From jersey and ticket sales to the reach of a global audience, the impact of the South Korean star in Los Angeles is tangible
Son Heung-Min couldn't believe his ears. As he made his MLS debut with Los Angeles FC, the South Korean star expected a chorus of boos to descend down upon him. LAFC were playing the Fire in Chicago, after all. Surely there would be no warm welcome for MLS's newest megastar.
That's where the surprise came. Son's debut wasn't met with antagonism but rather enthusiasm, his arrival in MLS celebrated by both traveling LAFC fans and home Fire fans, alike.
“I really enjoyed it," he said postgame. "I've never ever had this welcome from away fans. I used to play in the Premier League. When I played at away grounds, they were always booing me, but it was nice to see people were celebrating, people were enjoying the football.”
Such is the new reality for Son, who is uniquely as much of an icon as he is a soccer player. It's why his MLS arrival is so meaningful. MLS has had plenty of incredible soccer players join the league, Son among them. The league, though, save for David Beckham and Lionel Messi, may not have ever had another megastar quite like the South Korean and former Tottenham legend.
The impact of his arrival is already reverberating, from the stands in Chicago to the online shopping carts of fans all over the world.
Son may not be a game-changer in the same way that Beckham or Messi were. Both clearly ushered in new eras of MLS, lending their starpower to the league at crucial moments. The South Korean star can be more accurately categorized as a ceiling-raiser, someone who takes that foundation and takes things up a notch.
However you categorize him, MLS seems set to benefit in a variety of manners, expanding the league's reach in ways that they couldn't have imagined with any other signing.
(C)Getty ImagesA new market
Son's joyous move to Los Angeles started with a tearful goodbye. Ahead of Tottenham's preseason friendly against Newcastle in Son's native South Korea, the winger announced that his decade with Spurs was coming to an end. He would be leaving after the friendly, he said. A new chapter was beginning.
Look deeper, and that path to L.A. may just have begun in 2018. It was that summer that Son met with TSG, LAFC's South Korean supporters group, in Koreatown. Seven years later, those fans will now get the chance to watch South Korea's most famous soccer player ply his trade in the City of Angels.
It's no accident that Son ended up in Los Angeles, a city with a massive Korean population. Per the Korean American Grassroots Conference, the state of California has a Korean population of more than 550,000, roughly as much as the next four highest states combined. Los Angeles is home to more than 200,000 Korean-Americans.
For comparison, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that in 2019 that there were approximately 40,770 Koreans living across the entire United Kingdom.
“As a Korean, to know that Koreatown here in Los Angeles has so many Koreans, here in this country, I’m very proud to be a part of the club and the city,” Son said. “And I’ll make them proud with my performance.”
Throughout Son's Tottenham career, he consistently attracted Korean fans to Spurs. According to research commissioned by AIA, one of Tottenham's major sponsors, nearly 12 million Koreans listed Spurs as their favorite European team. That's a quarter of the country – and doesn't include those that back other teams, but still root for Son.
The fandom was so passionate that, at one point, South Korean broadcasts of Tottenham games would have a Son graphic built into the scoreboard, illustrating that the player was just as big, if not bigger, than the team to those watching from back home.
It's not an unusual phenomenon in U.S. sports. The United States has seen similar connections with fans of Japanese MLB star Shohei Ohtani and NBA champions Nikola Jokic of Serbia and Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece, all of whom draw massive attention from their native countries.
Many South Koreans traveled to London each season to catch a glimpse of their country's icon. That pilgrimage will now be made to Los Angeles.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportBoon for streaming
MLS has not generally been very forthcoming in sharing data around its 10-year, $2.5 billion streaming partnership with Apple TV. But in his annual address at the MLS All-Star Game this summer, commissioner Don Garber revealed that an average of 120,000 unique viewers are tuning into every game, an increase of over 50 percent over last season.
