*Most of the residents south of the stadium will have access to railway but some people in the north as well within Miami Dade County, , not all the way north but most residents. *Well while most league games will be on weekends and some occasionally on weekdays, the team will also be playing in various tournament that is usually played on weekdays, Tuesday are always US Open cup, and Tuesday, Wed, Thurs is CCL, I'm sure on weekdays it might be a hassle to get down here, but since its next to the airport take a plane form FTL Int or Palm Beach Int, the stadium will be right there. lol. Yea you right tho, traffic will be pretty hefty. the tri-rail can take you to the airport, which the stadium will be right next door. *Agreed 1000 percent, Hard Rock has upgraded and made the stadium for soccer, but you think Ross would rent the stadium out to MLS Miami? When soccer team comes down here to play, they are going to want to play at the Miami MLS stadium with all the additional entertainment and soccer-specific venue. That would be an awesome location for the first Miami MLS game, the stadium would get packed!! It would be even better if it was against in-state rival Orlando city Cats...
That map is a perfect illustration of what I said about residents north of the golf course. The distance to travel south isn’t so large that it would even be worth the effort to drive to a metrorail station, park and ride it in. Particularly on a Saturday. Yes there are some weeknight games but a large majority of these things are weekends. Without seeing what this proposed stadium looks like it is really hard to say if teams would want to play there over Hard Rock. My guess is that large European teams playing preseason friendlies will continue to play at Hard Rock.
I've always thought that a pro soccer stadium located in North Miami-Dade or Broward makes more sense than a pro soccer stadium located at the bottom tip of the metropolitan area in Miami proper.
The reason why MLS wants to own their stadiums is because the TV contract is still low and the league is heavily dependent on stadium related revenue. When you own a stadium you get concession, merch and parking revenue. You can also rent the stadium out. For this league it is a key part of the income.
Gotcha. Although there is a lot of competition in this market for hosting big events but that is a different debate entirely. As an aside... Holy Moly, this thing is far from being a done deal. It seems pretty clear that Beckham wasted years chasing failed site after failed site and enlisted help from people that aren’t local along the way. He recruited Todd Boehly and Tim Leiweke who seem in hindsight to have been more focused on getting something done more than getting the right thing done. The Overtown site was never completely nailed down. Enter Mas and Claure. Two guys with local ties. Immediately MLS holds a non-event press conference to announce nothing. Basically an opportunity to waive scarves and sing terrible songs. This was done in the wake of announcing Nashville as a new team. Why this was done? Who knows. Maybe it helps MLS cover their tracks for failing to announce two teams which they had promised. You’d think with thirteen applications that they would have been able to get two cities in place. Miami was already a tentative expansion team. SO did this press conference serve to reinforce that to the public? Did it serve to introduce Mas and Claure? People were expecting all sorts of stuff like team names, jerseys etc. Nothing. Then shortly after that we begin to hear that Overtown will be reconsidered. Then it leakes that Melreese is on the table. Now Barry Jackson tells us there are at least five additional sites being considered. So basically this group is a square one. Claure has tried this before with Barcelona back in 08 and he failed to get it over the line. Jorge Mas has his name mentioned all the time in connection with big money projects. MLB saw fit to pick Bruce Sherman’s bid over his (probably because he bid more money). These guys clearly are unimpressed by the leg work done by the group before they arrived on the scene. We’ve also yet to see them accomplish anything on the sports landscape here before. There have been opportunities. The Marlins have changed hands three times. There has been a failure to establish consistent provocative professional soccer here. Where were these guys through all that? I want this to happen. This club would be the closest club to my home. But right now it still looks like a circus.
I think with the Mas brother's there will definitely be a team. So that's a done deal. The stadium not so much. Still, I don't see why MLS can complain too much. The only MLS team in a top 10 MSA that hasn't had issues has been the special case of Atlanta. NY? Chicago? Philly? DC? Dallas? Revs? SJ? All crap situations. Only Houston and LA have mildly acceptable sites but by no means great. The great stadiums of MLS are typically in smaller cities.
Given where Orlando's stadium is, I do not understand why people think Overtown is an unworkable site. Melresse is fraught with political land mines, and has issues with FAA height restrictions. Doral and Hialeah park aren't very well connected, and I don't just mean to mass transit, there isn't great highway connectivity either.
