Inter Miami look to have their destination decided for their first two seasons as a franchise.
According to the Miami Herald, Inter Miami plans to play in Fort Lauderdale at the now-abandoned Lockhart Stadium, building a new stadium in its place. Inter Miami are planned to spend $60 million to make it happen as well as play their first two MLS seasons in 2020 and 2021 there.
“We’re going to build a new stadium,” fellow Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas said. “It’s not a refurbishment of Lockhart. It will be a new stadium for a (second-tier) USL team and a soccer centric academy. We’ll be able to host tournaments and other games there.”
The plan will need backing from Fort Lauderdale City Council early next week. There is also a rival bid from FXE Futbol also in the running as they want to build a sports and entertainment complex.
Beckham and his ownership group have searched for several years in Miami for a stadium site but have yet to be approved. Miami Freedom Park is the ownership group’s preferred choice for location but they still need a key city council vote to make it a reality.
Lockhart Stadium was home to the only prior MLS franchise in the area, the Miami Fusion, which was contracted in 2001. Florida Atlantic University’s football stadium as well as Hard Rock Stadium have been considered as options but seem too large as venues at this point.
Can someone from South Florida explain the impact of playing in Ft. Lauderdale vs Miami? And, what are the causes of the impact?
There was a MLS expansion team called the Miami Fusion that played at Lockhart in Ft. Lauderdale, which is about about 30 miles from Miami downtown. It existed for 4 years before being folded in 2001 at the same time Tampa lost their team. [young Rimando and Beckerman played there, as well as Mastro and Valderrama] The years the team made the playoffs they averaged about 10k fans in the regular season and 13k in the playoffs. The year they missed the playoffs they averaged 7k. Far as I am concerned you are taking a city that didn’t support the last team — and doesn’t attend its minor league teams either — and then have the new side starting off with them playing where the last team failed, a drive out of town. It’s kind of like how Dallas really plays in Frisco but without the soccer passion. I see this as like Colombus-to-Austin in the sense that this would not have been the expansion choice if the owner couldn’t dictate it. We owed Beckham an option and this is where he wants it. Maybe MLS had no legal right to refuse, or maybe the idea is Miami will rise or fall on its merits and Beckham will either have wasted his money or it will get moved and maybe him cashed out. But with teams coming in that pull 20k in the minors there is no way they would have picked a city that got 10k tops with a good MLS roster.
Other than a new owner whose site choice had to be indulged, we haven’t moved a foot on Miami soccer, have we? In their best season (both as a team and a business) in 2001 the Fusion averaged 11k in Lockhart.
My thoughts exactly! Not one foot….