After four years and multiple rejections on stadium proposals, MLS announced on Monday that David Beckham will get his franchise in Miami.
On Monday, Jan. 29, MLS made an announcement that has been years in the making: David Beckham and his ownership group were finally granted their MLS expansion franchise in Miami.
The announcement didn’t come as a surprise due to the way MLS drummed up the ordeal, according to the New York Times. The announcement was made at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center, with MLS commissioner Don Garber and David Beckham and his ownership group on hand. The event itself was prefaced with the handout of hundreds of tickets and the league saying this would be a “major announcement regarding the future of soccer in Miami.”
While the announcement didn’t come as a surprise, it was one Beckham had waited longer than he ever anticipated for.
When LA Galaxy stole headlines with the signing of David Beckham in 2007, one of the clauses they put in his contract was the option to purchase an MLS expansion franchise for $25 million at the end of his career.
At the time, it was a fair price for an expansion franchise but now it is a steal with the market price for an expansion club being $150 million.
Beckham wasted little time exercising the option, doing so in February of 2014, less than a year after he had retired from the game for good.
Beckham’s franchise was supposed to begin play for the 2016 or 2017 season, as long as he could get a stadium built. But Beckham was never able to get the stadium built, and thus the debut of the franchise was delayed.
Beckham initially sought public financing which the city of Miami rejected instantly due to taxpayers already having to pay off the Miami Marlins new stadium worth $2.4 billion.
Beckham then turned to private financing, but to tie it down in a business deal he needed a site for the stadium.
Option one was to build in PortMiami which the cruise industry shut down. Option two was waterfront neighborhood in downtown Miami, Little Havana, next to Marlins Park. This site was also shut down, and Beckham turned to option three; nine acres in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, purchased for $9 million dollars.
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Beckham and his ownership group say the stadium will seat 25,000 people and cost $500 million to build. The team will begin play in 2020, but will have to wait until 2021 to move into the new stadium. Other information, such as franchise name, color scheme and potential signings, is yet to be announced.
It took Beckham four years, and his plan b, option three approach, but it looks like he can finally say he has the MLS franchise he’s been craving.