In Miami, the main long-term construction of a modern American sports – football club David Beckham. Sport Connect reveals the details of this mysterious project.
Football in Miami has a painful fate. The first team appeared there in the late nineties: Miami Fusion entered MLS as part of the 1998 expansion draft. Then-league commissioner Doug Logan said at the presentation: “It is no coincidence that we are here right after the mayoral election. Behind us is a long difficult path in which politics interfered, but I am glad that all this is behind us and only football awaits us.” This phrase explains a lot.
The fact is that Miami - one of the largest markets in America along with New York and Los Angeles - is formally divided into several administrative units, the leaders of which do not always get along with each other. Contrary to the optimism of MLS management, the team had to play not in the center of Miami itself, but in the city of Fort Lauderdale, located several tens of kilometers north of the main part of the resort. The team suffered from disastrously low attendance (about 7,500 spectators on average per game) and was closed in January 2002.
In the spring of 2006, new hope flared up: in Miami, the transition of the 40-year-old legend Romario to the NASL club (the second strongest league in the United States, analogous to the FNL) Miami FC was magnificently arranged. But he didn’t stay in America for long – just like the club itself. A few years later, his compatriot Ronaldo became a shareholder of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers club - but he also disappeared quite quickly.
In May 2015, media mogul Ricardo Silva, in partnership with Paolo Maldini, announced the creation of a new Miami FC, with Alessandro Nesta as head coach. The club performs very successfully in the same NASL, but future plans too vague, because the league itself is on the verge of collapse, and Silva's legal battle with the American football authorities has not brought any benefit. It is known that Silva wants a radical change in the rules of MLS (including the abolition of the league's closed status) and was even willing to pay $4 billion for a 10-year television contract with the right to influence the rules.
Well, now about what Beckham has planned. David received the right to buy a new franchise back in 2007, when he moved from Real Madrid to Los Angeles Galaxy. Bex was entitled to a huge discount, so the license cost him only $25 million(all other new clubs must now pay 150 million).
Beckham decided to create a club in Miami back in the winter of 2014, but he had to wait a long time for the presentation. 1454 days. The reason is still the same - the difficult political situation.
These four years dragged on painfully and gruelingly for David: residents of different areas of the city were against the construction of the stadium, and the passivity of the authorities and tons of bureaucratic details did not allow him to think about the concept of the future club.
At first, Beckham's team tried to break into the vicinity of the Miami cruise port, but large entrepreneurs interested in this territory felt the competition and blocked all football plans. Then David set his sights on another prestigious coastal area, but community organizations and local residents rebelled there. History repeated itself when investors liked the site next to Marlins Park.
Next, Beckham’s associates asked for a territory in the north of Miami (next to the American Airlines Arena basketball court), but the project turned out to be too crude and did not answer many questions from the architectural commission. In general, it was a real land marathon.
And only towards the end of 2015 did at least some stability emerge: Beckham’s team bought land in the city’s Overtown area, a few blocks northwest of downtown Miami. A group of investors purchased 6 acres for $19 million, and a little later the county commissioners approved the sale of the missing 3 acres for another 9 million.
It seemed that Beckham would finally stop suffering, but local businessman and activist Bruce Matheson unexpectedly intervened in the situation, who accused local authorities of a) selling the land below market value; b) made the auction closed. The trial further delayed preparations for construction - and only in October 2017 was Matheson’s complaint finally rejected (although he does not give up and is challenging this decision). Matheson is generally an experienced opponent of noisy sporting events, he is one of the main initiators of the move tennis tournament Miami Open from Crandon Park to the 65,000-seat Hard Rock Stadium.
But this is not the only obstacle in Beckham's path. The management of MLS was confused by the composition of the board of directors of the new team - in particular, the figure of the key investor, co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club Todd Boeley. MLS bosses feared he was attracted primarily by Beckham's franchise discount rather than the real opportunity to build strong team in Miami (the league requires that investors be dominated by local entrepreneurs).
Everything got so complicated that at the end of last year, Beckham became completely weak. In November 2017, he met with partner Marcelo Claure (he is the CEO of one of the largest American cellular operators) to agree to freeze or even close the project. "Just a couple of months ago we almost gave up b. We even met for breakfast in New York to say goodbye. But suddenly they looked at each other and said: “Dude, we just can’t give up. We need to find a way out."
