David Beckham had a busy week. Days before he would take the pitch at Old Trafford to play in the UNICEF Match for Children, Beckham met with Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to discuss the footballer’s efforts to bring Major League Soccer (MLS) to Miami.
Beckham has been actively pushing to bring an MLS franchise to Miami since last year. To make it happen, Beckham is partnering with Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure and Simon Fuller. Yes, that Simon Fuller. The Simon Fuller who dreamed up Pop Idol, which became American Idol in the United States. And the Simon Fuller who managed the Spice Girls in their heyday and Posh Spice, Beckham’s wife, in her solo career.
Beckham burst onto the world soccer scene with Manchester United when he was just 17 years old. He moved on to La Liga’s Real Madrid, where he made news not only on the pitch but in politics: the so-called “Beckham Rule” was made law in Spain to allegedly benefit Beckham and allow wealthy foreigners – like Beckham – who lived and worked in Spain to elect to be taxed as a non-resident (assuming they met certain criteria). In 2007, Beckham signed to play in the U.S. with MLS club LA Galaxy. As part of his deal with the Galaxy, Beckham was given the right to own an MLS franchise in the future. The future is apparently now: Beckham has been working the deal since last year and hopes to have a team ready to go by 2018.
Together with his investors, Beckham intends to build a new 30,000 seat stadium for the Miami MLS team next to Marlins Park. Unlike similar sports deals around the country, the stadium would not be paid for by taxpayers: Beckham and his investors intend to foot the bill to build the facility.
According to the Miami Herald, the land that Beckham’s team is eying (though not their first choice) is currently owned by a mix of private owners and by the City of Miami. Assuming that everyone involved can agree on a price, after the sale, the plan is to transfer the stadium site to the Miami-Dade school system, who would then act as additional partners. The result? A break on property taxes – worth about $1 million – for the new team. As for the school system? It would get the use of the space as well as the promise of additional financial support (also said to be worth upwards of $1 million).
Last week, Beckham met with Carvalho to discuss how they could make those things happen. Carvalho described the meeting in positive terms, saying about Beckham’s enthusiasm, “He told me this is the one place in the world where he wants to have his name associated with a soccer team.”
So what’s next? Beckham’s group has to come to terms with the property owners and the school board has to approve the deal; the latter is probably the easy part. The real challenge will be convincing Miami voters: they’ll have to approve the plan as part of a referendum to be held on March 15, 2016. That referendum is expected to attract a few more voters than normal: March 15 also marks the date of the presidential primary in Florida. With two of the current GOP frontrunners hailing from Florida, turnout is expected to be high.
Beckham just has to hope they’re not Liverpool fans.