I will repeatedly qualify any comment I have on Claure and Mas by saying these are my perceptions. I could be wrong, but I have opinions that aren’t informed by very good specifics. Overtown: This is just my guess, but my guess is that they quickly moved off Overtown for a couple reasons. Perhaps they have connections with people that live in Spring Garden. It could be that they have legit concerns over parking. The site always promoted a “march to the stadium” from the tri rail. That sounds neat in principle but we all know the travel behavior of Dade County residents and know that is not going to happen. There is already a history of stadiums in Overtown. If Miami Arena wasn’t in Overtown technically, it was certainly adjacent. It also sat directly on a Metro Rail station AND was on the outskirts of downtown. Seems like a perfect place for a stadium. The thing didn’t last. There was an opportunity to build a baseball stadium there and that didn’t happen. So something must be up that big decision makers locally know about the general vicinity. The space is TIGHT. If there is a vision for something more vast then Overtown is a non starter from the get go. Melreese: I agree with Jules. “fraught with political land mines” is a perfect description which needs no further elaboration. The proximity to the airport is really unattractive. But it sits right on the metro rail and tri rail if you’re in the camp that think mass transit makes a difference. I’m not a golfer so I personally have nothing at stake but the golf crowd seems to really care about preserving this course. There’s no shortage of golf courses in south florida but if there is something special about this one far be it from me to argue otherwise. The Rest: I’m more optimistic about a Doral facility than Hialeah. I can’t imagine the level of gridlock in Hialeah for a match day that would happen. The lesson in all this I guess is that it is really hard to pick a perfect place to build a facility that is largely unpopular with the public, even when they don’t have to pay for it. There isn’t much of an appetite for stadiums in this country. Obviously the financing is the main reason but there are so many new stadiums in this country (and even in south Florida specifically), the thought of carving out space for another one is not particularly interesting to the non soccer fan at the moment. Macro View of things There isn’t world class soccer being played on a weekly basis in this country. The folks that are only going to be satisfied if they think they are watching the best of the best will not come out. This isn’t like going from a minor league baseball town to an MLB town. In terms of quality of play on the pitch the difference between USL and MLS is big but still miles behind South America and Europe. But the good news is that IT DOESN”T MATTER. It is still live professional soccer and that is awesome. I think a viable exciting USL is important to the professional landscape in this country and even though there is still a massive push for MLS in every city I would love to see the more successful USL clubs remain in USL and compete. There can be more Cincinnati and Sacramento level experiences. Tampa Bay Rowdies has an excellent thing going on in St Pete right now. If Miami FC can tread water through the NPSL this season and get into USL for 2019 and grow the fan base/fan experience then that could be the quality fan experience in Miami in this sport that people need. I know this is probably an unpopular view of things on this board but then again there may be ten people at most that read this board. I think if you love the sport, and you love the live experience then you should support what is in front of you. I don’t blame anyone for getting behind the Beckham campaign because MSL is the top of the chain in this country and there is a lot of exciting things about it. But just a friendly reminder….we have a professional club here already. No it isn’t MLS…it isn’t even NASL anymore. But there will be games and the facility at FIU isn’t shabby either.
They may lose some of the 'mass transit crowd' in Doral...but they'd be a lot more accessible from western Broward and even Palm Beach...easy trip down Sawgrass/75/Palmetto...Boca, Parkland, Coral Springs, Sunrise, Pembroke Pines, Miramar are now a lot more in play than they might have been before....
Were you even here back then? The Fusion never 'argued' for going to Lockhart--it was a fallback after the Orange Bowl deal fell through. And Ken Horowitz wasn't nearly as financially committed (advertising? what advertising?) to the franchise as Becks/Son/Mas/Mas/Fuller appear to be. And there were three other teams with worse attendance. We were on quite the attendance upswing from the previous year, playing kick-ass offensive soccer under the legendary Ray Hudson...wasting teams that year, 5-2, 6-1. Until maybe ATL came in, the league hadn't seen anything like it since. But Kenny tired of the cash calls, took his ball and went home. Your comment seems to imply that any non-downtown site is doomed to failure. Given the changes in the league and the market in the nearly 20 years since, I'm not sure you can be so certain that a move out to Doral is a bad one, especially since the reason the Fusion folded had little to do with attendance and most everything to do with Ken Horowitz. The truth is, this is an impossible real estate nut for Becks to crack and unless he's willing to move into Marlins Park, he's not playing downtown. I'll at least take a site off a major highway instead of a site next to the airport or in the middle of residential Hialeah.
