Miami FC was announced yesterday as the newest NASL franchise. Beginning play in '16, the club will be owned by a group of int'l investors that includes MP & Silva Founder & President Riccardo Silva and former Serie A club AC Milan D Paolo Maldini. Miami-based sports media exec Antonio Barreto will serve as the club’s CEO and hold an ownership stake. The club’s matches will be distributed worldwide via MP & Silva, who as a group also will be a shareholder of Miami FC. When the club enters the league, it will play its home matches at an existing stadium in Miami (Ian Thomas, Staff Writer). In Miami, Michelle Kaufman cites sources as saying that Miami FC "will play" at FIU. Meanwhile, David Beckham's plan to bring an MLS club to Miami "remains in limbo as he and his group try to find a suitable stadium site." MLS Commissioner Don Garber will be "vacationing in Florida over the next week, and plans to visit Miami officials in an effort to expedite the project" (MIAMI HERALD, 5/21).
CHALLENGE TO BECKHAM? In N.Y., Andrew Das writes the club's placement in Miami could be seen as a "direct challenge" to MLS, which announced in February '14 that it had awarded a team in the city to Beckham. Beckham’s ownership deal is "contingent on his building a soccer-specific stadium in the city -- a hurdle he and his partners have had little success clearing." MLS and the NASL, the "top two tiers of American professional soccer, have been in competition in several markets in recent years." MLS will "field an expansion team" in '17 in Atlanta, where the NASL Atlanta Silverbacks "already play." MLS will bring NASL Minnesota United FC into the league after the club "reaches an agreement on its own downtown stadium" in Minneapolis. MLS has "nearly twice as many teams" as the NASL, and its teams "routinely draw bigger crowds and are more visible" on TV. But NASL clubs have "recently tried to become more competitive by luring bigger names -- the Cosmos have signed" former Spanish national team MF Marcos Senna and F Raul (N.Y. TIMES, 5/21).
