The city of Fort Lauderdale embraced soccer legend David Beckham’s vision for Lockhart Stadium, taking the first step Tuesday toward a soccer revival for the storied property.
“It’s a great day for Fort Lauderdale,” Commissioner Ben Sorensen said during Tuesday’s discussion, citing the multimillion-dollar private investment.
Commissioners unanimously ranked Beckham’s proposal No. 1, over a rival proposal from FXE Futbol. The ranking will be ratified with a vote Tuesday night.
Commissioner Heather Moraitis said the northern part of the city, her district, desperately needs a signature park, and she said the Beckham proposal offers the best opportunity for that. It also gives young soccer players the chance to watch their athletic heroes play.
“I believe Inter Miami has the resources to complete the project in one year,” Moraitis said. “I believe Inter Miami will be a benefit to our soccer community.”
“The minute you give us a permit, we’ll start moving dirt,” lawyer-lobbyist Stephanie Toothaker said.
The city has been working for years now to breathe new life into the 64-acre property — one of the city’s largest unused pieces of land. Speaker after speaker, many from the world of soccer as fans, business people or players, urged the city to team up with Miami Beckham United. They cited the international brand, financial wherewithal and plans for developing young soccer players.
The Beckham group has approval to field a Major League Soccer team, Inter Miami CF, to play in South Florida. The group is working to build a new stadium in Miami, though that effort has suffered multiple hiccups.
Beckham wasn’t present at Tuesday’s meeting. But he visited Lockhart — and its weedy, abandoned field — last week, announcing that Inter Miami CF will play its first two seasons at Lockhart, starting next year.
“I think it’s the perfect location,” Beckham said Friday. “It’s the location we’ve been dreaming about.”
A detailed, 50-year agreement will be negotiated between Miami Beckham United and city staff, and then finalized later this year with a City Commission vote.
“This is an important moment for the community we serve,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said before kicking off the three-hour afternoon discussion. “Today is the moment of truth.”
A key component of the Beckham-Mas proposal is a youth soccer academy — a competitive, traveling soccer team of the region’s best young players, Sports Director Paul McDonough said. The academy is free for players who are selected, he said.
For the public, four “pitch” fields — a regulation size soccer field that can be used for other sports — will be created, as well as a dog park, a running trail, playground and public park. The estimated investment: up to $60 million.
Inter Miami has already submitted its application for a USL Division 3, League One team that would play at Lockhart and act as a farm team for the major leagues.The USL team would be branded with a “Fort Lauderdale” name, McDonough said when asked by the mayor.
The youth academy and USL team are for men only, feeding to the male-only Major League Soccer team. But McDonough said he’s had a discussion with the biggest female youth academy in Broward and could possibly attract them to the site. The group also might bring professional lacrosse, rugby or a Drive Shack golf entertainment venue.
Financial details and business plans were not part of Tuesday’s decision. That comes next, the mayor said.
“I still have nothing upon which to base a decision,” City Auditor John Herbst said Tuesday afternoon. He suggested the city hire an outside consultant as details emerge during negotiations. “There is no detail — revenues, business model.”
City Manager Chris Lagerbloom said the proposals were so different it was difficult to compare them. He told commissioners it was strictly a “policy decision.”
Miami Beckham United intends to tear down Lockhart Stadium and replace it with a $30 million, 18,000-seat, canopied stadium oriented north-south. Inter Miami CF’s administrative offices would be constructed there also.’
Moraitis, whose district includes Lockhart, said she initially wanted the entire acreage for a park. But then she realized that $25 million the city intends to spend there, from the recently approved city parks bond, wouldn’t remake the entire space. She said a 50-year deal allows the city to take it back to expand green space later.
“We need more help,” Moraitis said. “It would be in the city’s best interest to find the right partner, that perfect marriage.”
“To me, paramount is public land for public purpose,” Commissioner Steve Glassman said. “That is number one.”
“Public access. That’s the piece that matters to me the most,” Commissioner Robert McKinzie said.
:This is public land for public use,” Sorensen said. “I see this as a real melting pot, a place where we can have youth across the city come together.”
Glassman reminded the crowd that the city can “walk away” if negotiations fail, or could move on in that case to the second-ranked team.
Prominent South Florida businessman Jorge Mas, one of Beckham’s partners in the deal, highlighted his family’s “deep, embedded roots” in South Florida, starting with his parents fleeing Cuba in 1961 “looking for freedom.” .
“It’s been our dream of being able to establish something for the youth of our community,” Mas said, telling commissioners and the crowd that “sports unites, and sports teaches. It builds, I think, great communities and great societies.”
Mas said the stadium and adjacent Fort Lauderdale Stadium would be demolished within months, and construction on the new stadium — a modular, prefabricated, permanent structure — would begin in July. It would be complete next February, in time for the March start of the season.
Ray Hudson, a former Fort Lauderdale Strikers player and 42-year city resident, said Miami Beckham United was the right choice to ‘build upon Lockhart Stadium’s legacy.”
“The Inter Miami academy can be a center of excellence unlike anything throughout Florida,” he said. “ … Inter Miami is dealing you people a veritable royal flush.”
Miami Beckham United includes David and Victoria Beckham, Jorge Mas and his brother, Jose Mas, of MasTech, a $7 billion engineering and construction company; Marcelo Claure and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank Group, and Simon Fuller, a TV producer and talent manager.
The city paid $12 million for the land two years ago, Trantalis said. An effort to bring a commercial water park to the property collapsed last year.
This story will be updated. Please check back.
Brittany Wallman can be reached at bwallman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4541. Find her on Twitter @BrittanyWallman.