For those who aren’t familiar with the Daily Mirror, here’s your capsule history: It’s a British tabloid, specializing in lurid celebrity gossip. It used to be edited by Piers Morgan — yeah, that one — until he was fired for publishing faked photos of British soldiers abusing Iraqis. Its record of accuracy since then isn’t much better.
So when reading the following from Sunday’s Mirror, consider the source:
David Beckham is to take his creative midfield skills to new heights by building a stadium, the Sunday People reports.
The former LA Galaxy star couldn’t find a suitable home ground for his new Miami team, due to kick off in 2015.
So the football legend plans to develop his own 75,000-capacity complex, with a hotel and shops. For now the team will use the Sun Life Stadium, former home to the Miami Marlins baseball team.
A source close to David, 38, said: “It’s such an exciting project, he has found some land and it’s pretty much all ready to go.”
Um, yeah. The largest soccer-only facility in the U.S. is the Los Angeles Galaxy‘s StubHub Center at 27,000 seats, so building a stadium nearly triple that size for a market whose previous MLS team was folded after four seasons of never drawing more than 11,000 fans per game … um, yeah. Not to mention that a stadium that size would cost, at minimum, well over half a billion dollars, which even Beckham might have a hard time finding in his coat pockets.
The Miami Herald, which is an actual newspaper, reports today that Beckham has identified a preferred site for a stadium — the southwest corner of Miami’s seaport, which would put it across a short causeway from the Heat‘s American Airlines Arena. According to the Herald, Miami-Dade County would lease the site to Beckham’s group, which would then figure out how to build a stadium (size as yet undetermined) with other money. That sounds more believable — though finding any significant private money for a large soccer-only stadium in an unproven market still sounds pretty dubious, even if your lead investor is one of the most famous soccer players in history.
“For now the team will use the Sun Life Stadium, former home to the Miami Marlins baseball team.”
Glad to hear that Beckham FC will play in a vacant stadium and there will be zero chance of scheduling conflicts each season. It would suck if they had to share a facility with someone else.
The part about their shoddy record with accurate reporting seems to be spot on.
Beckham was primarily a winger during his playing days, not a creative midfielder.
Kei: Well it doesn’t say ‘central’ and you might argue that he did use his limited skills creatively to be able to sustain such a career despite the fact that he couldn’t take people on with the ball at his feet or tackle or play with much pace.
But I’m not going to defend the Mirror.
I would think a soccer team in Miami Gardens would be a non-starter. Playing that far out in a football stadium is a recipe for another New England Revolution. Only difference is the Miami Beckhams wouldn’t have the same ownership as the football team and stadium owner and thus money neutral position as the Revolution. The Beckhams would lose money hand over fist out there even if only temporary.
Stubhub Center is the largest soccer-specific stadium. The largest soccer-only stadium is currently RFK.
I honestly think he’s getting scammed.
I think David Beckham same with her wife Victoria are really investing into Properties which is really good in my opinion especially that they have 4 kids.