MIAMI — David Beckham and his partners have spent years exploring several sites, haggling with politicians, and campaigning during a referendum that saw voters authorize the city of Miami to negotiate a 99-year no-bid lease for a commercial and soccer stadium complex on the city’s only publicly owned golf course. The following is a timeline of those efforts:
— May 2013 — Upon Beckham’s retirement from the Los Angeles Galaxy, rumors swirl about where he would try to launch a new Major League Soccer franchise. The league had agreed to let him buy a club for a discounted price. Miami is immediately in the rumor mill.
— June 2013 — The buzz grows louder when Beckham visits stadiums in Miami-Dade. He spends time with Marcelo Claure, the Bolivian billionaire businessman who tried to bring MLS back to Miami in 2009.
— November 2013 — PortMiami emerges as a potential site for a new, privately financed soccer stadium. MLS has yet to award Miami a franchise, but Beckham’s visits and meetings with investors and politicians make his interest clear.
— February 2014 — MLS Commissioner Don Garber announces that Beckham will get an expansion franchise, and it will be in Miami — if Beckham and his investors score a new stadium.
— May 2014 — Beckham and his investors shift away from a PortMiami site, which drew opposition from some Miami commissioners and the cruise industry, and look toward a deep-water boat slip next to the downtown arena where the Miami Heat play.
— June 2014 — Miami’s city government tells the Beckham group “thanks but no thanks” after the group offers $2 million a year in rent to build a stadium in Maurice A. Ferré Park and the boat slip. Then-Mayor Tomás Regalado and Miami’s city manager take downtown’s waterfront off the table. “Our team’s going to pause,” says Beckham’s real-estate advisor.
— July to November 2015 — A new site next to Marlins Park is the subject of discussions with Miami city officials and the Miami-Dade School Board. The Beckham group runs into trouble buying parcels from individual landowners and eventually abandons the pursuit.
— December 2015 — Beckham announces a nine-acre site on the western edge of Overtown as the next potential stadium location on a mix of private and public land. The soccer group begins the process of buying the county-owned land.
— March 2016 — Miami Beckham United, the soccer partnership, pays nearly $19 million for six acres in Overtown, the first real estate assembled for an MLS stadium in Miami. Discussions with potential investors start and stop several times.
— June 2017 — Miami-Dade County approves the sale of three acres, allowing Beckham to assemble the necessary real estate to build an Overtown stadium.
— August 2017 — Overtown neighbors organize opposition to Beckham’s stadium plan. Residents criticize the deal over a community benefits package and what is viewed as public subsidies for Beckham in the form of publicly funded infrastructure upgrades.
— December 2017 — Jorge and Jose Mas, principals of construction and infrastructure firm MasTec, join Beckham’s investor group. Todd Boehly, part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, leaves the project.
— January 2018— MLS formally awards Beckham and his revamped investor group a team with a big event downtown.
— March 2018 — Melreese Country Club, a city-owned golf course on Miami’s largest piece of parkland next to Miami International Airport, emerges as a new potential stadium site. Jorge Mas says the Overtown site isn’t big enough.
— July 2018 — After months of talks with Miami administrators, Beckham and Jorge Mas release the first details of a plan to transform Melreese into a $1 billion complex with hotel rooms, retail shops, an office park, soccer fields on the roof of a parking structure, a soccer stadium and a 58-acre public park. The Miami City Commission votes to hold a referendum asking voters if the city should negotiate a no-bid, 99-year lease with the soccer team to develop “Miami Freedom Park.”
— September 2018 — Beckham’s team reveals its black-and-pink color scheme and name: Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami, which shortens to Inter Miami.
— November 2018 — The Melreese referendum passes with about 60% support from Miami voters, clearing the way for city administrators to negotiate a complex lease agreement with Jorge Mas, the team’s managing owner. Mayor Francis Suarez champions the deal.
— 2019 — After Beckham’s lobbyists resolve an ethics question over their lobbyist registration, negotiations can begin. It takes months for commissioners to agree on who should represent the city in the negotiations. The city settles on three law firms: Fowler White Burnett, O’Melveny & Myers and Shutts & Bowen (former Commissioner Marc Sarnoff is a lead on Shutts’ negotiating team). Meanwhile, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission approves a 50-year lease of its Lockhart Stadium property to Inter Miami, which quickly builds a new training facility and stadium.
— 2020 — Negotiations with Miami are temporarily put on pause while the city grapples with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inter Miami plays its first MLS match away at Los Angeles before the pandemic interrupts the season. Play resumes months later.
— May 2021 — MLS sanctions Inter Miami for violating the league’s salary budget and roster guidelines during the 2020 season. The club is fined $2 million, and Managing Owner Jorge Mas is fined $250,000.
— January 2022 — Suarez tells the Miami Herald that negotiations on the four-part lease agreement, totaling more than 500 pages, are complete. Commissioners will be briefed on the deal in the coming weeks and a vote is scheduled for Feb. 23.
— February 2022 — A Feb. 23 meeting to discuss the Miami Freedom Park lease agreements was postponed to early March. Officials said the meeting needed to be rescheduled due to scheduling conflicts.
— March 2022 — The commission vote was postponed again twice, pushed back to early April. Suarez and team officials blamed a timing issue with public notice of the meeting in a Spanish-language newspaper, but the city attorney said the meeting could have proceeded. Interviews with multiple commissioners indicate they are not ready to vote on Miami Freedom Park.
— April 2022 — Early in the month, for the fourth time the vote is pushed back, this time due to a scheduling conflict with the city attorney. The city commissioners were scheduled to discuss Miami Freedom Park on Thursday.
