A new decade dawns and with it, the return of MLS to South Florida.
Finally, after a few false starts, a flood of litigation and more public relations parties than most awards season motion pictures, Inter Miami CF will kick their first ball as a Major League Soccer franchise in just two months, when they take on LAFC March 1 at Banc of California Stadium.
It’s more than an idea now, as I’m reminded on a New Year’s Eve drive west down Commercial Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. One of the city’s busiest streets is not only packed with hurried drivers in celebratory end-of-the-year moods, it’s packed with construction trucks too, coming in and out of the old Lockhart Stadium site just west of the 95.
The shell of Inter Miami’s modular stadium dots the sky where historic Lockhart once sat, and behind it, the first few office buildings of the Inter Miami operation, at least the part that will be located in Outer Miami, sit painted in the club’s wonderful and altogether South Floridian pink and black color scheme.
The Herons- yes, it is a Heron on the club’s brilliant crest, not the more well-known Florida flamingo– will open on the road, but come March 14, the lights will be on in Fort Lauderdale.
There are, as there have been since the club’s inception, lingering questions, a few of which are examining ahead of the club’s first training camp and March 1 opener in Los Angeles. There are also causes for optimism as well, silver linings starting to peek through the gray clouds of a stormy rollout.
We examine each.
Inter Miami have big plans for their stadium on the old Melreese Golf Course site, but city politics have proven uncooperative.
What’s up with Miami Freedom Park?
Jorge Mas, the influential Miami entrepreneur who leads Inter Miami’s ownership group, remains confident the club will get a stadium deal done in Miami at the site of the Melreese public golf course. Mas brought Miami political savvy to an ownership group that includes global icon David Beckham, American Idol creator Simon Fuller, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son and former Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, and Mas tends to get what he wants in the City of Miami.
Mas appeared headed for another political win in November 2018, when a referendum to build Miami Freedom Park at the old golf course passed comfortably. Mas and Beckham have rightly stated that vote is evidence of Miami’s community desire to house first-division American soccer. After all, winning any vote on a stadium plan is a big deal in Miami after Marlins Park, a relatively pedestrian by new standards stadium at the site of the old Orange Bowl that cost Miami taxpayers over half-a-billion dollars and made former Marlins owner Jeff Loria, a robber baron moonlighting as an art dealer better suited for a Bond film than real life, filthy rich.
Unfortunately, the referendum didn’t do much other than give Inter Miami the chance to negotiate a lease with the city– one that due to the lack of a bidding process ultimately must be approved by Miami’s city commission 4-1. At present, Mas simply doesn’t have the votes, and while Mas succeeded in getting a vote that would have failed kicked down the road a couple of times, there’s no real confidence among Miami political insiders he’ll have the votes in the spring either.
The key to the vote issue for a while was departing city commissioner Willy Gort, who term limited out of his seat just as a November vote was scheduled on the lease agreement.
That would normally be good news, except that Mas and his team quietly backed auto parts retailer Miguel Angel Gabella as his successor. The manager of Gabella’s campaign, Steve Marin, a political consultant to Mas and Inter Miami, was expected to push Gabella, a pre-election favorite, to support Miami Freedom Park. Gabella lost in a runoff.
Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who won, is more of a wildcard, but was lukewarm on the idea of the deal in the campaign. Diaz de la Portilla is from a longtime Cuban Miami political family; he’s the rare politico in Miami circles who doesn’t necessarily have to bow to pressure from Mas.
Now, a vote originally scheduled for September has been moved to at least May of 2020.
“The issues that still concern multiple commissioners runs the gamut,” a senior aide in one commissioner’s office told TYAC last week, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Think of a problem and it exists, from environmental cleanup associated with the golf course and stadium site, which has contaminated soil under the surface from the pollution of an old municipal incinerator; to one wanting another traffic study, to the very public desire of at least two commissioners to see a comprehensive plan from Mas and Beckham as to how they will replace the green space they’d eliminate by building a stadium on Melreese. It isn’t figuring out how to deal with king tide, but it’s a mess,” the aide said.
In other words, it’s a complicated deal, and as the same city commissioner senior aide told TYAC last week, “it’s hard to see it getting done, at least at present, without reopening the bidding process, which would delay any stadium deal another two years at least.”
Those are tough words and stern odds, even for a guy like Mas, a winner who has navigated Miami’s political thicket before.
Making matters worse, Miami Freedom Park is already stadium site number five for the club– plan 6, if needed, might mean a return to land the club now owns in Overtown– but that would mean less space, and a different plan.
For now, it’s full speed ahead on Melreese and in the interim, all eyes are on Fort Lauderdale, where under the rosiest political outlook, Inter Miami will play at least until 2022.
