I've seen some stupid ideas in my time, and this sure is one of them: Beckham and Co. are proposing to build a soccer stadium in the Overtown section of Miami without any parking lots or garages nearby. Apparently they don't seem to realize that Miami is not a mass-transit city. People drive their cars everywhere. This is from today's Miami Herald: "To address parking concerns, Leiweke unveiled a strategy he said would help keep cars away from the stadium area. He said the team plans to arrange for a dinner-cruise boat to deliver fans to the Miami River a few blocks away, and would arrange for shuttle buses from parking garages in Miami." http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article151188752.html He thinks that people are going to drive to remote parking garages, and then take buses to the game? That's not going to happen! If Beckham and friends go through with this plan, I predict no more than three or four thousand fans a game will show up.
They will park in the empty lots at Lockhart Stadium and takes shuttles. Because that would be hilarious
There is a conversation about this on the Soccer By Ives site. One guy had an amusing comment: If they aren't going to build a parking garage next to the stadium to encourage people to walk or use mass transit, then they should also forgo food in the stadium to encourage people to diet.
Beckham still appears squeezed for the cash he needs to purchase enough land to do this properly. The city seems to be fine with selling him whatever parcels he needs in that area of the city. It seems that the problem is that Beckham still wants have pow primary ownership privileges while asking others to commit most of the money. Granted it's his contract that grants the massive buy-in discount, but he's still asking wealthy men to commit a lot of money on a stadium in a city that's already failed in MLS once. Granted, that was a long time ago, but it's still a risk. I think he'll probably end up doing this simply due to the contractual deal he has with MLS and his stubborn commitment to Miami, but I'm thinking that these delays have more to do with Beckham's lack of funds than anything that Miami has been doing to stonewall the deal.
In Tampa or Orlando... just kidding There must be enough parking garages in the area, right? I don't know Miami, but in every major city I've been to, there are usually several parking garages within a mile distance to the stadium. The revenue wouldn't go to the team, but at least people with cars would have options.
Street parking in the neighborhood is going to be a b***h. Also, are there no parking garages in the area? I thought the location was only a couple of blocks away from Marlins Park? While I see that Marlins Park has their own parking garages, are there any others in the area?
I fired up google maps, and I see the location is going to be a mile and a half from Marlins Park and on the other side of the Miami River. I hope the street parking is amazing.
If I'm looking through the right colored glasses, this is actually a masterstroke. In 10-15 years we'll all be in self-driving cars anyway, and they won't need garages. While the rest of the world is demolishing or retrofitting garages, Beckham will be smiling over the one he didn't fund. Genius. Maybe.
Such things shouldn't matter to real fans. Real fans would walk 20-miles uphill through neck deep molten lava to get to the nearest bus stop and complain about how kids these days have it easy, because back in their day it would be 40-miles uphill through molten lava that was over their head and they had to carry their elderly grandmother and grandfather upon their backs just to get to the point where they would only have to walk uphill 20-miles through neck deep molten lava to get to the nearest bus stop.
Let's say they actually build this stadium without any parking nearby, in a city where people don't use mass transit. Would anyone here care to predict how many fans will show up for a typical match? I am sticking with my original estimate of 3,000-4,000 fans per game.
That's just trolling. No MLS club (even during MLS 1.0, even the ones that contracted, even *Chivas*) has averaged less than 7,000.
Shit, you want to stick to your guns? I'll bet you a beer next time either of us is in the other's town.
When you read Overtown, think Compton. I wouldn't park my car there on a bet even if I could find parking.