“I want Beckham to be in the league, and he’s the guy who can make Miami work,” said one M.L.S. owner who asked not to be named because the vote on the team had not taken place. “But when we sit in the room, that’s what we talk about.”

Residents of the adjacent Spring Garden neighborhood also worry about traffic and noise spilling into their quiet residential enclave, and fear that concerts and other events will fill the stadium on nights when the team isn’t playing.

“The soccer people will tell you there will only be 15 games a year, but we think this is a ruse for concerts, and we don’t want it in our backyard,” said Ernest Martin, a former president of the Spring Garden Civic Association. “It’s all part of dumping undesirable urban projects into Overtown.”

Leiweke, who is steering the stadium project for the Beckham group, is undeterred. No tax dollars are being spent on the stadium, he said, and he suggested that fans, particularly the younger ones the team and the league want to attract, would be comfortable ditching their cars and marching to games from nearby bars and restaurants.

And while Overtown remains rough around the edges, Leiweke pointed to the new 25,500-seat stadium that was built in a similar neighborhood in Orlando, and noted that the M.L.S. team that calls it home, Orlando City S.C., has played to capacity crowds.

“You have to find a balance between what the stadium will look like in 10 years and building in a neighborhood where you don’t have to charge $500 a ticket,” Leiweke said. Of Orlando, he added, “The day-of-game experience has been positive, and the value of the property around the stadium has increased dramatically.”