Inter Miami CF Managing Owner Jorge Mas has told Miami-Dade County officials that the MLS expansion team plans to pay $9M to "close on three acres of Miami-Dade land in the Overtown neighborhood and ask Miami for permits to build" a soccer-specific stadium there, according to a front-page piece by Hanks & Flechas of the MIAMI HERALD. Overtown was David Beckham's pick for a stadium until early '18, when his group "switched to a larger proposal on Miami’s Melreese golf course." Mas has previously said that Overtown is a "back-up option if Melreese falls through, even though he has also described it as too cramped for the kind of entertainment and shopping destination he wants to create" at Melreese (MIAMI HERALD, 5/22). In Miami, Brian Bandell noted Melreese "remains the preferred site." That means Inter Miami "could have three stadium sites in play," with Lockhart Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale "already approved." After Inter Miami's "recent legal victory" in a case against local activist Bruce Matheson, the group has 30 days to "make its next down payment" on the Overtown site. That deal is "contingent upon building a stadium on the property at a cost" of at least $175M (BIZJOURNALS.com, 5/21).