According to the beautiful legend of Claura, it was at this meeting that he remembered a letter from the Mas brothers, who own a large engineering company in Miami (MasTec, Forbes estimates its revenue at $5 billion a year). One of the brothers, Jorge Mas, confirms this version: “On November 7, I wrote to Marcelo Claura that our family really wants the project to be implemented. Just a week later we had dinner. Two and a half months have passed - and now we are announcing the start of Miami in MLS."
“We found what we were missing - a local partner who knows Miami very well and understands what needs to be done. If it weren’t for Beckham, Jorge and Jose Mas, nothing would have happened now,” continued Claure.
Co-owners of the Beckham franchise are also the creator of the American Idol show Simon Fuller and the CEO of a large American bank Masayoshi Son.
How to make a club popular even before the first match. Textbook from the USA
The presentation of Beckham’s project brought together the entire leadership of the Miami agglomeration (the same mayors who for 20 years could not find a common language with numerous investors), MLS commissioner Don Garber and the owners of the new club. What did they tell us?
- So far, Beckham's team has no no name, no traditional colors. They will be selected taking into account the wishes of the fans.
- The stadium (capacity – 25,000 people) will spend about $225 million, it will be built by 2021. So far, investors have not mentioned the Overtown area, and many speculate that the club may change its construction location.
- More 100 million dollars will be invested in the development of the academy.
- At the presentation, they showed a video in which Beckham was congratulated by a crowd of celebrities - from his wife Victoria and Serena Williams to Usain Bolt and Jay Z.
- Beckham has no plans to move to Miami. “Children need stability. We live in London, my wife has her own business there. But I will definitely be spending a lot of time in Miami. When I start working on something, I give it 100%.”
- The club promises powerful transfers. “They already called me top football players– I won’t say who exactly. They said: “I’m ready, I’m in.” Of course we want to bring best players from Europe, because Miami needs stars. But most of all we are interested in educating great players here". When David was asked if Cristiano Ronaldo would move to Miami, he replied: “Ask him.”
- Beckham will definitely not become a coach. "I've never been drawn to coaching work. But being an owner is what every guy dreams of.”
This text was jointly prepared by the general manager of Virtus.pro Roman Dvoryankin and editor-in-chief of Sport Connect Vlad Voronin. Roman wrote one of the leading sports business blogs on the site for several years, and we are glad that we will be able to read his texts again - now on Sport Connect. Subscribe to our updates so as not to miss great material about the starting Olympics in Korea.
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Legendary David Beckham achieved an MLS license for his club. "Football 24" tells you everything you need to know about the brainchild of the legendary Englishman.
On January 29, 2018, MLS chief Don Garber issued a franchise to David Beckham's team, making Miami the 25th member of the league. Beckham said his dream had come true and the city would be represented in MLS for the first time since 2001.
Who are the owners of the club?
Even though new club from Miami is called David Beckham's club, the Englishman is only one of the owners, he is part of the Miami Beckham United company, which owns the rights to the new team. The group also includes business luminaries Simon Fuller, Marcelo Clure and Tim Leiweck.
Brothers Mas, Todd Boley and Masayoshi San joined in December 2017, bringing Miami Beckham United's membership to eight members.
But without Bex, most likely, nothing would have happened. In 2007, when moving to the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Englishman received the right to receive a franchise in the future, paying only 25 million dollars instead of the regulated 150.
In 2014, he took advantage of this right by creating in Miami professional club. Integration into MLS was delayed due to problems with obtaining rights to build a stadium. The issue has been resolved, but the team will not have its own arena any time soon.
What is the name of the team?
Currently the team does not have an official name. During the presentation of the franchise, the owners used the names "Miami Vice" and "Miami Current".
It was believed that David Beckham might pay tribute to his hometown Manchester United and name the team Miami United. However, the city already has a semi-professional club with the same name, which casts doubt on the implementation of such a plan.
In 2016, fans took part in an informal vote regarding the choice of the team's name. The winning option was International (Inter) Miami.
When will he start playing in MLS?
Beckham's club is one of 5 that plan to expand MLS in the near future. By 2020, the number of league participants will increase to at least 24.
