MLS officially greenlit David Beckham and his partners to bring a soccer team to Miami over a month ago. What lies next is a series of different announcements and decisions until the team actually steps on the field in 2020. The latest Beckham thinking breaks with the MLS formula.
That does not mean that everything will go smoothly on this journey. Already, the team's original stadium location just off downtown Miami in historic Overtown is in question.
Miami residents Jorge and Jose Mas saved Beckham's bid for the franchise at the 12th hour and now they are expressing concerns that the 9-acre property is not suitable for their larger ambitions for development around the stadium. While finding a bigger property sounds great in theory, the group needs to watch what they wish for.
As I chronicled a few weeks ago, everything has to go right for MLS to work in a big event town like Miami. The team needs deep-pocketed investors, an infusion of star power and the perfect atmosphere to get a fickle sports fanbase to buy in.
Part of what makes any environment for MLS great is the stadium location. Commissioner Don Garber made it a mandate years ago to build new stadiums in the urban core of a city, an area that would be accessible by public transport and be surrounded by entertainment options.
Now, with the Beckham group's sights potentially shifting away from the Overtown location, construction is being proposed for the 180-acre city-owned Melreese golf club. This site, near Miami International Airport, would allow the team to have room for a youth academy and retail options, but it lacks the personality a property on the city's doorstep could provide and breaks with the MLS formula.
Take it from someone who has watched the growth of Orlando City Soccer from its infancy: Every detail matters. Amplify that statement by ten in Miami, where afternoon rainstorms were cited as a deterrent for fans attending Marlins games for years until they built a ballpark with a retractable roof.
All Beckham and the Mas brothers need to do is look around at their fellow league members. Matchday environments in Orlando, Seattle, Toronto and elsewhere have been buoyed by facilities constructed in the heart of their cities.
Meanwhile, teams that are on the outskirts of the action, like FC Dallas in the suburb of Frisco, Texas, struggle to draw fans.
Beckham has had some bad luck on his road to making the Miami dream a reality. He has been rebuffed by big industry and the political world when trying to secure previous stadium sites at the Port of Miami and on the banks of Biscayne Bay.
While those locations would have provided a tremendous backdrop for his soccer club, Overtown is a compromise that can work for all. Moving the team to suburbia before they even see the pitch would set the franchise forward on a difficult path.
There are no mulligans available in the high-stakes game of stadium construction. The ultimate success of the franchise and Beckham's legacy as an owner may hinge on this key early decision. It breaks with the MLS formula but there has been more to consider with making the Miami dream a reality.
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Cover photo courtesy of Pixabay.
Carson Ingle is a South Florida native. He has been a sportswriter and sports talk radio host based in Orlando for the past ten years. He can currently be seen several times a week on Spectrum Sports 360's Face-Off segment at 10:30 p.m. on Central Florida News 13, channel 1013. Follow him on Twitter.
