Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber says David Beckham’s Miami expansion group needs to solve its stadium issues “soon” or risk not being added as the 24th team in the North American league.
The warning to Beckham’s group, which meets this weekend with Garber at the MLS Cup final, came Thursday as its latest stadium plan has hit a snag. Owners of the land involved near the stadium of Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins do not want to sell.
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“It doesn’t seem like that land is in play because the owners don’t want to sell, ” Garber said. “We will discuss that with David Beckham.”
MLS folded a Miami team in 2001 but Garber said the league has looked to return “almost since we left” and saw Beckham, the retired English legend who played some of his final seasons in MLS with the Los Angeles Galaxy, as the perfect man to head the Miami club.
But after two failed waterfront sites and the latest setback, Garber made it clear Thursday that being unable to reach a deal for land satisfying Beckham’s investor group and civic officials has been “frustrating” and patience is not indefinite.
