BECKS BOOST
David Beckham’s Inter Miami win battle to transform golf course into $1bn state-of-the-art football club stadium
DAVID BECKHAM was jumping for joy after his dream of building a new $1billion home for Inter Miami took a massive step closer.
The former England skipper's team have played their first three MLS campaigns in Fort Lauderdale at DRV PNK Stadium, around 30 miles north of Miami.
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But after a meeting at Miami City Hall on Thursday night, the club earned enough votes from the five commissioners to lease land at Melreese Country Club near Miami international airport to build a new 25,000-seater stadium, due to be ready in 2025.
A few other obstacles need to be cleared yet this was a massive moment for Becks, Miami boss Phil Neville and the fans with many praying their club would move closer to home.
Beckham wasn't at the meeting but sporting director Chris Henderson told SunSport: "David has been following everything very closely.
“We are really building something here and because of David’s involvement, the brand has always been big and of course this will just increase that.”
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There was drama towards the conclusion of a six-hour hearing when Miami commissioner Ken Russell voted against the deal only to change his mind after a 30-minute break to ensure a 4-1 triumph and spark jubilant scenes involving Inter Miami officials.
The golf course at Melreese, the only public one in the city, will now begin to be converted into the stadium complex which will be called Miami Freedom Park.
It will include a state-of-the-art multi-use stadium, a 750-room hotel, technology hub, one million square feet of office space and a 58-acre park with soccer pitches for public use.
Political infighting had halted the deal with it being branded a “real estate deal with a soccer stadium” by opponents.
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But Jorge Mas, the Miami-born construction magnate who is effectively Beckham’s right-hand man, could barely contain his delight.
Over the moon, Mas said: “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a phenomenal deal for Miami.
“This is a legacy project. This is an amazing day.”
Co-owner Mas spoke passionately at the start of the hearing about the project which has been six years in the making and has encountered myriad problems since its conception.
Inter Miami purchased a plot of land in Overtown, a deprived downtown area, in 2015 but Mas has always pushed for a far more lucrative development which they hope will create a Silicon Valley-type environment in South Florida.
The £800 million complex could create around 15,000 jobs.
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Inter Miami stress Freedom Park is "100 per cent privately financed" and Mas made the point that in both Tennessee and Buffalo, where new NFL stadiums are being planned, funding will come from the public purse.
Mas added: “This deal is unprecedented in US sport."
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