In addition to Miami, new teams were created in Nashville, Minnesota, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Representatives from Atlanta and Minnesota have already made their debuts in the league, Los Angeles FC will play their first matches in 2018, and Nashville will join closer to 2020.
MLS has confirmed that Miami will begin playing in the league in 2020 in a temporary stadium.
Who will play for Miami?
So far, not a single player has been assigned to the club. But when he starts playing in MLS, then, according to the league’s rules, he will receive 8 slots for foreign players. The number of these slots may increase or decrease following agreements with other MLS members.
Miami will also have the right to invite three “special status” players with salaries exceeding the limit established by the league. This is exactly the status Beckham had in the Los Angeles Galaxy.
In the last days of the open transfer window in Europe, the news was a little faded in the media: David Beckham has officially introduced his club to MLS. We tell you what is known about this now, and ask the question: who will become the head coach of the new club? Russian bookmakers have already started accepting bets on various candidates, including some quite original ones.
When David Beckham left for MLS in 2007, few could have predicted how much the English midfielder would be attracted to American soccer. In 2014, after finishing his playing career, David Beckham took the initiative to create a football club in Miami. Then bureaucratic subtleties prevented the dream from coming true quickly. The main difficulty was the construction of a stadium in a coastal city - you cannot join MLS without having your own football arena.
More than three years have passed since then, and at the end of January 2018, Beckham, at an official ceremony, announced the creation of a new professional football club that will play in MLS.
While the team does not have its own stadium (a 20,000-seat arena is at the beginning of construction), there is no specific calendar (according to available information, the club will hold its first matches only in 2020), there is no symbolism and no approved official name (for now it is called “Miami”) and there is not even a composition.
But there is an inspirational video from world stars of the first magnitude about how happy they are with David Beckham’s initiative:
At the presentation, David Beckham talked about how he wants to attract European football stars to his MLS club. One of the first options the franchise owner named Zlatan Ibrahimovic:
If Zlatan or any other player of his caliber were to move to MLS, it would take the league to the next level.
Bookmakers responded to the news about David Beckham's club by putting forward a line on the future head coach of the team from Miami. In the list of candidates for a post in the line of the bookmaker "1xBet" Beckham's former teammate Gary Neville is in the lead with a coefficient 6.5 .
Neville didn't get off to the best start coaching career, having failed in Spain with Valencia. David Beckham himself commented on the possible appointment of his friend as head coach in a joking manner: “He talks too much.”
Miami's first franchise manager. MLS - Gary Neville
We will look for the right coach. A big name is not necessary. We need to focus most of all on the overall philosophy of the club's development.
Who will represent the philosophy of the Miami club? “1xBet” evaluates the candidacies of two Italians with the same odds: Fabio Capello and Carlo Ancelotti. David Beckham worked with both mentors as a football player.
Miami's first franchise manager. MLS - Fabio Capello
Miami's first franchise manager. MLS - Carlo Ancelotti
The fourth candidate is another legend of English football, Frank Lampard, who in February 2017 officially announced his retirement from his football career. Frank also finished playing in MLS.
Miami's first franchise manager. MLS - Frank Lampard
To fully comply with the status of the Miami club, you can appoint a nominal head coach, a Hollywood star. For example, this choice could be Tom Cruise with odds of 1000.0 or a famous British singer Katherine Jenkins with the same odds of 1000.0. David Beckham's wife Victoria is also offered with a similar quote in the bookmaker's line.
David Beckham has been trying to implement, at first glance, a very ambitious project for several years now. own club MLS in Miami.
Moreover, at one time Backs was very lucky - let us remember that in 2007, thanks to the corresponding option in the contract, the football player got the coveted franchise for some measly, by today's standards, 25 million dollars.
Why pathetic? For example, the sheikhs who moved into the North American market and eventually founded New York City in 2013, the opportunity to join MLS already cost 100 million.
Surely, for Mr. Mansur’s representatives this is mere pennies, but progress regarding the cost of the franchise is clearly visible. As we know from school and the simplest textbook on economics, demand creates supply.
Isn't it remarkable that in mid-December last year, league commissioner Don Garber announced the potential expansion of the championship in the near future to twenty-eight teams, and the price for the quota has skyrocketed like yeast at the moment varies between 150-200 million dollars?
