FIU Hopes To Attract Prospective MLS Team Away From OB Site

FIU Could Be Hurdle To Proposed Soccer Stadium On Orange Bowl Site

A $100M, 25,000-seat soccer stadium for a new MLS team, part of a proposed sports and entertainment complex on the Orange Bowl site, faces a "challenger" in  Florida Int'l Univ. (FIU), according to Matthew Pinzur of the MIAMI HERALD.  FIU in September is opening a nearly 18,000-seat field on its main campus, and FIU AD Pete Garcia said, "We're willing to do whatever it takes to get Major League Soccer in our stadium." The FIU stadium will host the school's football team, and Garcia believes that it also "would be ideal for the MLS," as it has 19 luxury suites, 1,400 club seats and "locker rooms that conform to soccer-league standards -- and a design that could later expand to as many as 45,000 seats." Garcia: "If I have to give them free rent, I'll give it to them. Let them get a better deal than that at the Orange Bowl site." However, MLS Dir of Communications Will Kuhns said the league is "focusing on the Orange Bowl site" and that negotiations with Miami continue. Miami Mayor Manny Diaz has been "negotiating for an MLS team since he took office six years ago and said [MLS] commissioner Don Garber 'loves the Orange Bowl site.'" (MIAMI HERALD, 1/16).