If This Miami MLS Logo Is Real, David Beckham Finally Did Something Right

David Beckham's quest to bring a Major League Soccer team to Miami has so far run as smoothly as Daphne Campbell's campaign to return to the Florida Senate. Beckham and his partners have spent so long fumbling between various stadium schemes that it takes the kind of faith usually found only in remote Benedictine monasteries to believe his franchise will ever take the field in South Florida.

Beckham finally has a hotly contested plan headed to voters on this fall's ballot to build a soccer park at Melreese Country Club. But in the meantime, his team might have finally done something absolutely right: namely, designed a truly great logo for a Miami MLS team.

The logo was quietly trademarked Friday by the Delaware-based company MIPH — the same firm that trademarked a bunch of potential names for the team earlier this year, as noted by Bill Reese, a journalist who first reported on the new logo at the Water Tower.  

If it's real, this bad boy gets so many things right: First, it suggests the team will be called Internacional Club de Fútbol Miami, an infinite improvement over the Arena League-worthy possibility of Miami Freedom, which had been among the trademarked names earlier this year.

(Update: As several have noted on Twitter, it's odd the logo uses Spanish vocabulary in English word order. Let's hope Beckham has a second version with a more sensible " Club de Fútbol Internacional" order.)

But the logo itself is stunning and muy Miami: There's the pink, black, and white color scheme, a criminally underused combination in sports teams that's also reminiscent of an art deco hotel lobby on Ocean Drive.

The badge itself is also gorgeous: Two back-to-back cranes, which live all over South Florida, forming an "M" with their slender interlocking legs in front of a pink sunburst and the "Miami" wordmark. Take another look at this beauty:
There's no guarantee Beckham's team will choose this logo. But it's clear a significant amount of design work went into this product, and there are other hints it's the real deal. As Russell notes, the Roman numerals "MMXX" at the base of the logo translate to "2020," which is when MLS says Miami's team is slated to begin playing.

The way this franchise has operated so far, there's every possibility Jorge Mas will blow up this plan and insist on a teal block-lettered Miami Freedom logo. But for now, let's just imagine this badge on a fresh Inter Miami kit and live the dream.