By: EFE Updated 25 Apr 2022, 23: 19 pm EDT
The long and rocky road that the Englishman David Beckham and the owners of the Inter Miami CF finally came to an end this Thursday, after receiving the vote in favor of the Miami commissioners (aldermen) to the stadium of this team of the Major Soccer League (MLS).
After achieving the minimum 4 votes in favor (out of a total of five) that were required, the Inter Miami will be able to start the construction of the stadium with capacity for 25.000 spectators and thus end 8 years without their longed-for venue in this city of South Florida (USA).
The stadium will be located in what will be a complex near the airport, which will be called “Miami Freedom Park” and will also house a shopping center, offices and a hotel.
The lease contract for 99 years of a land of 52 acres on the golf course Melreese Country Club, granted without public bidding as a result of a referendum in the elections of 2018, will imply for Miami a minimum rent of $3,57 million dollars annually, as well as some 40 million in property taxes.
The professional soccer league club will also pay the city about $19 million dollars to develop a public park of 23 hectares in place as a result of this agreement, backed by the mayor of this city, Francis Suárez.
During the commission session this Thursday , Suárez described the club’s proposal as “phenomenal”, and also denounced a “disinfection effort” formation” to discredit the work of his administration in the negotiation of this contract, which obliges Inter Miami to cover the costs of environmental cleanup on the ground.
Commissioners Ken Russell, Alex Díaz de la Portilla, Joe Carollo and Christine King voted in favor of the agreement , while the commissioner Manolo Reyes was the vote against, informed Local 04.
The stadium and complex about $1.000 million dollars of investment has met opposition from several fronts, including a documentary by filmmaker Billy Corben, two former city managers and some residents of the Melreese Country Club, as reported by Miami media .
For Beckham it has been a long road to establish the headquarters and stadium of his team since 2014 the MLS will announce the granting to the former English player of a franchise in Miami for the American soccer league.
The first objective of Beckham and his partners was a piece of land near the Port of Miami, where he collided with the opposition of the powerful cruise industry and of some city commissioners.
The club’s second attempt, a piece of land in the Maurice A. Ferré park and near the basketball team’s coliseum, did not prosper either Miami Heat for which he offered a rent of two million dollars a year.
Between the years 2015 and 2017, the complex project adjacent to the stadium of the local baseball team, the Marlins, also fell, as well as another in Overtown , north of the city center and for which the group came to buy 3.6 hectares.
It was with the shipment at the end of 2017 of the brothers and businessmen Jorge and José Mas as club’s new owners, who soon after ruled out the Overtown site as not being of sufficient size, that the prospect of the Melreese Country Club golf course emerged as a project to establish the team’s headquarters.
In the meantime, Jorge Mas joined the group of investors who recently bought Real Zaragoza from the Spanish second division.
In recent years the Inter Miami CF has been operating at the DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, a few 40 kilometers north of Miami, a city where they also waited expectantly this Thursday for the outcome of the vote .