![\"Soccer](\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/miami1k-1.jpg\" "\\"Soccer")
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MIAMI \u2014 David Beckham finally has his Major League Soccer team in Miami. <\/p>\n
Beckham and MLS announced Monday that the long-awaited franchise is now born. It took Beckham nearly four years just to get this far with Miami, and there\u2019s a slew of details still to come \u2014 such as the team name, logo and when it will start play. <\/p>\n
All that can wait. Soccer, at long last, is back in Miami. <\/p>\n
\u201cWelcome, Miami,\u201d MLS Commissioner Don Garber said. <\/p>\n
The team will play in a 25,000-seat, privately funded stadium to be built in the city\u2019s Overtown neighbourhood, designed by a firm that has worked on several MLS venues in recent years. Part of the deal also is that Beckham\u2019s group will build a training centre and an academy focused on developing local players. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur pledge to our fans in Miami and around the world is simple: your team will always strive to make you proud on the pitch, our stadium will be a place that you cherish visiting, and our impact in the community and on South Florida\u2019s youth will run deep,\u201d Beckham said. <\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s event \u2014 more pep rally than news conference, with a few hundred fans in attendance and a red carpet interview area snaking through the media room \u2014 was intentionally benign in many respects. The MLS logo for all the signage had a black background, with the word \u201cMiami\u201d printed below it in white. <\/p>\n
\u201cGreat things come to those that wait,\u201d Garber said, noting that Miami fans have been emailing him for 10 years with hopes of MLS coming back to South Florida. The Miami area had an MLS team from 1998 through 2001, one that folded largely because of poor attendance. <\/p>\n
It has been a long road just to get to this point. In the beginning of this Beckham-Miami plan, some people involved in the talks predicted that the team would begin play in 2017. <\/p>\n
The 2020 season might even be a challenge now. But it is coming. <\/p>\n
Momentum truly started building last spring, when Miami-Dade County commissioners approved a deal to sell Beckham nearly three acres of county land for $9 million \u2014 the last parcel needed for the nine-acre site on which the planned 25,000-seat stadium will be built. MLS officials said even then they hoped to announce the team\u2019s official inclusion into MLS last summer. <\/p>\n
It took a few more months. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy fellow Miamians, finally, we are here,\u201d Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said. \u201cThis announcement has been a long time coming.\u201d <\/p>\n
The return of the Miami market to MLS is the latest chapter in the league\u2019s steady expansion. <\/p>\n
In 2006, there were 12 MLS clubs and the expansion fee to enter the league was $10 million. Miami becomes the 25th franchise after the addition last month of expansion Nashville \u2014 which paid a $150 million entry fee. MLS\u2019 average attendance at matches has also risen nearly 43 per cent over that 12-year span. <\/p>\n
Beckham\u2019s group didn\u2019t pay anywhere near what Nashville did. As part of former English star\u2019s playing contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy, Beckham had the right to establish an MLS franchise for $25 million. He formally announced Miami as his pick in February 2014. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here because of David,\u201d said Marcelo Claure, one of Beckham\u2019s partners \u2014 who revealed that the plan nearly was dead two months ago, before one last push finally got the stadium deal done. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"