason games in Saudi Arabia. Saturday attendees might have noticed banners hanging from the base of the stands that read “Say No to Sportswashing” and “Remember Khashoggi,” or the fact that the supporters’ section, normally a storm of drums, flags, and the occasional splash of beer, was conspicuously quiet. For Ensor, D.C. United’s choice to spend valuable preseason time in a nation that is rich in oil but poor in human rights records is a major disappointment that must be addressed.
As much as community steward is a vital aspect of D.C. United’s profile, both the club and its supporters want to see improvements on the field, which is easier said than done. D.C. United were the first powerhouse in the MLS, but they haven’t won the MLS Cup since 2004, haven’t won a trophy at all since the 2013 U.S. Open Cup (a title contested by teams up and down the U.S. soccer ladder), and haven’t even made the playoffs since 2019. Along the way, it has had its own mixed record with superstars, namely former England national team captain Wayne Rooney, who came and went twice: first as a player in 2018–19 and then again as a manager in 2022–23.
While there is optimism that new coach Troy Lesesne and general manager Ally Mackay will take the club forward, one quartet of fans at Saturday’s game were happy just to see “flashes” of good form. In that sense, D.C. United’s start to the season prior to the Miami game was encouraging: one home win and two draws on the road. They started strong on Saturday, too, pressing their opponents well and using the width of the pitch to good effect. Their efforts reaped early dividends in the form of Jared Stroud’s 14th-minute opener.
By then, Miami were growing into the match, and they eventually equalized in the 24th minute through Leonardo Campana. After trading shots in the second half, the tide turned with the introduction of Luis Suarez, Messi’s onetime teammate at Spanish giants FC Barcelona (one of three, alongside Spaniards Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba). The Uruguayan, whose every appearance on the sidelines had been cheered by pink-and-black fans all afternoon, weighed in with two goals. The game ended 3-1 to the visitors; the home team finished a man down after Pedro Santos was ejected with a red card, adding insult to injury.
It’s a fitting result, in a way. D.C. United’s early progress on the pitch was evident, and the club’s dedicated fan base made itself known amid a wave of fervor for the absent Messi. In the end, the Red and Black were overwhelmed by the team that has enjoyed greater star power and whose core has been gelling under manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino (also formerly of Barcelona) since last season.
As for what the game means to the club on a larger scale, D.C. United fans pull focus back to the pitch. Ensor, who describes himself as “habitually optimistic,” says the club has largely maintained its DNA and commitment to the DMV but worries about games like the Miami encounter pricing out fans—not to mention where the money goes and what happens when guys like Messi retire.
“It’s nice that [D.C. United] can increase revenue,” he says. “That’s wonderful. Now start spending it on players on the field and putting out a winning product.” There is still time to do it this season—and time to prepare for a May rematch against Miami in Fort Lauderdale.