By Julian Kranstover
Soccer legend David Beckham’s dream of bringing a team to South Florida is finally coming to fruition. With the past couple years being spent on finding the best location in Miami, the new MLS expansion team has finally found a home and is set to have their first game in March of this year against Beckham’s former team, the LA Galaxy.
In 2007 Beckham was given the opportunity to own an expansion team once his playing career was over, a chance presented to him when he signed his contract with the LA Galaxy that same year.
In 2012 commissioner Don Garber had confirmed that Miami was a top candidate and had expressed interest in bringing an expansion team to their city. Once Beckham’s career had finished in April of 2013, plans were already in motion to make it happen.
Beckham was accompanied by wealthy Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure, CEO of SoftBank Masayoshi Son, and brothers Jorge and Jose Mas to start the new era of soccer in Miami.
The plans are for the team to open their inaugural season at the location of the Lockhart Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where they have renovated the once dilapidated stadium and created a brand new, state of the art venue that seats up to 18,000 fans.
The plan is for the team to spend their first year in Ft. Lauderdale and eventually move to their new location in Miami that will be finished in 2022, a venue to be known as the Miami Freedom Park.
Although the location is yet to be confirmed, it is hoped that the city-owned Melreese country club, located near the Miami International Airport, will be the home of Inter Miami in the future.
The current golf course is expected to be turned into office spaces, a 22,000 seat stadium, hotels to accommodate visitors, along with commercial and retail areas and the remaining space to be used as an open park for the surrounding neighborhoods.
The excitement continues to build around the club as they have recently signed exciting new prospects such as Julian Carranza and Matias Pellegrini, two promising talents from Argentina. As well as first overall pick Robbie Robinson from Clemson and third overall pick Dylan Nealis from Georgetown.
The window is still open and they are still looking to add new players to make a promising and exciting run for silverware.
With David Beckham being a legend of the game and knowing many of the current players, it is almost guaranteed that Miami will see high-quality players being brought into the team and compete for an MLS championship and possibly more.
Inter Miami is set to open its inaugural season in Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday, March 14th at 2:30 against the LA Galaxy.
