Miami has approved a soccer stadium. It’s time to give Freedom Park our true support
Iwrite this column with my headphones on, trying to isolate myself from the screams of the editorial team of the digital newspaper Republica.Gt in Guatemala.
Newsrooms are vibrant, noisy places that reach their most glorious moments when a big news item changes the plans for the day. But in this case, it is not about any breaking news. The excitement is caused by 11 athletes dressed in white who in another country, another continent more than 5,000 miles away, are performing a footballing feat.
Although it hurts — I’m a fan of Barcelona — Real Madrid has just achieved a historic soccer victory in their stadium against Manchester
City that leads them to the glory of playing their umpteenth Champions League final against Liverpool.
And despite the distance and the difference in nationality, this Spanish club has managed to infect a group of young Guatemalans who, in many cases, have not even set foot in Madrid or the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.
It seems right to me to bring up this noisy experience a few days after Inter Miami CF received approval from the Miami City Commission for the construction of a sports complex. It will be called Miami Freedom Park, it will include a new soccer stadium and it will be located in the area where the Melreese Country Club golf course is currently located.
We have been hearing for years about this ambitious project of the MLS team, with David Beckham as its face. As soon as the news was known, Inter Miami celebrated on its social networks: “Today is a historic day for Inter Miami CF, the Miami City Commission approved a vote to make Miami Freedom Park a reality. It’s official! Miami Freedom Park comes to the city of Miami.”
The question for those of us who come from countries with a football tradition is how can team owners package a team that can appeal to a community that is more based on business, real estate development, shopping malls, restaurants and department stores.
And I say this because, in the end, Beckham’s club — like everything at a global level — must be profitable, and the stores attached to the stadium must exude “rentability.” They must be busy and sell millions of T-shirts, and the restaurants on the grounds must be packed, not only because they display photographs of team players on their walls.
To achieve success, the team must forge a strong emotional connection with its fans. No one seems to be paying attention to this concept — not within the Inter Miami team nor among the politicians who gave their support to the project.
The night of the announcement, no Miamian went to bed dreaming of being the center-forward for Inter Miami, his city’s team. Instead, they see at soccer parks players wearing T-shirts evoking famous teams like Real Madrid, Boca Juniors or Manchester United.
Getting Miami children who play soccer to fall in love with the team is essential to the success of Beckham’s venture. If there is a city in the U.S. where a soccer team can be successful, that’s definitely Miami. It has a diverse social makeup that includes many Latin American countries — good breeding ground to start dreaming. A child of Miami today could be the next Messi, Maradona or Pelé.
But Inter Miami will not be able to do it alone, and they need community support and to be on the same page as other MLS teams.
Today, the MLS is not a league that can compare with the major leagues in Europe or South America. It is more of an elephant graveyard where, for 33 years, they have shuffled around players already amortized by clubs from other countries.
What will happen to the mega-complex that is going to be built if Inter Miami does not achieve sporting glory? What will happen if it fails to reach the heart of the community?
Football is not an exact science and no one has a crystal ball to see the future, but when it comes to giving money, land or facilitating the construction of a sports stadium, no one seems to remember the complex process of creating a feeling, forging a team — committed and competitive — that can achieve many victories.
Pelé, possibly the best player in history, said when a documentary about his life was released in 2016 that “people didn’t know that I cleaned shoes as a child to help my dad, that he had a fracture that forced him to stop playing football, that he lost his job and that he was my teacher.”
The Brazilian lamented that other documentaries about his life only focused on his successes and victories, that they did not focus on “Pelé, a human being,” he said.
“When I was a child, my father would take me to the Atlético de Madrid stadium to see his team. There, I was able to see stars of the time such as the Argentinian Ratón Ayala or the Brazilians Pereira and Leivinha.”
Today, the Vicente Calderón stadium no longer exists and those stars of the ‘70s are venerable old men but the legend of that team persists. Let’s give Inter Miami the heart and loyalty it needs from everyone in South Florida: club, political institutions and media. We have a lot to gain if we succeed and a lot to lose if we fail.
Manuel Aguilera is founder and CEO of the HispanoPost Media Group. He is a former executive editor of Univision’s online platform.