FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – David Beckham is counting on soccer fans in Miami to travel to Fort Lauderdale to watch his Major League Soccer team, Inter Miami CF, play during the first two seasons.
While the effort to build the $1 billion Miami Freedom Park continues, Beckham and his partners secured access to 64 acres of public land where the aging Lockhart Stadium now sits to build a $60 million training facility.
According to the team's proposal, the Inter Miami CF training facility will include a new stadium with a canopy and at least five other soccer fields. The vision is to create a dream factory for aspiring professional soccer players.
"Aproximately between 160 to 200 young men will be part of that academy," Beckham's partner, Jorge Mas, told Local 10 News.
Mas said they will be "aspiring and dreaming of being part of the first team."
Fort Lauderdale commissioners voted Tuesday night to select Beckham's proposal, as opposed to FXE Futbol's proposal, and allowed the city manager to begin negotiations for a manage leasing agreement.
If it all goes as planned for Beckham, the demolition of Lockhart Stadium, which ws built in 1959, will take 60 to 75 days. The construction of the new 18,000-seat stadium at 1350 NW 55th St. should begin as early as July and be completed by February 2020.
Beckham wants his team to play there during the 2020-21 seasons.