MIAMI (AP) – David Beckham is a big step closer to bringing Major League Soccer back to Miami.
More than four years after he started scouting potential homes for a team, Beckham will soon have the piece of land he needs. Miami-Dade County Commissioners approved a deal Tuesday to sell three acres of county land to Beckham’s group, the last part of what is a nine-acre plot on which a 25,000-seat stadium is planned.
Beckham’s group will pay just over $9 million for the last piece of land. It has already paid $19 million for the other six acres needed. Beckham’s group says the planned stadium would be privately funded, and the stadium would also be subject to county property tax.
It’s a major development in what has been at times an arduously slow – and often frustrating – process for the English soccer icon and his plans for Miami. MLS has not officially awarded Miami an expansion franchise, because of the lack of a land and stadium deal.
A contract he signed in 2007 with the Los Angeles Galaxy gave Beckham the right to start an expansion franchise for $25 million, and in 2013 he picked Miami as where he would want to put a team. The plan has changed many times along the way, most notably because he was unable to get waterfront land that his group first coveted for a stadium site.