MLS Miami - Marcelo Claure interview, he wants in!

So please, what other two cities do you believe are better options than Miami? Please don't tell me you were going to say Ft. Lauderdale Strikers!!

I understand you want this thing to fail, and you put every negative aspect to put this Miami thing down, but honestly you don't believe two teams in different divisions would work? Strikers in the NASL and Miami in MLS?

I truly believe it won't kill the Strikers but make them stronger. Im telling you now, there is a Classico coming. US Open cup is going to be fun, because im sure every year they would play each other. Look, don't freak out, the FLS will survive, you guys have a stadium coming soon, correct? the Strikers will not die. Im happy you are a passionate fan, and you love your team.

The demographics are way different some time ago, thing have changed and I know everybody knows it and realizes it. Soccer is growing the simple belief that there can only be one team in a market is slowly fading away and is now going into the multiple team markets, like the rest of the world is. We have two teams in New York, LA, and albeit in South Florida, and in different cities (like new York, and im sure Chivas moving soon).

Please stop saying that Miami is a bad sports market, maybe under all the bad rep, and not having fans show up to the existing Miami teams is simply because they aren't soccer teams. Miami is very soccer savvy, there is soccer everywhere in Miami, not a day goes by you don't see a soccer jersey, and believe me when I began watching MLS I knew there was a gap between MLS and World Soccer, and hell, every year MLS is getting better and that gap is slowly closing. My father is Colombian, when I was younger we would watch the Colombian league all the time, so he knows a lot about soccer, he went to see a fusion game once, and never went back. Why, because it was a very young, and lost league. He watches MLS with me sometimes and he says it himself MLS has matured a lot since 2001, he even states that MLS is a better league then most (even Colombian league) south American leagues. MLS is growing, and so is the love for a team in Miami.

You're argument about Miami being a bad sports town is getting over used and irrelevant to the present times. Miami will survive in MLS and will be the Best in MLS. As for the strikers, I believe they will survive and make it.

FTL and Miami will have a great rivalry in the future, don't worry Strikers will survive.
I don't know if you know that song by Kendrick Lamar "Don't kill my vibe"
but every time you guys bring up your outdated facts, and irrelevant arguments, that song plays in my head.

Miami and FTL will survive

 

this silly notion that if you dont sell out every single game or arrive EXACTLY as the game begins is the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard in my life when the Haterade Patrol mention Miami Sports fans. Sure most here are fickle, but its not the house of horrors some try to paint.

So many important and traditional soccer clubs around the world, even from soccer crazy countries like Brazil or Italy for example, experience the same if not worse when it comes to attendance and fan arrival times. some games, half the stadium is empty and the important games.. or the "Clasicos" get packed. are they fickle and terrible fans? no one questions their passion or loyalty. its quite normal for that to happen.
Miami isnt the best sports market, but it sure as hell isnt as bad as Captain Buzzkill and the No Fun Squad are constantly portraying.

 

LOL Ah Lucho, we disagree as always. I didn't mention Ft. Lauderdale, you did this time. LOL I think there are a small number of people who want to believe things are different in Miami now. Luckily for you and a few others Garber is one of them. The Strikers don't have an unlimited cash flow behind them. If MLS Miami starts siphoning off their fans, they will die. There is no coincidence at all in the fact that as Becks in Miami has become more and more realistic, the Strikers stadium search has grinded to a halt. Traffic isn't going to invest anymore money than the minimum necessary to keep the team going until they see what effect Beckham's announcemnt will have, and the details of it, like where the stadium will be. Traffic is cheap anyway! We still don't even have confirmation of the coach who turned the team around last year coming back!

You are hoping for all the best, but I just don't see it happening for either team. There are a lot of issues with an American soccer team in Miami. Beckham's name isn't going to overcome any of them by itself. Time will tell.

 

So wait, what is your motive? Lets say we get a Miami MLS team and Strikers die off, then what? Would you support Miami or just stay in ft laudy waiting for Miami MLS to fold again?

 

Lucho, I think he's a little bitter about MLS Miami because he fears that a successful Miami team will kill off his beloved Strikers. But what I find even more surprising is that he is a South Florida soccer fan and subscribes to the same blueprint with those nonsense facts about Miami that's spread by idiots who hate Miami for the sake of it. They all lack the real facts of why MLS in South Florida didn't succeed 12 years ago, and infact it was more about the ownership than it was the South Floridian fans who were all scapegoated as an excuse to save face by the league who was in financial trouble and couldn't hold up Horowitz financially anymore. These haters all sound the same, it's like they're all reading from the same stale script word for word. Here is the justification for all those South Floridian fans in the end, Miami will be getting an MLS team and an announcement is coming in a matter of days. So what does the haters have now to hold on too? Now they're saying MLS Miami will fail...I remember it wasn't so long ago they were so passionate about hating Miami and use to say that Miami will never get an MLS team ever again. Well for those folks, guess what? I think we're getting a MLS team in Miami...note how their voices has grown silent recently. It would seem that folks like Smoke & Mirrors are now in the minority instead of folks like us and Garber. For all those South Florida soccer fans who suffered from the scrutiny of the nation after the Miami Fusion was shutdown, redemption is coming and in about 12 days MLS22 will be awarded to the magic city.

