October 24 – Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber says an apparent lack of political will is hindering David Beckham’s bid to set up a new franchise in Miami.
In recent months there has been growing speculation that the English footballing icon, one of the world’s most recognisable sporting faces, may ditch his plans, instead opting to join a consortium led by, as of yet unnamed, Asian investors who are interested in bidding for Chivas USA.
Beckham has so far had two proposals for stadium sites in Miami rejected by local politicians.
“I’m neither optimistic (nor) pessimistic,” Garber told Reuters. “It really is a very simple position we are in – if we can’t get the right stadium, we can’t go to Miami. We have been challenged to find a site that we believe will be successful.
“We had two sites on the waterfront. Both were supported by the city mayor and the county mayor, and then we lost that support, so it is clear to me that it is a complicated market in a wide variety of ways.”
MLS will be expanding to Florida next year when Orlando City join the league, followed by Atlanta in 2017. In both cases local governments backed new stadium plans and Garber says that’s what Miami is lacking.
“Politically I am not sure that there is the same alignment on developing a vision in the way that there has been in a city like Orlando or a city like Atlanta.”
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