MLS Commissioner Don Garber yesterday said that Miami Beckham United's "inability to purchase several parcels of land from individual landowners has forced them to turn their attention to another site," according to Michelle Kaufman of the MIAMI HERALD. Garber said the undisclosed site "will be better" than the one near Marlins Park. David Beckham’s co-investor and chief negotiator Tim Leiweke has suggested that Saturday’s meeting updating the MLS BOG on stadium negotiations "presents a hard-and-fast deadline; that the league could ditch Miami and go elsewhere if they don’t have a stadium deal finalized." Garber: "This needs to come to a conclusion. We’re spending an enormous amount of time and money on it, and we have been holding off on finalizing our expansion plans while this situation is unresolved, and that’s not fair to MLS, not fair to David and his partners, not fair to anybody at this point." Kaufman notes the site adjacent to Marlins Park "seemed to be a viable option after so many hurdles over the past 22 months." But duplex, apartment and day-care owners who "control a sliver of the land have not come to terms with the Beckham group." Garber: "I thought the Marlins site was workable, but it turned out not to be. ... What Tim has been focused on is trying to quickly pull together a deal with a site that will be better than the Marlins site." Garber added that he "hopes a deal can be done soon because 'we believe in where the city is going demographically and from a social perspective ... but the time will come when we’ll have to make a decision if we aren’t able to finalize something, and we’ll just move on. I think that would be a shame for people in the city, and a shame for David who has been very passionately focused on this'" (MIAMI HERALD, 12/3).
WALKING INTO A HOT MARKET: Garber said while it has been "hard to get a stadium project done" in South Florida, Miami currently is "one of the hottest real estate markets in the world." Garber: "That's good for the people in Miami and ultimately will be good for our team, but it's really hard to find 13 acres to build a stadium when land and real estate prices are so high." He continues to believe MLS will have a team in Miami soon and will get "something resolved quickly" regarding a stadium. Garber: "We are committed to Miami. Miami represents to me sort of the heartbeat of the new America, this passionate Latino, Hispanic Latino fan base that is becoming so much more influential in all walks of life in our country. ... We want to be in the middle of that" ("ESPN FC, ESPNews, 12/2).
