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Beckham invited to explore new downtown Miami stadium location

David Beckham of Paris St Germain adjusts his tie in the Directors' Box

By FRANCO PANIZO

A new option in Miami has presented itself to David Beckham.

A group that last year purchased a building on Biscayne Bay where the Miami Herald used to operate has invited Beckham to look into the possibility of building a soccer-specific stadium in the area. Malaysian-based Genting Group, which has developed resorts and casinos from Hong Kong to New York, initially planned to construct a luxury casino resort at the location. However, state law doesn’t allow casino gambling at the site.

“I’ve invited Beckham to have a discussion with them because if you wanted to create a downtown stadium, that is a place where you can accomplish that,” City of Miami commissioner Marc Sarnoff told Local10.com.

Sarnoff added that the move to partner the Genting Group with Beckham has been in the works for a couple of months now. Beckham has met with Genting executives at least twice in New York, according to Sarnoff.

Beckham has had a hard time finding a stadium location in downtown Miami since announcing his plans to use his MLS franchise expansion discount on the South Florida metropolis back in May. He first saw his preferred PortMiami site receive lots of public objection before a boat slip next to the AmericanAirlines Arena was also shot down.

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What do you make of this development? Think this will be the location where Beckham will ultimately build his stadium? Do you see an agreement being made by the end of the year?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. great location and sounds like there isn’t any objection. it’s not county land. maybe he finally got himself a winning location.

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  2. here is an interesting twist…Genting is one of the largest shareholders of Norwegian Caribbean Lines. NCL was part of the coalition that gave Becks the boot off of Port of Miami property. Nothing to see here. Move on.

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  3. Parcel looks to be too narrow. AAA would not fit on that. Wouldn’t a soccer stadium would need even more width than a basketball arena?

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    • Interesting observation! I’m pretty sure the stadium would have to be situated along the water such that one touch line would be open running parallel to the water–a very unusual 3-sided stadium. Unless, of course, they just reconfigured the property and moved the existing roads/tracks.

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      • my thought as well. hopefully the transit line and roads can be worked around/reconfigured. a bit too small unless they get creative.

      • Agree too narrow. Leaving the bay side opens means Lots and Lots of winds when they come out of the east to north east, where the strong winds come from. And that’s not the hurricanes, just the cold fronts. It’ll be interesting to see any site-plan or renderings they come up with. Probably have to move metro-rail elevated track west or make some land in the bay with fill. But then they were considering that with the boat slip site.

  4. I repeat, MLS should give Los Angeles 2 and Miami about 3 years or 4 and make them the 25 and 26 team. Relocate and sell chivas USA and give Sacramento and Vegas a team.

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    • LOL… finds out that casinos are illegal after sending millions on the land.. sounds like the kind of seller this beckham group can work with

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      • There have been several votes on the state and local levels to allow casino gambling in Florida/Miami in years past. Maybe Genting thought they had a win the last time it was on the ballot last year or the year before.

    • Other articles on this subject say that Genting has lobbied heavily to get the law changed.

      My guess is that they were betting they could get the law changed and when ahead with the purchase. When the law didn’t change they need to find a way out or another use for the land.

      There is no indication that they didn’t do their due diligence?

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    • There is a Metromover stop right there, but it’s Miami. Not a whole lot of people are going to be taking public transport to the games.

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      • they did to Panthers games when it was downtown. I personally haven’t seen a hockey game since they moved because it’s too far to drive and no public transport.

    • This is MLS/Don Garber we’re talking about there. Making things up as we go along, bypassing rules, creating exceptions and barriers is the name of our game.

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      • Uh…was there some straight and narrow path that would have taken us up to where we are today?

        MLS was coming into a crowded sports marketplace in a country that thought it hated soccer…and a certain portion of the population remains hostile to it.

        I’m not a Garber fanboy, but if there was some way to build a parity-based league that wasn’t a worse version of the SPL or La Liga – two teams and a bunch of Washington Generals – I don’t know what it was. Actually nobody in Europe has quite figured that out; the concept of “parity-based league” doesn’t exist there. And a non-parity-based league wasn’t ever going to fly here. Who would invest?

        Gotta take advantage of situations where they are, as they get handed to you. Getting MLS into the Southeast would be a good thing, however it gets done.

      • We are talking about a 23rd franchise in a league that was contracting when Garber took over. There have been mistakes along the way, but the bottom line is the league has expanded and is successful. Compare MLS to other leagues with less than 20 years of existence. Probably better than the J League. I would probably rate MLS as mid-level European quality.

    • really? you want MLS to say “times up” and snatch the option away? after all the work thats gone into this? I think you need a new strawman fella.

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  5. One thing they might consider is the waterside amenities, facing that direction as opposed to the field. A neat aspect of Craven Cottage, though I’m not sure if it’s still this way, used to be that it backed up on the Thames embankment. So before the game — at least if you had tickets for that riverside stand — you could stand there and lazily look out at the river, then go in near the whistle for the festivities. Fulham is also next to a nice riverside park that is used by the youth teams for practice. The Dynamo stadium was supposed to integrate into a broader development that’s not really happened. I’m not sure if West Chester has been developed per that plan. I’m hoping MLS approaches this in the broader sense of location and not just a downtown address, which seems to be the general obsession for this and other parks.

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    • ahhhh, Bishop Park. Good memories of my one visit to the Cottage….saw McLegend, Keller and Boca. McHead’s last match with Fulham.

      good times.

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    • Yep, it’s still that way at the cottage. Pre game and halftime drinks on the river, and then a post game walk north along the river to the Crabtree, a fantastic pub with a ton of outdoor seating. It’s really the only civilized way to see a match.

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