Soccer team plan still kicking

Commissioner authorized to deal

Major League Soccer commissioner gets OK to complete negotiations with David Beckham’s group to bring a team to Miami.

David Beckham’s proposed Major League Soccer team in Miami is as close as it ever has been to a reality.

A Wednesday vote in Chicago authorized MLS commissioner Don Garber to move forward and negotiate with the group to finalize its entrance to the league. He said the league was not formally announcing MLS Miami on Wednesday, but expected to at some point this summer.

“Everything really is in place for us to do what we need to do over the next couple of weeks, perhaps 30 days to work with them to move forward,” Garber said.

Beckham and Todd Boehly were both in Chicago for the league’s owners meetings as part of the MLS All-Star Week, presenting their vision for top-tier soccer in Miami. Garber said Boehly, a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, would be the franchise’s majority owner.

It was the first time the league’s owners met formally with both Beckham and Boehly to discuss the sport’s future in Miami. Garber said the plan was “very well received by our owners.”

“There was still a couple of elements that we need to finalize before we’re ready to have an announcement,” Garber said.

Garber said the presentation included the group’s stadium plan, its capital table with ownership and a plan to acquire addi-

tional land around the stadium. Garber added that Wednesday’s vote was “no different than any other expansion team.”

Earlier this week, Garber said the league was at the finish line with expansion in Miami. After Wednesday, he said they were “one foot closer to it, but we’re not quite over it. But we’re getting really, really, really close.”

MBU partner Tim Leiweke previously said the team is aiming for a 2020 start date at its 25,000-seat stadium.

League approval would be the latest win for MBU after receiving Miami-Dade County approval to purchase three acres of land in Overtown for about $9 million in June. The county land was the last necessary parcel for the group to build a stadium. MBU previously purchased six acres of private land for $19 million.

“As we all know, Miami is one of the largest markets in North America,” Garber said. “It’s a community that’s incredibly diverse. It’s passionate about the game. One just needs to see what happened last Saturday night [at El Clasico Miami].”

A Miami franchise backed by Beckham will receive a significant discount on typical league expansion fees. As part of his deal to join the Los Angeles Galaxy, Beckham received the option to start a franchise for $25 million. Other MLS expansion teams are being charged $150 million.

“He helped establish our league as a legitimate force in the sport,” Garber said of Beckham. “Now, he’s looking to take that same energy, that same belief in our country, that same belief in our league, that same belief in the promise of soccer in North America and wants to execute on that as an owner and wants to do it in a city that he loves.”

If league approval eventually comes for MBU, the seemingly final hurdle in front of the group would be an estimated year-long zoning process through the City of Miami to zone the Overtown property. The zoning process would include more meetings with the public, sure to echo concerns brought up by neighbors before: a lack of parking and an influx of noise.

The Overtown site (between NW 6th and 7th avenues, and NW 6th and 8th streets) is the fourth one the group has considered. It first failed at the Port of Miami. Then locations next to AmericanAirlines Arena and Marlins Park fell through. So the group settled on Overtown, which is west of downtown.

Beckham formally announced his intention to bring MLS to Miami in February 2014.