How Beckham’s Inter Miami soccer is poised to shake up South Florida’s sports landscape | Opinion
Major League Soccer is thinking big and talking big as its 25th season unfurls. It should. And expansion team Inter Miami — Club Internacional de Futbol Miami on the birth certificate — is a big reason. So is the face of the team, club president David Beckham.
One game into its history, there is little question Inter Miami is positioned to be a signature franchise in MLS, a cornerstone, with its location, ideal fan-base diversity and the charisma and international appeal of Beckham all essential selling points.
(Beckham’s brand and starpower are such that London’s Daily Mail reports Becks and celebrity wife Victoria, the former Spice Girl, are planning a $125,000 birthday party next week for eldest son Brooklyn, who is turning 21. Guests will include Elton John. The children all call him Uncle Elton).
This is something big that is starting with Inter Miami. It will be exciting to watch unfold. It has a chance to quake South Florida sports.
In fact I would not be surprised if Inter Miami, starting from zero, was playing for an MLS championship sooner than the Dolphins, Heat, Marlins, Panthers or Canes football were playing for a championship in their sports.
I was impressed by the effort in Miami’s inaugural game Sunday, a 1-0 loss at Los Angeles FC, which may be the best team in the league. It was a very cohesive performance for a side that has been together only six weeks. The only goal past keeper Luis Robles was a brilliantly diabolical chip by reigning league MVP Carlos Vela. Miami’s Mexican forward Rodolfo Pizarro was in the middle of some chances. And the roster still has two openings which could be filled by summer, and perhaps with the big-name star the roster still lacks.
Los Angeles FC owner Larry Berg, whose powerhouse team had all it could handle Sunday, predicts MLS in less than 10 years will be America’s No. 3 professional sports league after the NFL and NBA.
“We definitely have the demographics in our favor, both in terms of youth and diversity,” he said. “I think we’ll pass baseball and hockey and be the No. 3 sport in the U.S.”
The optimism is catching. Inter Miami majority owner Jorge Mas on the future: “MLS will be one of the top sports leagues in the United States. it will be on a par or exceed the best leagues in the world, the Premier League [of England] or Serie A [Italy] or La Liga [Spain] worldwide.”
Miami will lead the way. I already would be worried if I were the Miami Marlins or Florida Panthers. This market and sports landscape are changing. The pie isn’t any bigger. But in steps soccer to claim its slice.
Miami is a natural for MLS, and the league and this ownership group are so, so much stronger than when the Miami Fusion’s four-year MLS run ended in 2001. That Beckham and the league wanted a team back in this market is a no-brainer. Miami/Fort Lauderdale usually leads all U.S. television markets in World Cup ratings. NFL-sized crowds flock to Hard Rock Stadium for international friendlies.
The seed of our collective interest in soccer was planted in 1977, of course, with the start of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers’ long and successful run in the old NASL. This was before the Heat, Marlins or Panthers, and the Strikers filled cozy old Lockhart Stadium, the site on which Inter Miami will play for at least two seasons while its permanent stadium is built near Miami International Airport.
More than 40 years later America’s appetite for soccer has grown, as has South Florida’s diversity that is such fertile ground for futbol passion.
Some 300 Inter Miami fans traveled to L.A. for the inaugural match. The March 14 home opener in the new Fort Lauderdale stadium is a party waiting to happen, led by the team’s highly organized (and loud) fan groups including he Southern Legion, The Siege and Vice City 1896. The atmosphere at Inter Miami games will be unlike anything else seen or heard down here.
Someone who has covered sports as long as I have risks becoming a bit jaded at times, but along comes the occasional welcome antidote.
Inter Miami and its March 14 home opener feel like that.
With banging drums and raucous song, South Florida readies its embrace.
This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 1:47 PM.