Be that as it may, it is now fashionable to play football overseas - not like a couple of decades ago.
And in many ways this effect caused precisely by the person of Beckham, who for years attracted crowds of new fans to the stadium, ready to shell out their hard-earned money to watch the idol of millions play at least with one eye.
And it really worked - attendance at Los Angeles Galaxy matches increased.
David, who made a name for himself in Europe, simultaneously made a name for MLS, contributing to the formation of the championship as a full-fledged brand - today Garber is discussing the sale of television rights for ninety million dollars and inviting not the last world-class stars, which he could only dream of ten years ago in the sweetest dream
The amount, by the way, is ridiculous by the standards of the Premier League, Examples or Bundesliga, but there is a nuance here - the functionary expects that in 2022 he will be able to earn a billion. Not bad.
Therefore, the fact that Becks took advantage of the franchise after retiring in 2014 did not surprise anyone. And we also expect a choice from Miami - one of the largest agglomerations in the United States and, importantly, a city in which there was no professional football club playing specifically in the MLS.
After all, Miami Fusion, unfortunately, disappeared in 2001 football summer, which, in turn, for David and his partners, Bolivian billionaire Marcelo Claure and British producer Simon Fuller, in the future opened up vast horizons for the development of the club.
Perhaps the most significant stumbling block to the ex-midfielder's plans was the construction of the stadium. And, sadly, it still is.
The stadium is a mandatory and most important condition, on the basis of which, to a greater extent, the activation of the franchise occurs. If difficulties arise with the construction of the arena, then you can forget about participating in the elite division. And this is not a joke at all - one of the most striking examples that fully felt all the hardships associated with the stadium was the ill-fated Chivas USA.
Former Red-White President Jorge Vergara was in no particular hurry to carry out the prescribed instructions from above, limiting himself to renting the Stub Hub Center, which is why Garber eventually liquidated the team in 2014, and successfully resold the franchise to soccer player Mia Hamm for $110 million. basketball player Magic Johnson and a group of investors.
By the way, the new owners also have more headaches - the schedules of the Los Angeles club, announced in the same 2014, have shifted by several years. What do you think influenced this? That's right, the stadium.
However, we note that the construction of the complex is not on site, money is being spent ($250 million) and, according to financial analysts, everything will be ready by 2018.
Or let’s remember the New York Cosmos, revived with pomp in 2010, a club seemingly supported by Pele themselves and the late Carlos Alberto, where Raul played, and Eric Cantona “took on” the role of sports director.
However, by refusing to build a stadium, the team doomed itself to wandering through the vastness of the NASL - the city authorities of New York valued the land where construction was supposed to be at $400 million, thereby putting an end to the progress and motivation of the team.
As a result, at the beginning of December 2016, the football community was shocked by the news that Cosmos was again on the verge of collapse - all the players who had not received their salaries for months received the status of free agents, and the management was desperately looking for new sponsors.
Everything could have ended very sadly, but, fortunately, in January of this year lifebuoy abandoned by Rocco Commisso - the founder and head of Mediacom Communications Corporation (by the way, the fifth largest cable television broadcaster in the United States) sorted out his debts and bought a controlling stake.
But if the Cosmos in its current guise is, in fact, a stillborn child, then Miami Beckham United is somewhere in the embryonic stage.
We return again to 2014 - a satisfied Beckham, giving interviews left and right, is preparing to realize, in his words, his childhood dream - the creation of a club whose colors will be defended by Casillas, Vidic, Pepe, Pique, Ibrahimovic and others, and on the coaching bridge This whole carnival will certainly be led by David Moyes.
Ambitions, undoubtedly, are of Napoleonic proportions - it looks beautiful, but in words. In fact, it’s the opposite.
Initially, nothing foreshadowed trouble - Don Garber promised to help Bax personally, and lawyer friend John Alshuler began to negotiate and promote the project in the city collegium.
David looked for a good place in the port area of Miami, developed a plan, but heard a decisive “no” from the bureaucrats - supposedly a number of cruise companies were applying for the same site to locate their offices.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, like mushrooms after rain, the public organization MIA Seaport Alliance “grew up”, fiercely calling to fight back against Beckham, citing dissatisfaction with almost discrimination against ordinary US citizens. It is curious that as soon as the mayors satisfied the “opinion of the people,” this organization immediately disappeared.
