David Beckham’s group seeking a stadium deal to finalise a Miami football team is optimistic after quiet progress, the English star’s top negotiator said on Sunday in a Miami Heraldstory, AFP reports.
The newspaper reported that the Miami Beckham United group trying to bring a Major League Soccer squad to South Florida remains confident despite a year of denials by area officials in bids to locate a tract of land for a new stadium.
“We have made very meaningful strides in the last couple of months,” John Alschuler, Beckham’s real estate adviser and lead negotiator, told the Miami Herald in an e-mail.
“While nothing in this complex equation can be taken for granted, I am optimistic that there will be several positive announcements in the first quarter of the next year.”
The retired English football star took advantage of a clause in the MLS contract he signed when joining the Los Angeles Galaxy to purchase an MLS team at a bargain rate and identified Miami as the market where he wants the team to play, but has been thwarted in getting permission to build on his desired downtown stadium sites.
The group has been quiet since a June rejection of a waterfront bid even as local leaders try to lure interest from Beckham in their locations.
MLS officials and Beckham have been unified in saying the team is contingent upon a new stadium deal, Miami’s hopes having yet to be finalised even as New York and Orlando prepare to welcome new MLS clubs next year, while Atlanta and a new Los Angeles club to replace defunct Chivas USA are set for 2017 starts.
Other cities have made expansion pitches to MLS and some in Miami fear they will miss out if they cannot reach a deal soon.
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