The Miami Fusion celebrate a playoff win over the Kansas City Wizards at Lockhart Stadium in the autumn of 2001.
Why Fort Lauderdale? Haven’t we seen this movie before?
Maybe that’s true.
South Florida has long been a sports market hospitable only to winners. If you lose, people don’t care much. Take a gander at the midsummer mausoleum that is Marlins Park and you’ll get a quick idea of what I mean.
Even winning doesn’t guarantee attendance.
South Florida is also an “event” town, and it’s fair to wonder if even a winning MLS club can consistently move the needle in the market. The Heat, for example, win plenty now, but the building was more consistently full for the “Heatles.”
Miami likes flash and sizzle. Like LA, it’s a city enchanted by stars and a bit of (gulps) magic. If Inter Miami are merely successful in Fort Lauderdale, will people still come? Or will they need a swashbuckling, attacking style, like LAFC? Is a big-name global star of a signing necessary to help the club draw? And who might that be? All of these are fair- and presently unanswerable- questions.
As for Miami fans making the consistent trek to Fort Lauderdale, well, that’s a different story.
Being charitable, it’s a 45 minute drive from downtown Miami to northern Fort Lauderdale on a weekend, and for a weeknight match (Inter have only three scheduled in their inaugural season)– forget about it! That’s 2:30-3 hours round trip in a car on a good day.
Will Miami fans consistently make that trek? Maybe in year one, but what about when the novelty wears off? And what happens if they don’t?
Will Broward and Palm Beach County soccer fans support Inter Miami? Can their support sustain the club if Melreese fails and Miami fans don’t come?
Some are skeptical, noting that MLS has failed in Fort Lauderdale before. Why will this time be different?
It’s a complicated question, but to begin with, it’s important to remember attendance wasn’t the primary reason MLS contracted the Miami Fusion-who of course also played in Fort Lauderdale- following the 2001 season.
From an attendance standpoint, the Fusion averaged their best number of their four-year existence at Lockhart in 2001, averaging just over 11,000 a game, not a bad number by MLS standards at the time. Then again, that team dents the “just win” narrative somewhat; the Fusion captured the Supporters Shield in 2001 and the league still went forward with contraction.
Much has changed, both in MLS and Fort Lauderdale, since the Fusion shut down shop.
Soccer in America has grown rapidly, buoyed by the successful USMNT World Cup teams in 2002 and 2010, the always dominant USWNT, increased investment in MLS and game-changing television contracts that have brought the sport from obscure cable packages and internet streams to the mainstream in just two decades.
On a more local level, demographics changes in South Florida since 2001 have been favorable to the growth of the sport in the area. Specifically, Broward County has become much more multi-ethnic and is now home to the second largest concentration of soccer-crazed West Indians in the country. In Miami-Dade, the continued influx of South Americans that began en masse in the 1990s, as well as affluent European immigrants from Italy and Spain, has created additional market demand for professional soccer. MLS wanted the television market to be sure, but as one league official told me, “there’s a much different, better and satiable demand for the sport in the region now.”
That said, despite demographic changes and high local demand for televised games from the elite leagues in Europe and South America, domestic professional soccer in South Florida has been met with mixed results.
Most successful in terms of attracting fans and media was probably the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the NASL (2011-2016). The Strikers undoubtedly received a boost from their brand, which came from the the old NASL club of American soccer lore, but they also fielded a quality product on the field, and their operation left behind a group of soccer savvy executive professionals in Fort Lauderdale that understand both the demographics and soccer infrastructure in the region. Whether Inter Miami will utilize those individuals as resources and sounding boards remains to be seen.
Elsewhere, Miami FC has been a roaring success on the field, with global investment and a soccer-smart front office winning a country-best nine trophies on the field, but for whatever reason they have never been able to consistently penetrate local media markets or establish a broad organic fan base. They will join USL Championship in 2020, but it remains to be seen if they will a) grow their brand or b) take their limited number of fans with them in the process.
At the amateur level, a host of local adult teams began play shortly after the Fusion folded. Currently over 20 teams play in national leagues (USL, L2, NPSL, or UPSL)– the most successful of which has been independently-owned Hialeah outfit Miami United FC, who field a team largely comprised of South American immigrants that play a vibrant, fun brand of attacking football that has drawn a cult following.
Finally, it should be noted that while lower division domestic football has often struggled at the gate in South Florida, there has been high market demand for top tier football, even if only friendlies.
Relevant Sports has found great success with the International Champions Cup in the South Florida market, with games of Real Madrid, Juventus and PSG selling out easily at the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock stadium. International friendlies have done decently as well, with Germany, Ecuador and the USWNT all drawing well in Boca Raton, even if the USMNT struggled to draw at the gate the last time it visited, in 2011. A host of South American clubs have also drawn well, including Boca Juniors, River Plate and Brazilian outfits Cruzeiro and SC Corinthians.
