Feature: The shadow of Miami Marlins continues to loom over Beckham’s MLS stadium hunt

David Beckham’s grand Miami stadium hunt may finally be coming to end. It looks as though the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and LA Galaxy midfielder has finally secured a spot for his proposed franchise, but there’s still a bit of trepidation going forward. A site that was initially called ‘spiritually tainted’ is now being championed by Beckham as ‘world class’.

Granted, he wasn’t the one who publicly hissed at the old Orange Bowl site. That was Simon Fuller, a business partner in the Miami Beckham United group, and, to be fair, he said it more than a year ago. They were being idealistic then. But those ideals have been blown to pieces by the political minefield of Miami. Sports stadiums are a touchy subject for the city.

In 2013, the current Mayor of Miami, Tomás Regalado, was already in office and didn’t mince his words about a deal struck by his predecessor in an interview with Sports Illustrated. “Miami has a history of bad deals, but I would rate this number one,” he said. “The residents of Miami were raped. Completely.”

People felt that such extreme language was warranted because the topic was Marlins Park. The public-funded stadium for the Miami Marlins was a catastrophic failure. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria had promised to maintain a $100 million dollar payroll, but a year after the stadium’s construction it was down to $32 million.

The Marlins have played a leading role in football’s struggle to make an impact in Miami. In an interview in late 2014, Miami-based football journalist Juan Arango told me that the Marlins refused to allow their stadium to be rented out during USA ’94 and that’s why Miami didn’t have a World Cup venue.

“For years, the club moaned that they needed their own stadium in order to be competitive; despite them winning two World Series from 1997 to 2003,” said the Al-Jazeera commentator. “They asked for public money to have their stadium built and the local government obliged despite tremendous disapproval by the people.

“That first season the Marlins fielded a competitive side but as soon as they were out of the playoff race, they quickly started to unload players – like they had done previously after winning their two World Series. They have truly damaged their brand and, personally, I think it will take years to really get the community behind them once again – if they ever can do that.

“In essence, the Marlins were the precedent that has really affected Miami MLS efforts. The people are extremely skeptical as to how Beckham is going to privately fund a stadium. He then went to Tallahassee to start looking for tax credits, so there have been some mixed messages (although Beckham was in his right to do so).”

Fellow Miami resident and acclaimed sports writer Robert Andrew Powell also spoke about the controversy surrounding Marlins Park. “The Marlins deal is the worst, so historically bad,” he said. “In the end, the public will pay several billion dollars for the stadium. Billions!

“This happened in a city and county so strapped for cash that they’ve closed libraries, raised taxes, and laid off cops and firefighters. (Miami-Dade County is the big government power. The City of Miami is relatively small, but with the tall downtown buildings and a gold-plated brand name.) There is a strong sense of ‘enough is enough.’

“The bad taste from the Marlins deal is a clear hurdle for Beckham to overcome. A good politician could surmount it. Is Beckham a good politician?”

He might have taken his time navigating through treacherous waters but Beckham has shown that he has diplomatic chops. His squeaky clean profile fronts the franchise while Fuller and billionaire Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure are the brains behind off-the-pitch matters. Inevitably, one has to question the agenda of politicians giving their backing to the project as well as the ones trudging in the march to fruition.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez is one figure whose involvement has been eyed with suspicion. On the day that Beckham held a press conference in Miami announcing that he was exercising the option to build a franchise in February 2014, a banner flew over the photogenic superstar warning ‘Beckham: Don’t trust Gimenez’.

Ed Serrano, better known as Uncle Ed, is the vice-president of MLS Miami supporters group, Southern Legion. A self-professed ‘huge soccer fan’, he (and friend Julio Caballero) wrote to Claure and ‘every other billionaire in Florida’ after Miami Fusion folded in 2001, pleading to help bring a team to the state.

They were close to getting one with the help of Barcelona in 2008, but the Spanish giants backed out at the last minute and without their support nothing materialised.

He wrote an open letter to Gimenez a year ago asking why he was being so uncooperative with Beckham, but never received a reply.

“Regrettably there was never any response. We’ve made a few visits to the county and city halls to show our support and the politicians are gracious when TV cameras are around, but when they are not it’s hard to get any response back from them. When Beckham was around they all wanted to take pictures with him.”

Relentlessly optimistic, Serrano had faith that MLS Miami would find its feet despite unsteady terrain. “We’ve got some pretty shady politicians in Miami and the Marlins Park fiasco is proof of that. It cost the previous mayor his job and has hurt Beckham’s ability to get things done. There are a few people out there who oppose the new Stadium just for the sake of opposing.

“Beckham has continually repeated that he will finance the stadium himself and will not go after local funds like in the case of Marlins Park where a billionaire basically got a free stadium and only he profits from any event taking place there without anything going back to the city or county. It’s a headache but I think there will be light at the end of the tunnel.”

Now, 17 months after Beckham charmed at the initial announcement, a stadium has more or less been secured. Miami city commissioners have reportedly given it a tentative green light, although they are still in negotiations. Nothing will be certain until the stadium is built. This hasn’t stopped top players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic being mooted as signings for a club planning to play in MLS by 2018.

Football has never had higher stock in America. A recent influx of stars include Steven Gerrard, Andrea Pirlo and Giovani Dos Santos, while the the national team were an overwhelming triumph at the Women’s World Cup. Their 5-2 victory over Japan in the final broke ratings records, attracting more viewers than any other soccer match in US history.

Couple this with the relative success of the Men’s team in Brazil last year (don’t mention the recent Gold Cup banana skin) and it feels as though Miami’s MLS franchise has momentum to succeed where previous franchises, Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion, failed.

“MLS wasn’t in the best shape, but it was the Fusion’s administration that has lots to do with it,” Arango recalls. “Their ownership back then had lots to really create something special but failed to do so. Their marketing was not the best and had many other gaffes along the way. [Ken] Horowitz was not the most active owner, per se. Many see Horowitz as the person that let the franchise die without truly putting up a fight.

“Despite all that, the team did capture the imagination of the community. There was a team that was very dynamic, filled with personalities. They also had a coach that was effervescent and extremely intelligent in Ray Hudson. In previous years, the Fusion did not capture the attention of the market because they were a poor side. That season, they were a winning, contending side.

“Let me tell you something, Miami, South Florida; actually, America love winners. This is what made the Fusion arguably one of the greatest MLS ‘what if’ stories. ‘What if’ MLS kept the Fusion around for even one more season? They weren’t given a true chance to flourish and were contracted while at their height.”

With MBU having already agreed to pay more than $250 million for the 25,000 seat stadium, it doesn’t seem likely that negligence will come into play this time around. The growing infatuation with the beautiful game would suggest that a lack of interest won’t be a problem, either. Yet it’s hard to shake off bad omens.

Speaking on the Joe Rose radio show last week, Gimenez said that the Marlins would be making money off the soon-to-be tenants of the Orange Bowl site through parking, something which caused plenty of grumbling among listeners.

A detail from this interview that was surprisingly overlooked was his revelation that the two stadiums will literally be so close together that the roof of Marlins Park will be hanging over Beckham’s stadium. Miami residents will hope the MLS franchise can emerge from the shadow of its reviled neighbour to give the city a sports team it can be proud of.