Season ticket holder 1998-2000. The Fusion ticket manager told me that was the reason ownership switched to Lockhart. It would be better to attract all those Broward, Palm Beach county fans as well as still be close enough to Miami-Dade. I know now that was BS. So whenever I hear about 'stadium accessibility' to points north of Miami-Dade I shutter just a bit. Essentially, as you point out, Horowitz was cheap and couldn't make a deal with Carollo...and the rest is history. Agree that the real estate options are limited in the Miami core for what Beck/Son/ Mas/ have in mind. A location like Doral pepsi site might be the only real option. If they create a state of the art 20-25k stadium, training facility(etc) AND spend $ on the scale of Arthur Blank, Atlanta Utd then the Miami MLS project just may succeed in spite of the years of stumbles...
What about the old Miami Herald building site??? is that land still empty, is Genting still in control of the land. If they can find a way to move the Metromover track closer to N Bayshore Dr, you could have enough room too build a stadium there.
As of January this year they still owned that land according to this article http://www.miamitodaynews.com/2018/01/02/miami-clears-way-transfer-bay-site-casino-giant-genting/
Recent update. Not much reported here. Reads more like a piece trying to keep the story in the news stream http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mls/article210026959.html This whole saga is so odd.
Its been 4 months since the "announcement" of Miami MLS. It would be nice to have an update on stadium, name, etc. I still remain very skeptical this team ever kicks a ball.
A lot of people share in your skepticism. On the MLS side, the process is extremely flimsy. Their supposed plan to expand by four teams (in addition to a Miami team) is not really going according to plan. MLS puts themselves out there like they’ve got their act together but I’m not convinced that they do. Regarding a Miami update, this is the latest http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article211192009.html Basically what people saw in January was the introduction of new members into the ownership group. It reset the timetable for getting things done and if the things written in this Herald article are to be believe the group is not organized and they have a lot of work to do in order to pursue any of the sites they’ve considered as Overtown alternatives. I’m not confident in any of these people. At this point it wouldn’t surprise me if Mas and Claure were actually sent in by local government to destroy the project from within (I’m joking….maybe…yes I am). Aside from the “ultras??” there’s no real enthusiasm for this locally that I’m aware of. It makes so much more sense for MLS to expand through successful USL clubs. Or perhaps, don’t expand and allow USL to have their own strong core of clubs to establish a solid second division. If Miami FC can get into USL for next year then I’d be just as happy, maybe happier, with them being the top local professional club.
They are officially back to square one if this article is accurate. Sounds like they have officially scrapped Overtown. https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article213663424.html Beckham group announces date to reveal plans for MLS stadium on Miami golf course This location seems a good distance from downtown.
If it's close to the airport, the light rail runs in that direction...Miami residents, is there a station near by or could one be built feasibly?
To address a few questions posed by the last two posters: No this isn’t downtown, but it isn’t far and being downtown doesn’t really matter. In terms of public transportation, this is probably the best possible location. There are both Tri-Rail and Metro-Rail stations at Miami International Airport, which sits adjacent to this golf course. In fact those stations are right across the street. Metro Rail connects to downtown and it runs south along US-1 throught Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, and Kendall. The station is the southernmost point of the Tri Rail which connects Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach County. It is really the hub of South Florida mass transit. BUT…here’s the thing. None of that matter because people don’t use mass transit in South Florida….especially on the weekend. The connectivity to mass transit is of zero consequence. It really is back to square one. No proposal has been unveiled to anyone. County commissioners have to approve it in order to appear on the November ballot (which turnout should be high considering it is a Gubernatorial and US Senate year for the state), and then it has to pass. Even though it is being touted as “paid for by Beckham” I’m not convinced that there is any enthusiasm for this locally (at least not enough to pass a referendum). It will be interesting to see how this plays out. If this idea doesn’t make it across the finish line then they should pull the plug.
The Intermodal Center is across the street from the airport. It links bus, airport people mover and the Metrorail.
Your n=1 is different than mine. All I have is anecdotal evidence and personal experience. If you have something more concrete in terms of ridership I'd love to see it and be convinced that I'm wrong. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to incorporate the metro rail and the tri rail into a commute and it never works out where the rail is quicker. The lone exception to this was when I lived in Brickell and I took the meto mover over the river into downtown proper. But when you are talking about getting people from south Miami-Dade, north Miami-Dade and the other two counties into town....no I suspect they'd prefer to drive, especially for a Saturday night MLS game when there is no commuter traffic to contend with.
No doubt that the connections need improvement but when there is an event downtown, the mover is packed. Take a Heat playoff game. It's bustling. As I assume it will for soccer matches. Ridership peaked, I believe, in 2014 and has gone down slightly since then but long-term trends are up. People don't want to drive if they don't have to.