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Miami-Dade commissioner ‘hasn’t heard anything’ on MLS stadium

Photo by Robert Mayer-USA Today Sports

As the weeks and months tick by for David Beckham and his ownership group, city and county officials are growing restless with the team’s search for a stadium.

According to the Miami Herald, Miami-Dade commissioner Audrey Edmonson “hasn’t heard anything” regarding a stadium site proposal, with another commissioner wondering if the county can build affordable housing in its place.

“How long are we going to negotiate for the use of that [county-owned land] before we decide that maybe that ought to be made available for some affordable housing?” asked commissioner Xavier Suarez. “Are we going to wait for these folks forever before we use that property for something more?”

Mayor Carlos Gimenez claims he is ready to negotiate the sale of a vehicle depot for the stadium, but based on Edmonson’s response, it looks like that is still far from reality.

Beckham’s group has been searching for a site for years and eventually settled on Miami’s Overtown. However, Edmonson is the county’s commissioner, so she has a significant say on any potential deal.

The Miami MLS expansion franchise was officially unveiled more than three years ago in Feb. 2014. Four new teams have since entered the league.

Comments

  1. We are a decade into this process now. Granted that DC took two decades to get their stadium, but I’m starting to think that Beckham Co. isn’t really putting the boots on the ground in Miami to make this happen. It took Jason Levian personally going to meetings with the City Council, Mayoral Office, neighborhood groups, developers, etc. to get DC in finally. I don’t hear much of any of that happening in Miami.

    I’m sensing a bit of disinterest in the matter from Simon and David on this one. It seems that they have too many Idol/underwear media releases to do…

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  2. And while we waited for this to play out, LAFC will now enter the league alone making for an odd number of teams. Move on Beckham.

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  3. i think it’s important for this to end in a good publicity way. i mean if they’re going to put low income housing there, instead, maybe with some help from a beckham financial contribution?

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    • haha that’s a good one, old school. i refine my idea. the city provides the low income housing (by far the biggest expense). beckham renovates the neighborhood soccer field. i mean, makes it really nice. further, he should VISIT IT once in a while, too. (kids kick around with david beckham, etc.) i mean the future clint dempseys and jordan morrises might be right there in miami some day, who knows? he can plant the seed now, and maybe 100 years from now the miami beckham united that he envisioned might become a reality.

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  4. Let’s all remember his $25M option was first floated in his 2007 contract. Even then it had an expiration date of 2012. Five years later in 2017 with with 12 cities now ready to pay $150M this just looks like bad business.

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  5. I don’t get it.

    They are going to hold indefinitely a spot for a VERY reduced price? In a city that is already flooding? Why?

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    • MLS owes it to Becksley given all he did to grow the league’s profile. It ends when Beckham either gets a stadium or swallows his pride and looks in another city or backs out entirely.

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      • It’s not as if Beckham wasn’t compensated fairly for his time in the league. He helped grow the league, but now he is making an embarrassment of it with this Miami expansion fiasco.

  6. The commissioner was not aware of the fact that, even though the property can be purchased, it will not be available to the Beckham Group until the City Yard can be moved to a new site and no date has been set for the move.
    What a politician, What a moron.

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    • The political climate for this post Marlins stadium and whether the commissioner is even factually right or wrong is almost besides the point if the key political figures including him are not on board.

      It was a horrible city choice based on history, that we probably indulged because this was Beckham’s option and not our own expansion decision. This is not happening so as soon as we think we have tried this enough for contractual “out” purposes, we will get real and move on, for the better.

      Beckham will either buy into an existing or new team’s ownership, or MLS or an expansion wannabe will buy out his option.

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