Will Miami Beckham United ever take flight?

Good news for Miami soccer fans: the North American Soccer League Miami FC have a match tomorrow night against the New York Cosmos.

Double good news for Miami soccer fans: There is a derby match between Miami United FC and Miami Fusion FC of the National Premier Soccer League is still on in three weeks time.

Now for the bad news: The Miami Beckhams have hit another roadblock.

In what seems like a semiannual tradition bad news has come out of Miami for those looking for a Major League Soccer franchise. On Friday the Miami Herald’s Doug Harris reported that a proposed deal between the group led by Beckham and the Miami Dade county council has hit a roadblock. Harris’ piece indicates that the Beckham group has rejected the county council’s terms on certain benefits.

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Although it is not clear what terms the group is opposed to the piece highlights community benefits as a particular point of contention. In the deal that was struck by both parties back in the fall of 2015 it was agreed that the Beckham group would purchase several parcels of land in the Overton neighborhood under a no-bid contract. The no-bid contract allows for the purchasing party to buy the property with few snags. However, the party does agree to community benefits stipulated by the county. These benefits can include things like employee benefits, hiring targets, and local business perks.

Now there are a couple of different ways to look at this. First, one has to feel a bit bad for Beckham. After finishing up his professional career it seemed like a slam dunk that the former Manchester United and England international would be attending MLS SuperDrafts and MLS Cups in no time (probably not the Landon Donovan Most Valuable Player awards ceremony). By all indications he appears to be excited about the notion of being a professional soccer owner and given his history would have a decent chance of being successful.

But that being said it feels as if this entire situation has been a major miscalculation on the group’s part. That the group had not paid attention to the general reticence of the local Miami government after being hosed by both the Marlins and the Dolphins. After forking over major capital for two stadiums and receiving very little back it was apparent even from afar that this would be a difficult sell. Although the Beckham group is far from the only party to blame for this situation their short-sightedness is stunning.

In general the idea of being soccer-specific stadiums is a very difficult sell here in the United States. With many local municipalities still facing a crunch from the economic slowdown of the late 2000’s there just isn’t the budget that there was to build stadiums for a game that in many markets is still catching on. The other ugly bit of truth is that sports stadiums do not provide the financial incentives that has been pipped in by sports teams for generations.

One also has to wonder why Major League Soccer put the Beckham group in this position. As part of the agreement that the league struck with the Beckham group was the caveat that the team had to secure financing for a soccer-specific stadium to gain a bid. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has publicly stated in the past that if a stadium deal cannot be done that the league would have little problem pulling Beckham’s bid.

Perhaps it was due to the previous failure in Miami (another team named the Miami Fusion played in the league from 1998 to 2001. It should be noted that the team did not play in downtown Miami but rather Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale) but the league has always seemed to have cold feet with this deal. That the league bypassed their own informal rule for New York City Football Club speaks for their lack of trust in the Miami bid.