The mayor of the district, Carlos Jimenez, also stepped in as “assistants” - the official offered a site in the city center, hoping to earn half a million dollars annually from Beckham’s consortium, but the football player predictably refused.
Plus, “oppressed citizens” became more active again, but no longer the working class, but the elite - a certain Downtown Neighbors Alliance “bombarded” the mayor with complaints - they say, “the construction will disfigure the view from nearby luxury houses, create traffic jams and spoil the new park.” David could only shrug.
Soon, a third option appeared - to build an arena in Little Havana, near the Marlins baseball stadium, but private owners tripped them up there too, asking the Miami Beckham United consortium for astronomical sums.
A solution was nevertheless found, but clearly not the best for David - to build a complex in Overtown, located in the outskirts of the city. Okay, if only this was the distance from the center, but Overtown is considered a disadvantaged and crime-prone area, where the crime rate is quite high. Whether fans will go there is a rhetorical question, so to speak.
After purchasing six acres of land for $19 million to build a 25,000-seat stadium, Becks and company realized they needed three more. And here Carlos Jimenez, who previously joyfully approved the construction in Overtown (of course, the infrastructure will be improved due to private investment), is, at least for now, powerless.
The other day, the mayor said that he would take care of the star’s “business,” despite the negative reaction of some city commissioners, who prefer to direct “resources to implement something useful for the community.”
In fact, the ex-football player has returned to the initial stages of negotiations, which have lasted more than three years.
Now it has reached the point where they are openly making fun of Beckham - social media They are making fun of the choice of the Overtown area, and the media are reminding how David, instead of pushing through his idea from the first days, hung out on Ryan Seacrest's radio, where he discussed the celebration of Valentine's Day.
How much longer will we have to wait, and will Don Garber run out of patience? Garber understands that Beckham can bring even more to MLS, since a team with his name will guarantee a massive revolution in the popularization of soccer and the Miami market will become potentially lucrative.
So far, the head is still remaining tactful, carefully hiding the timing of the franchise, but it seems that Bex himself does not know for certain what will happen to the twenty-fourth team.
Here it should also be recalled that the functionary has already done “ warning shot”, subtly hinting in December 2016 that MLS, in principle, could do without Beckham. After all, as the saying goes, seven do not wait for one.
Officially appeared in MLS new team. This is David Beckham's Miami club, which he announced back in 2014. “The stars will play here,” the former English footballer said at the time. There is no information yet on the composition of the club, but famous players have already expressed a desire to play with David.
“First of all, I want to congratulate you. I would like to wish you good luck with this project. Who knows, maybe in a few years Miami will make me an offer...” Lionel Messi supported Beckham. It seems that dreams of finishing his career in his native Argentina will have to be put on hold somewhere. Before this, there were rumors that Beckham wanted to invite Ronaldo and Pique to the team.
This is how the club presentation ceremony took place:
How did he even manage to do this?
Creating a club in Miami is an important matter for the development of MLS. In 2014, Beckham had the opportunity to purchase a franchise to expand the league. He got it at a reduced price of $25 million because such a clause was still in his playing contract.
They have already tried to create a club in this region, but nothing worked out. Beckham approached the matter thoroughly, met with the mayor of Miami about the stadium and assembled a good investment group. Bolivian billionaire Marcelo Claure and British businessman Simon Fuller supported David and took up the project with him.
The construction of the arena turned out to be the main problem. At first it was difficult to even choose a place for this. The stadium disturbed ordinary citizens and businessmen, and private owners asked for huge sums to buy out the land. The solution was found only in Overtown - an unfavorable area where it is often better not to appear. 250 million dollars were invested in the 25,000-seat stadium, another 28 were spent on the purchase of land. The team is expected to begin playing in MLS in 2020.
Why is this important?
Beckham played in MLS for four years. He was one of the first who went to develop American football in star status. “I enjoyed every minute of playing in MLS. Something changed in me here. If talented players like Ibrahimovic come to MLS, it will make the league stronger,” Beckham said when asked about a possible invitation to Zlatan. The mission to create the club was difficult. It seems David Beckham has created something promising and necessary.
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Beckham's idea is supported by sports and show business stars.
