Yesterday, at a rally officially announcing that a Major League Soccer team is coming to Orlando, league Commissioner Don Garber had a bit of bad news for the assembled Orlando fans.
"This is the beginning for us in Florida," Garber told the crowd last night. "We hope to have a couple rivals for you that might be across the state and perhaps a couple hundred miles down state."
The Orlando fans booed heavily, but South Floridians should be sporting a coy smile.
While talking with the Orlando Sentinel, Garber dropped the hints and confirmed that a Miami team is in the works.
"We have been working hard. I was in Miami Friday and Saturday and met with the mayor during that meeting. There is a lot of momentum in that city," Garber told the paper about David Beckham's plans to bring a franchise to Miami.
"[Beckham has] been out meeting with partners, a couple of celebrity partners. The ownership group is coming together. They have been working to find a location for a soccer-specific stadium. If those pieces come together the way we all hope they will, then we could have a team in the next number of years in Miami, but there is still a lot of work to do on all those fronts."
Beckham has reportedly considered having the team play in FIU Stadium or Marlins Park, at least at the beginning. However, Garber's comments suggest that the team would like to eventually find its own permanent home. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez told the Miami Herald that the team would indeed want its own stadium somewhere in an urban environment, but stressed the plan is that the team would pay for it themselves.
Sounds like Beckham and Co. would need to lockdown that stadium before Garber heads "a couple hundred miles downstate" to make a similar announcement.
Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.
