The Inter Miami home opener is on hold as MLS suspends season due to the coronavirus
Inter Miami players, fans and owners will have to wait at least a month longer for the team’s highly-anticipated debut. Major League Soccer on Thursday suspended its season for at least 30 days, the latest in a cascade of sports cancellations and postponements due to the coronavirus epidemic.
The news came 48 hours before Inter Miami was scheduled to play its inaugural home game against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Team officials were in the middle of a media tour of the team’s new 19,000-seat stadium when the news broke.
“We’ve made a decision as a league this morning, as owners, that play will be suspended temporarily,” Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas said in a news conference after informing the players and coaches. “We are targeting 30 days, which means Inter Miami will not be playing its home opener on Saturday. We were 48 hours from kickoff, expecting a full house, and there was a lot of excitement. That won’t change. It will just will be on different day and date.
“It’s not a cancelation. We are postponing the party. We all understand. These are circumstances way beyond our control. When we open here at home it will be with same joy.”
Mas said the league is working on rescheduling the games, and he “fully anticipates” playing a full 34-game schedule.
“There are sufficient windows of time for us to make games up,” Mas said. “It’s very early in our season. We think it is a prudent decision by the league. We want to protect our players and fans as much as possible. We look with optimism as we continue building anticipation for our home opener at a date to be determined.”
Mas said he, co-owner David Beckham and Paul McDonough, the team’s Chief Operating Officer, had been in close contact with the league office and a special coronavirus MLS task force over the past few days.
“We were all building toward Saturday, the eyes of the world were on this game, and that will still happen, it will just be at x, y, z date,” Mas said. “This is a postponement, not a cancellation. I knew this was coming this morning. There were a few moments of disappointment, but ultimately, this is a game. A fun game, but it’s a game. There are more serious stakes here. We have to be part of the solution.”
He said it was not a difficult decision to make and that he applauded MLS for its decision.
Mas said when news surfaced Wednesday night that Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert has tested positive for the coronavirus, he suspected an MLS suspension was likely.
“When Gobert tested positive, that’s a tipping point and a change,” Mas said. “There was a lot of talk about closed and open arenas, but one of the things that geared us was when the NBA suspended its season. That had a triggering effect.”
Mas said the league has a testing protocol the team will follow for players and staff, but they have no reason to believe any body with their previous two opponents — Los Angeles FC or D.C. United — had been infected.
Inter Miami players were “very, very fired up” to play the home opener, and they were “very disappointed” with the news, Mas said.
Although the news was deflating, Mas and McDonough chose to look at the silver lining — their expansion team will have an extended period to continue working on and off the field.
“We don’t like it, but for us being an expansion team, a little more training is not the worst thing in the world,” McDonough said. “We have to make a plan and get back to work.”
From the moment David Beckham declared his dream of having a Major League Soccer team in Miami six years ago, the franchise has faced a series of hurdles. Mas insists this is just another one, and he said he refuses to ask “Why Me?”
“Everything in our journey has happened for a reason,” Mas said. “I look at this as just another hurdle, another bump in the road. We are still pedal to metal, with our brand, marketing, fan experience. Now we can get players healthy — Julian [Carranza] and Robbie [Robinson]. This will allow our team to spend more time together. We can continue playing together. These things happen. We’re going to press forward. No why me? That’s not in our DNA.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 12:45 PM.