 

ok, do you have anything against miami? not against the mls team?
ill just go ahead and say it you seem like an ____, and you make the strikers look bad.

MOD note: watch the language

 

i mentioned this a few weeks ago. These people are not rich by playing the lotto. They obviously know what theyre doing.

 

Lucho, for years now there has been a local professional soccer team to your north, but most self-proclaimed "soccer fans" in Dade won't attend complaining it's too far away. But you believe that soccer fans in Broward and Palm Beach should drive to Miami, a much more difficult commute going that direction?

I avoid Miami like the plague now, Beckham isn't going to change that for me. JRS is as far south as I go unless I have absolutely no choice. You and I both know that the South Beach image that outsiders want to believe all of Miami is like covers very little of the overall area in reality. And as I've already stated, why on earth would I support a team that caused my team to go out of business? Anyone that would is a better person than me.

 

Slow down chief. Lucho and I usually don't agree, but he also doesn't put words in my mouth either. I didn't say anything about the Fusion. In fact, even with the lousy ownership that did them in, there was really only one thing that kept them from having a decent chance at survival - the name. "Miami" Fusion at Lockhart Stadium, the home of the team that the community loved and embraced 13 years earlier? That was idiotic. A team called the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, in a spruced up Lockhart, coached by the team's most beloved former player Ray Hudson that was successful on the field - it wouldn't have fixed all of the problems, but it would have made a much more popular club, and made for a better situation for a more stable ownership group to consider coming in and taking over from inept Horowitz.

There's never been a legion of soccer fans in Miami dying for American pro soccer. Nothing has indicated any change in this. Event games with the world's most popular teams and players draws fans. Of course it does. That happens everywhere. But that's not what MLS is. Not even if Beckham is the owner. But bask in that smug arrogance, that superiority complex some Miamians have with respect to the rest of South Florida. It won't last. No one envies you over the Miami Marlins debacle.

 

First off, I doubt Beckham ever spends a single dime of his own money on this. So no matter how poorly it performs, he has nothing to lose but that discount ticket that everyone claims is expiring soon anyway. At the first sign of trouble, I'm sure Beckham will have things arranged so he can cash out his interest and move on.

I've heard others talk about these analyses and research projects regarding Miami before. I'd really like to know exactly what they're looking at. Because you know what the Miami supporters always say? They dismiss the many failed American pro soccer teams in Dade County over the years claiming that's old and doesn't matter. They point to event games like Barca and Chivas as proof. Well, if Barca vs. Chivas is proof of expected attendance for an MLS team in this market, or any market for that matter, why is the league mandate for appropriate sized stadiums in the 18,000 - 20,000 range instead of the 70,000 range? We can talk population make up and income statistics. But the pro Miami crowd ignores those too because they tend to support the opposite side of the debate. So I'm dying to know what research they found that indicates long term stable support for an American pro soccer product, a project that will have an ultimate price tag just to set up of 100's of millions of dollars. No one ever says. Is it a secret fomula like KFC? Everyone by now should see just how difficult getting a stadium in what the league deems as an acceptable area, is as well.

Analyzing data is what I do for a living. None of the relevant data indicates a favorable chance for success. All of these concerns, and still others Kauffman has raised, someone firmly in support of the project, yet able to be realistic about the obstacles. Have questioned her about any of these concerns on Twitter? Or because at the end of day she is rooting for it, it's ok not to ask her about the challenges too? Lastly, just because someone is bright, or has done well in one arena, does not mean it will translate in everything else they do. Ross was obviously a real estate wiz. Owning a sports franchise though? Anyone in South Florida think he's as good at that? Rich people aren't always the smartest people in the room.

 

So childish name-calling because I don't agree with you. Pathetic. Mods, I've gotten yellow cards for far less, so how about it here?

