Those who gathered at the Adrienne Arsht Centre in the Port of Miami expected details. Four years after the initial announcement of an MLS team for the city was made, this was confirmation that David Beckham’s much-troubled franchise was finally coming to fruition. Many expected a team name, colours, maybe even manager. What materialised was decidedly less comprehensive.
Instead, Beckham was on hand to simply announce that he and his business partners had been granted a license by MLS to hold a franchise having satisfied the league’s demands. This could have surely been announced through a statement, but such has been the strife experienced by all involved with the project over the past few years this felt like something of a celebration.
Now, with a date for Beckham’s Miami team to begin play in MLS finally set focus can turn to footballing matters, like hiring backroom staff and recruiting a team. There’s a lot riding on the success of the franchise. In fact, Miami must turn out to be the most significant franchise in MLS’s recent history.
The history of the North American top flight can be split into three phases. The first phase concerned the initial establishment of the league. At that time, the division consisted of just 10 teams, with ageing American stars drawing modest crowds to crumbling stadiums often left behind by the more mainstream baseball and football leagues.
The second phase started with the watershed arrival of Beckham at the LA Galaxy over a decade ago. It sparked the growth of MLS across the country, with the league deliberately focusing on untapped markets in cities where there was little completion from other sporting divisions. Look at the success enjoyed in places like Portland and Orlando.
Phase three is where the true potential of MLS as a major mainstream league will be tested. The introduction of teams such as Atlanta United and Miami suggest the league is going back to targeting major markets. That could, of course, pay off, cementing MLS’s place at the forefront of the American sporting consciousness. If things go badly, though, it could set back its development by a generation.
In Miami, MLS has given itself the ultimate assessment. The South Florida city is notoriously difficult as a sporting market, with even successful teams like the Miami Heat and the Miami Dolphins struggling to attract big crowds. The attraction of Miami is obvious, with Beckham’s team well-placed to make the most of the region’s diverse community of football fans, but there are still a number of factors that will make success difficult.
“We want to reach for the stars, we want the best players in, but more importantly for us we want to create a state of the art academy where we have a hotbed of talent in this part of America,” Beckham said on Monday as he explained what he wanted from his new team. “If we get that right, that will make us and the people of Miami even more proud to support their team, because they’re seeing young kids, their sons, coming into this team and have the chance to play professional football.”
Of course, there was once a MLS team in Miami not so long ago. The Miami Fusion achieved success on the field, winning the Supporters’ Shield and making the play-offs, yet it wasn’t enough to stop the club from folding that very same year. In all, the Fusion lasted for just four years as its owners discovered first hand the problems that come with establishing a sports team in South Florida.
There is very little evidence to suggest this time, with Beckham at the helm, will be any different. There might be more money behind this attempt, but has Miami changed in the time since the Fusion’s failure? MLS has a lot of work on its hands to prove that it has.