“Other leagues have a game of the night, game of the week, Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV,” Garber said. “All of our games, for the most part, are on Saturday, all up against each other. So when you have 120,000 unique viewers [per game] across that, that’s a lot of people. Aggregate all that. Depending on what week it is, you have over a million people who are unique viewers.”
A major component of the Apple deal, though, is that it's worldwide. It's been marketed as an opportunity for fans all across the globe to watch Messi or and other stars in the league. With Son's arrival, MLS streams in Asia are expected to skyrocket.
According to a Nielsen survey, 21 percent of South Koreans considered Tottenham their favorite European soccer team. That comes out to around 11 million. Of course, many of those fans will stay loyal to Tottenham, but many, too, will be eager to see Son play with his new club. How many of the millions of fans of other teams will also tune in now that Son no longer plays for a European rival? How many fans of South Korea's national team will now embrace this chance to watch their star?
Son's games in the U.S. will now be early-morning kickoffs for Asian time zone – not too dissimilar from the ones that American fans experience with the Premier League. Expect Apple and MLS to benefit from an international attraction that should draw viewers from across the Pacific Ocean.
Getty Images SportCommercial impact
Watching matches, though, isn't the only way fans can express support for their favorite players. They can also wear their name and numbers on their backs – and plenty will do just that with a Son LAFC kit.
Per Front Office Sports, Fanatics has confirmed that Son's jersey immediately became their highest-selling across all sports. Additionally, that Son LAFC jersey is the second-most sold for a player joining a new team, trailing only Messi's Inter Miami kit from August 2023. In the MLS online store, Son jerseys are listed as “special event items” at $194.99.
Son has a completely different personality than Messi, one that could be an asset for both LAFC and the league. While Messi, throughout his career, has been reserved and not embraced a public ambassador role for MLS, Son has been more than willing to play ball when it comes to being the star. He's appeared in countless advertisements and will no doubt bring all sorts of commercial opportunities for both himself and his club now that he's in Los Angeles.
Tickets for what could be his first LAFC home match – Aug. 31 vs San Diego FC at BMO Stadium – are climbing sharply. The most inexpensive seats are reportedly at $200, up to eight times more than before Son’s arrival. Seats in the central lower 100-level section exceed $500.
The winger, of course, did not come cheap, with LAFC paying a $26.5 million transfer fee to Tottenham in addition to his salary, but they'll surely make that back and more by now being associated with the brand that is Son.
According to the Daily Mail, it's expected that Tottenham could lose up to $80 million in revenues per season due to Son's exit. LAFC, then will stand to benefit, raking in money on everything from sponsorships to tickets to jersey sales.
Getty Images SportOn the field
For all the marketing buzz and revenue opportunities, at the end of the day, Son's time in MLS won't be judged on how many commercials he's in, but rather how many trophies he wins. The expectations are high, particularly at a club such as LAFC, which has been built on being the right combination of substance and style.
Yes, the club has pursued big names, but they've then had to perform. Players such as Carlos Vela and Gareth Bale earned icon status by helping to win an MLS Cup. Olivier Giroud, meanwhile, was jettisoned after failing to make the right on-field impact.
Son did that in Saturday's match against the Fire. He didn't start as he looked to build his fitness, but the South Korean star was thrown into the fray in the second half with LAFC down a goal. He quickly drew a penalty, which was subsequently handed to Denis Bouanga in a seemingly symbolic moment between the two stars. Son, the new guy, is eager to fit in alongside Bouanga, the established star.
Figuring out that partnership will be key to LAFC's trophy hopes. Both are true MLS elite, and both will need to find a way to play off one another ahead of the postseason. That will take time, as will everything with this move.
This is just the beginning of the Son phenomenon in Los Angeles. It will evolve throughout his time. And even when that new-signee shine does wear off, there will be plenty of intrigue around his time in the United States.
"I want to see this as a new challenge, and do my best," Son said. "All that I’ve received, I want to give back to the ownership and the team and the club, and do the best I can, and leave when the time comes as a legend of the club.”