 

Here is the thing, you're not apart of any risk management group or a prophet that could see into the future. You me or anyone else here on this thread can not predict what will happen with this MLS Miami team. Now with that said, if you look at the changing attitudes in the country towards the sport of soccer in general and add to this the changing demographics of the last 12 years in the South Florida region, while adding to that a superb ownership group led by a superstar owner who is 100% committed to building a good quality team in Miami with a stadium. Then why on earth would you come here saying MLS Miami will fail? With all of these factors coupled with the fact we've all learned a valuable lesson from the mistakes of the past, that should help make MLS Miami a success this time around. The Horowitz problem is solved and the league learned from that by only partnering with ownerships who's 100% committed and has the financial ability to operate an MLS team. I don't think anyone here have any doubts in the abilities of the Beckham led ownership group and we all know that Mr. Beckham is more than 100% committed to the sport of soccer here and in general. Your rants just seem a bit too much and a bit out of place with logic...in my opinion for MLS Miami to fail again all of the circumstances of the past would still have to be in place today without any lessons learned from that.

 

its not because i dont agree with you, its because you get off on putting miami down, laughing at us, at the idea that we can make it work.
and i do apologize, im not usually that impulsive, and it was uncalled for, but maybe you can see that your constant anti miami attitude you may cause this type of reaction, and i think that's what you want.
so do you have a problem with miami? the city? the locals? the fact that most people here think ft lauderdale is a suburb of miami?

 

Great Coverage by Miami/Fort Lauderdale WPLG Local 10 covering David Beckham's MLS Miami Bid. Forward to 10 minutes and watch Chip Iglesias & Beckham Advisor John Alschuler talk MLS ‪#‎Miami‬‪#‎MLS22‬
http://www.local10.com/news/this-we...c-15/-/1717324/23498010/-/enri1y/-/index.html

 

for all we know he considers us the worst scum on earth. a cess pool. or maybe theres genuine envy. who knows. frankly i dont care. I just know Miami is finally getting its own professional soccer team. With our CURRENT conditions, i dont see this team failing. Most of S. Florida will eventually embrace it, as they did with the Dolphins and Heat.

 

i think its envy, there's just nothing to justify that hate for miami, and i KNOW this team will be a success but i dont think most of s.florida will embrace it, i think there's still a market for the strikers, and that's fine.

 

i hope there still is. i do like the idea of a strikers/miami fc match. would be fun.

 

If u guys pay attention in minute 18 the real estate dude says exciting announcements in the next four months, looks like the announcement would be the end of the year and multiple announcements would come in the next year, I'm guessing name of team, stadium site, etc. etc.

What's interesting as well they want to build a 22,000 seat stadium with the option of expanding to 35,000 (in the next 5 years) Well South Florida, lets get this thing big, spread the news, damn 35,000 would be fun and exciting

 

I love the idea of the stadium at PortMiami. And with 22,000 seats, you are not dealing with anything crazier than a sold out event at the AAA. However, if that stadium goes any bigger, i see major traffic and logistical issues at that site. The new tunnel will help I guess with traffic a little...but unless they figure out a way to bring mass transit closer or add more lanes/parking...a 35-40k stadium at that site could be dicey.

 

I'm getting the same feeling here also, regardless of how many investors said they're interested in bringing an MLS club to Miami, it has always been a one man race. Also in that interview I was surprised to learn that these guys are very ambitious and just don't want to build a soccer stadium, but they want to build and design a statement stadium which could be expanded from 22,000 to 35,000 seats. It was an informative interview that also shows the backing of alot of folks in the Miami City Commissioners office.

 

Ok, we have mass transit guys, for those that don't know the metrorail has a connection from Hialeah, they have the tri-rail and soon connection to the states thru Amtrak, when I was younger I used to go to panther games, me and my pops took the metrorail from dadeland all the time!! And that was back then when there were no links as there are now.

Please guys before you speak or state an opinion please research don't assume, because you know what that makes right an ASS-U-ME please research M.I.C Miami Intermodal Center, anybody that wants to watch a game in Miami MLS can simply take the metrorail to downtown and watch the match

And if your coming from west palm beach, Broward (for 10$) you can take the tri-rail to the MIC or Miami Central Station and hop on the metrorail to downtown

Www.micdot.com

Edit Note: P.S. did I mention this thing is at the Airport, my bad I missed that important fact, this thing is at the airport hell you can come from New York, Dubai, Japan to Miami international Airport, go to the MIC (MCS) via metromover, hop on Metrorail and watch Becks team in downtown Port of Miami.

 

Thanks! This is what's it's all about Lucho, putting the word out there for all those folks who may not know about these availabilities.

 

No prob, it's sad how everybody jumps on the bandwagon of traffic this and traffic that, people don't think outside the box here, I mean don't get me wrong I'm car tied as well, I never think about the transit system, but for these games ill be a year pass owner to watch Heat and Miami MLS games...