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Report: Beckham group adds new investor to Miami project

David Beckham’s Miami project reportedly has a new partner involved

According to ESPN, banker Todd Boehly has been added to Beckham’s Miami MLS push, adding another investor to the ownership group. Boehly, a part-owner of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers with a net worth in the billions, joins Beckham, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke and Beckham’s business partner, Simon Fuller, as investors.

The report says that MLS has yet to officially sign off on the proposal and may come back with further recommendations. Several MLS owners are reportedly speaking out against the group’s discounted $25 million expansion fee, one which was agreed upon during Beckham’s playing career. Current expansion fees are reportedly north of $150 million, and several current MLS owners don’t believe it is fair to have other owners attach themselves to Beckham’s deal at the discounted rate.

Beckham’s project recently spent 19 million on a six-acre parcel of land in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood and the group is reportedly set to push for a remaining three-acre parcel once the ownership group is rounded out.

Comments

  1. Becks deserves some kind of discount for what he did for the league, but $25M is too small a price to pay for the fiasco this Miami deal has been. Make the price tag $100M: Becks can put in $25M; the others can cover the balance. How’s that for a compromise?

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  2. I guess some of the other rich dudes are extremely ticked off that other rich guys are trying to get in on the crazy discount that Beckham got…Some of them weren’t even around to weigh in on the deal and they know what sort of coin they had to pony up to buy in.

    I seriously doubt that was what’s MLS had in mind when they gave the international icon the coupon. Either the deal can get done or it can’t…

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  3. You are all right though this deal is over ten years old. With no deadline for him to exercise this option this makes Garber look bad. Giving Beck’s a huge discount when fans in St.L are starting go fund me pages to raise $60M starts to piss people off.

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  4. I’m a bit tired of hearing about this project. I’ll be interested again once they start shoveling some dirt to build a stadium.

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    • Yes. because the fact that Beckham was the first big-name player, and one who attached his name to the then-project that was MLS because he saw its potential and decided to take a chance, means nothing.

      After all, agreements made are no longer binding when keeping them is inconvenient.

      MLS benefited immensely from Beckham’s participation and it badly needed him at the time. He’s had some difficulties getting the project off the ground in Miami – predictably – but that’s not really on him. He put his butt on the line to make MLS get off the ground and MLS will remember that if they’re wise. He got a $25 million consideration for franchise rights at the time because that’s what they were worth then. They’re worth a lot more now…in no small part because Beckham did come along and jump-start the league when it badly needed it. Just a few years before Beckham arrived, MLS was actually contracting.

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      • Agreed that Beckham earned his 25mil team for his service, which now seems like a great deal. Sounds like the “grumbling” is due to other guys, like the banker above, who are jumping on board with Beckham and presumably getting in on the (greatly) reduced franchise fee. That is a little harder to defend, as I can see both sides of the argument.

        It should also be mentioned that all of the difficulties he’s had in Miami could’ve been avoided if he was willing to look at other cities, many of which had much better support from local govt and built-in fanbases. Even with MLS support taking off, I’m still not sold Miami will be a success.

      • You act as if he did all this for free, or as if he didn’t skip town to Milan when it was convenient for his career. Quite a selective memory you have.
        This is just business, I’m sure he’d understand.

      • I agree with Rob. Holy Moly. The agreement had a timeframe on it.
        Well past that, but because he announced intentions, he can do it in 2050?

        No, MLS needs to move on

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