Reading between the lines, the evidence suggests fans flock to “events”, or the favored club from their homeland, but not necessarily to second-division soccer. That’s a trend hardly unique to Miami, and the club is banking that this time will be different, even if history typically points to the failure of domestic soccer in the region.
One thing that might help?
Embracing their home in Fort Lauderdale, even if Mas is correct and the city isn’t the club’s permanent solution.
The decision to market the club specifically to Miami was a gamble, even if it is one MLS surely wanted. The club would do well to value its partnership with Fort Lauderdale, which offers less political obstacles and in truth, a friendly MLS demographic. Suburban western Broward and to the north, Palm Beach County, are generally affluent and soccer-mad areas, precisely the type of demographics that embrace MLS at the gate. Downtown Fort Lauderdale is growing and very young, with plenty of pubs that show soccer on the weekends to the newer-breed Premier League fan.
Can Inter Miami FC tap that market? Broward has only one professional team– the Florida Panthers of the NHL, who play out west near the Everglades in Sunrise. Northern Fort Lauderdale is a better location, with easier access to both Palm Beach County to the north, downtown to the south, and multiple public transportation options. If Inter Miami fails at the gate, it will at least partly be because it does not embrace being Fort Lauderdale’s team too.
Inter Miami CF head coach Diego Alonso.
The Pan-American feel to the club’s build is encouraging
Paul McDonough has a proven track record at building an expansion winner, as his contributions to Atlanta United prove.
While the fundamentals of winning MLS soccer remain mostly the same, building a club in Miami was always going to be a bit different than Atlanta. Constructing a team that appeals to Miami’s pan-American feel and cultural cross-pollination was going to be vital if the club was to truly capture the spirit and heart of the community.
McDonough has demonstrated an understanding of this challenge from the beginning. Inter Miami’s first signings were Argentine youngsters Matías Pellegrini and Julián Carranza and the club has continued to tap into those markets even when adding depth pieces like Mexican midfielder Victor Ulloa, who they acquired from FC Cincinnati.
The hire of Uruguayan Diego Alonso this week was also savvy.
“He understands this region, he understands the type of players we’re going to have and he’s been successful everywhere he’s been,” McDonough told the Miami Herald of Alonso this week.
He does, having spent five seasons in Liga MX, where he led both Pachuca and Monterrey to CONCACAF Champions League titles and proved himself an outstanding developer of young talent.
While many fans of the club wanted a bigger name, such as former Real Madrid coach Santiago Solari, Patrick Vieira of Nice or Carlo Ancelotti, who was just hired by Everton, Inter Miami went with a young, rising star in the profession who had success playing a brand of counterattacking football that wins in MLS.
Alonso’s teams do tend to play pragmatically, with an emphasis on sitting deep and winning on the break. Will that style sell in Miami? Some smart voices are skeptical:
I’m not big on Diego Alonso for Inter Miami. He has a very pragmatic approach to the game, effective, but not proactive.
— herculez gomez (@herculezg) December 27, 2019
Inter Miami will play a counter attacking brand of ⚽️ if his history holds true.
Maybe there’s something to the idea that Miami needs a less-pragmatic, more possession-intensive and attacking manager to draw. More likely, the fans will care less about the way the team plays so long as they are drawn to the team’s stars and Miami scores goals.
With Alonso’s track record, the goals should come– though the Herons have much work to do to fill out their roster before league play begins March 1.
With that in mind, infusing a pan-American flavor to the team is something that should continue as the club searches for designated players. Miami should still look to Colombia or perhaps Uruguay for one of the DP slots, and should do so even if rumors of a summertime signing of David Silva bear fruit. Silva will move the needle in Miami’s market, giving the club a global star to immediately market. But there is attractive football to be played before then, and Inter Miami’s next steps are crucial as it relates to the product on the field.
Still, it’s exciting times in South Florida.
It’s been too long since first division professional soccer was played in this zany corner of the world, and that has likely hurt MLS from a growth and popularity standpoint. Securing the South Florida market– even if it ends up being permanently in Fort Lauderdale– will have certainly have rewards for MLS.
It hasn’t been an easy road back to MLS for the Beckham group and Inter Miami. There have been plenty of roadblocks and messy politics. But as the fledgling club’s first kick of a ball approaches, there are increasing reasons for optimism and perhaps, reason to believe MLS in South Florida will be durable this time around.
Neil W. Blackmon is co-Founder of The Yanks Are Coming. Based in Fort Lauderdale, you can follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.