David Beckham confident his persistence will pay off as he reaches unwanted Miami MLS milestone

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David Beckham confident his persistence will pay off as he reaches unwanted Miami MLS milestone
Bob Williams

31 October 2016 • 4:18pm

David Beckham today achieves an unwanted landmark in his aim to launch his Major League Soccer team in Miami.

It is exactly 1,000 days since the former England captain announced - to great fanfare - that he had exercised his option for an MLS expansion franchise and would seek to build that team in the Florida city.

Since then 'Miami Beckham United', as the club is provisionally called, has painfully struggled to get off the ground and there remain some doubts that the franchise will ever be admitted to the league.

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However, it now seems that the decision to choose Miami - glamorous, sunny, international Miami - without the land to build a stadium or the money to privately finance it, caused far more problems than expected.

After failed attempts to build a stadium at PortMiami, downtown Miami and the Marlins Park area, the Beckham group finally secured a site in the less-than-glamorous neighbourhood of Overtown last December.

And yet the deal is still not complete, with the Beckham group still in negotiations with Miami-Dade County to buy a final piece of land at the site for their 25,000-seater stadium.

Then there is the issue of financing. After a struggle to strike a deal with an equity partner, reportedly including Qatar Sports Investment - the owners of Paris St-Germain (one of Beckham's former teams) - the group reportedly began talks with Milwaukee Bucks owner Wesley Edens.

But there has been radio silence over the issues of stadium development and funding since mid-June.

The Telegraph understands that the Beckham group is in advanced talks with three or four potential investors and will only commit to purchasing the final piece of land in Overtown until it has a deal with an equity partner and all the money in place to build a stadium.

It is hoped a deal for both the land and the equity partner will be announced early next year.

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With MLS expansion fees already north of $100 million and due to rise to $200 million, it is no wonder that Beckham, who purchased the rights to have a team for a bargain $25 million, wants to see the deal go through.

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But as the 1,000-day mark passes, with the three-year anniversary looming in the new year, the lack of an official announcement has continued to cause some unrest.

One thing is for sure, Garber will not wait indefinitely to launch a team in Miami with many other creditable candidates desperate to join the league.

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A Miami-Dade County spokesman did not respond to a request for a comment in time for publication.