Beckham finally getting his Miami MLS franchise
After four years of false starts, David Beckham’s quest to bring Major League Soccer to Miami will finally come to fruition with an announcement scheduled for noon Monday.
Beckham, the retired British soccer superstar, will join with members of his ownership group, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Giménez and City of Miami counterpart Francis Suarez in raising the curtain on the franchise at Knight Concert Hall at The Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd.
That may include revealing the team name and colors.
A limited number of free tickets are available to the general public for the event. RSVP is required at FutbolMiamiMLS.com.
The group previously announced plans to begin play in the 2020 season at a $225 million, 25,000-seat stadium to be built in Overtown, a neighborhood in Miami.
Monday’s announcement, expected to detail the go-ahead for the project, will be live-streamed globally on MLSsoccer.com.
It comes just a few days short of the anniversary of a similar glitzy gathering, on Feb. 5, 2014, when many of the same participants were present on an outdoor stage overlooking Biscayne Bay when Beckham announced he had exercised an option in his contract with MLS to purchase an expansion franchise to play in Miami.
That turned out to be just the beginning of a protracted odyssey to secure a site for a soccer-specific stadium and put together an ownership group to fund it and the team.
Local businessmen Jorge and Jose Mas were recent additions to the group, known as Miami Beckham United (MBU). Jorge Mas had pursued purchase of the Miami Marlins last summer.
Miami Beckham United has purchased land in Overtown for the stadium after failed efforts at the Port of Miami, next to the AmericanAirline Arena and adjacent to Marlins Park.
The group received permission to buy the land after a Miami-Dade County commission vote in June. They put a down payment on the three-acre parcel of land in September. The group previously bought six acres of privately-owned land.
Since submitting the down payment on the land, the group has gone through a transition period. Todd Boehly, who was supposed to be the majority owner of the team, dropped from the group. In his place, MBU added the Mas brothers and Masayoshi Son, the founder and CEO of SoftBank.
In addition to Beckham, the Mas brothers and Son, the group also includes entertainment icon Simon Fuller and Sprint CEO Marcleo Claure. The MLS Board of Governors approved the ownership group on Dec. 14.