By Ben Nicholson
July 30 – ESPN’s pundit Alexi Lalas, ex-US national team player, spilled MLS commissioner Dan Garber’s beans over Miami Beckham United. Lalas shared a conversation he had with Garber, in which Garber said, “MLS will not expand to Miami unless we have a downtown site for the stadium.”
There was a time when Beckham was considering situating the stadium in Broward County, a lengthy 40-minute drive from downtown Miami, since he was finding a lack of cooperation for his ideal sights, but in light of these comments that possibility is all but squashed.
Beckham has already had two stadium proposals in the Miami-Dade area turned down by locals and has been slower to put forward a third option. It has been six months since Beckham was awarded the franchise but he is little further in finalising the stadium deal, which he needs to secure a spot as an expansion franchise.
Garber’s reluctance for a stadium anywhere but downtown is influenced by the fate of Miami Fusion, which was an MLS team based in Fort Lauderdale that folded after four unsuccessful seasons.
As the clamor in Vegas increases to house an MLS team, and with Minneapolis and Sacramento the current favorites to earn an expansion bid (not to mention the interest shown by San Antonio, Austin, and San Diego), Miami might be in jeopardy of losing out altogether.
Beckham, if he continues to be met with resistance in Miami, may even form a coalition with the bidders in these other cities to realise his dream. Beckham had written into his contract whilst playing for LA Galaxy an option to purchase a franchise at the cost of $25 million, which is a smaller fee by about $50 million than any cities would now have to pay for the same privilege.
Some believe that the release of these comments will spur Miami into cooperative action. But the same was said when news of Beckham considering the Broward County location became public too, and that achieved nothing.
Vegas update:
The news for Justin Findlay’s Findlay Sports and Entertainment bid for an expansion in Las Vegas is that he is working through the murky water of stadium planning too. There is a supposed $29 million funding gap between the prospective $201 million costing stadium and the $172 identified funding.
The plans currently have the city providing 74% of the funding, but are reportedly working to reduce this to an even 50/50 share between city and developers.
The idea is that the city would own the land and the developers would pay rent for its use.
There is much still to be negotiated, like naming rights and who is to receive the income from advertising boards. There is also the public comment to be wary of, which is being collected online up until August 11.
The City Council is scheduled to take its first vote on August 20, and with rival bidder Jason Adder waiting in the wings the saga is sure to get more complicated.
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