Major League Soccer is closer than ever to announcing the long-awaited Miami franchise.
After meeting with the league’s board of governors on Wednesday before the All-Star Game against Real Madrid, commissioner Don Garber told reporters the deal is at the finish line for the Miami MLS team.
“We’re not announcing MLS Miami today,” Garber said. “But I am confident that we’ll be able to do that sometime, perhaps by the end of the summer. We do have some things that we need to work through.”
The Miami project has been long been in the works for MLS, but there have been plenty of road blocks to clear to get this point.
“David and his partner Todd Boehy presented their plan and vision, including their thoughts about a stadium for an MLS expansion team in Miami,” Garber said. “Their plan was very well received by our owners. It was the first time David had formally met with our owners and it was the first time our owners had an opportunity to meet with Todd.”
The outcome of the meeting with Beckham and his partners was a go-ahead given to Garber to finalize the details of the deal for the expansion franchise in the coming weeks.
“There was a vote that authorized me and along with a committee of owners to finalize the details with respect to that plan. We believe the time is right, finally, for Miami to become a great Major League Soccer city.”
Miami would be the 24th franchise to join MLS and teams No. 25 and No. 26 are expected to be announced by the end of 2017.
MLS was previously in Miami from 1998-2001 in the form of the Miami Fusion before that team folded after the 2001 campaign.
Can’t believe they’re really gonna build a stadium in the middle of a residential neighborhood with zero parking…
I live in the area and vast majority people think of MLS is crap. This (SO FL) is more Euro-snob fanbase, just because highly Hispanics population, don’t assume Hispanics will support Minor League Soccer. Hey, South Florida is more posh,(snobs) & refine (stuck up) than the U.S.
One thing, South Florida has hottest chicks in the U.S. unlike fatties in SO CA.
I live 3 hours from Orlando but 2 only hours from Miami. I’d be more likely to see a few more games each season if the roundtrip wasn’t 6 hours. All that to say that it won’t just be the Miami residents attending these games.
And although I’m not a fan of bringing in El Tri players just for the sake of attracting more Hispanic fans (which my Galaxy seem to be doing…), I have a feeling that this club will be especially keen to do that, considering Miami is known to many as the capital of Latin America.
Vast majority Hispanics are anti-tri & will support any team playing against mexico. I was born Uruguay but raise Los Angeles & served in the military. I used to go to Galaxy games & I never saw mexican fans at the Galaxy games but from El Salvador or Guatemala. People see people speaking in Spanish & call them “mexican”, that’s the problem with U.S. soccer media.