David Beckham’s protracted bid to bring a Major League Soccer team to Miami now rests on the fate of a small plot of disused, contaminated, county-owned land.



Tim Leiweke, Beckham’s top negotiator, this week told residents in the Overtown district where it plans to build a 25,000-seat arena “this is the last chance to get a stadium or soccer team”.

That was not a threat; it was an acknowledgement.

An acknowledgement that – after the collapse of three proposed sites, three years spent securing $500m in investment to privately fund “every penny” and endless political maneuvering – another defeat will bring the saga to a permanent and fruitless end.

Having already purchased the majority of the required land, this final three-acre plot is beyond critical for the Miami Beckham United group. Should the agreed-upon $9m land transfer clear the Miami-Dade County Commission vote on 6 June, the Beckham group is confident it’ll be awarded the MLS’s 24th franchise.

During Wednesday night’s community forum the group even premiered a new design it believes will spawn the “best stadium in MLS,” in time for the 2021 season. However, it’s not a done deal … yet.

Leiweke, a veteran of 19 stadium builds, admitted, “I’ve never had a more difficult process than this.”

To understand why, and to understand the continued local scepticism despite endless accommodations from the Beckham group, is to understand Miami itself.

It starts with the taxpayer-funded Miami Marlins baseball stadium, where an initial $490m public investment will rise to an estimated $2.4bn over the next 40 years. The team’s reviled owner, Jeffrey Loria is currently preparing to sell the team to a Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush-led group for a reported $1.3bn. None of the proceeds from that robbery will go back into the public pot.

The legacy of Loria is unfortunate for the Beckham group, but it’s little surprise the local government has, in Leiweke’s words, “held our feet to the fire” desperate to avoid a repeat.

But, to its credit, MBU has pledged to privately fund the entire project since day one. That money is now in place, thanks in no small measure to the addition of new investment from billionaire LA Dodgers part owner Todd Boehly last month.

No quarter is being asked, nor given, but residents have heard those promises before.

It’s about far more than money though. Traffic, already an incessant nightmare, is a primary concern in this historic, fiercely protective neighborhood. No additional parking is being built, so residents are naturally concerned about local gridlock, fans parking on doorsteps and their children’s safety.

By proxy, Overtown already suffers from the traffic chaos before and after games at the financial albatross known as Marlins Park, where there’s ample parking and terrible attendance.

David Beckham, center, poses with MLS commissioner Don Garber, left, and Miami-Dade County mayor Carlos Gimenez back in 2014. Photograph: Lynne Sladky/AP

Beckham’s group says it’ll shuttle match-goers from 2,000 nearby spots in existing lots, but it also romanticises about a European-style “march to the match”. It hopes visitors will take a ferry up the Miami River or use the nearby Metrorail stations. One resident countered by saying public transport in the county “sucked”. He’s not wrong.

MBU has promised to be a “good neighbor”, bringing economic growth to one of the city’s most underprivileged areas. It has promised 50 full-time jobs once the stadium opens (albeit only 24 at a living wage), but not everyone is buying the promise of trickle-down economics, especially after it’s had little effect on the area surrounding Marlins Park.

Dr Ernie Martin, a resident of neighbouring Spring Gardens, said: “Plopping down a 25,000-seater stadium in the middle of our two neighborhoods is an insult.

“The people of Overtown are too intelligent to think if you allow them to sell a hot dog and a warm beer, it will satisfy their economic development goals.”

Another local, Mario Cohen told the group: “That land should not be sold, it should be used as a club that you can join and just play soccer. Not 22 people making hundreds of thousands of dollars just to play a few times a year. It should be permanent, green and not grey and concrete paved.”

Despite the objections, there was significant support in the community, not least for the plans to build a world-class youth soccer academy. However, some in Overtown remain worried they’ll be overrun and left behind.

To temper the local reticence, the Beckham group is leaping through so many hoops it’d make the Miami Heat basketball team proud.

After residents complained the structure would block their ocean breeze, the entire stadium design has been revised with open walls above the seats.

“Your breeze is back,” Leiweke quipped on Wednesday in unveiling the “uniquely Miami” stadium, the group hopes will bring 2026 World Cup Qualifiers and subsequently Finals (games should North America’s bid prove successful) to South Florida.

However, even if the land sale is approved on June, progress will be slower than the Miami traffic. The group will enter a one-year “entitlement process” of community consultation before a shovel can enter the ground. It can be stopped at any point if county and city conditions aren’t being met.

The soccer team itself is likely to start its life in a temporary home during the 18-month construction period.

Ah, the team! Finally. Amid all the talk of land purchases and the complex politics of gentrification, it’s easy to forget this will eventually be about a football team. Beckham’s doesn’t even have a name yet.

In the three years since Beckham arrived in Miami hopeful of procuring a glitzy waterfront site, the group has bounced to its least preferred location, all while soaring costs required it to go out and chase further investment. While the best-laid plans have wilted in the south Florida heat, Major League Soccer has flourished.

“We’ve watched Major League Soccer evolve around us and watched not only new teams, but new stadiums, all while being delayed here,” Leiweke said.

Orlando, for example, was awarded its expansion franchise just ten weeks before Beckham announced his intentions for Miami.

While the former England skipper’s bid remains in local government limbo, three hours north on I-95, Orlando City FC currently plays to 25,500 capacity crowds in a beloved new stadium hailed as a “blueprint for the future,” by MLS commissioner Don Garber.

Should things go the way of Team Becks on 6 June, Garber could finally be in a position to hand those blueprints to Miami.