After 13 years, David Beckham's dream comes true. Inter Miami calls Miami home
MIAMI (AP) — Don Garber remembers the earliest days of David Beckham's plans to bring Major League Soccer to Miami, the quest that started more than a dozen years ago. There were twists. There were turns.
Eventually, there was Lionel Messi, too. But there was never Miami — until now. “We believed in Miami,” Beckham said.
“And Miami believed in us. ” Inter Miami finally played a game in its namesake city on Saturday night, hosting Austin FC after more than six years of calling Fort Lauderdale its home. Garber was there for the ribbon-cutting of Miami Freedom Park, a complex with construction still very much in progress and one that needed temporary approvals from civic officials just so Saturday's match could be held.
Beckham picked Miami as his spot in 2013, the league made it official in 2014 when he formally exercised his option for an expansion franchise, and now, there's a home. “We made a commitment to him that he would have an option on the team, and he exercised that in Miami," Garber said. "And it was a journey.
And that journey, in many ways, didn’t end when Leo Messi joined the club. The journey really came to its conclusion today with the opening of this building. ” The team says the stadium holds 26,700 seats.
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