Matheson lawsuit seeks to block Beckham soccer stadium deal

So I am back from my annual July vacation which included trips to Orlando and St. Pete to watch the Rowdies; I won't have time to catch up on all the news of the past two or three weeks, but the below story is worth highlighting.

Will this kill the Miami MLS Overtown stadium, and thus kill or at least delay the Miami Beckham United project? I have no idea. We shall have to wait and see.  

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https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2017/07/24/matheson-lawsuit-seeks-to-block-beckham-soccer.html

Matheson lawsuit seeks to block Beckham soccer stadium deal

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https://therealdeal.com/miami/2017/07/24/bruce-matheson-sues-to-block-beckhams-mls-stadium-in-overtown/

Bruce Matheson sues to block Beckham’s MLS stadium in Overtown

Matheson successfully blocked the Miami Open's proposed expansion of Crandon Park

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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article162945508.html

Bruce Matheson sues to block David Beckham soccer stadium in Miami over no-bid deal

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https://miami.curbed.com/2017/7/24/16019466/miami-mls-stadium-david-beckham-matheson-lawsuit

Miami’s MLS stadium hits yet another potential snag

Bruce Matheson filed a lawsuit against Miami-Dade County

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https://cserepartners.com/matheson-lawsuit-seeks-to-block-beckham-soccer-stadium-deal/

Matheson lawsuit seeks to block Beckham soccer stadium deal

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http://www.constructiondive.com/news/lawsuit-could-derail-300m-beckham-soccer-stadium-deal/447807/

Lawsuit could derail $300M Beckham soccer stadium deal

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http://stadiumdb.com/news/2017/07/miami_beckhams_plan_in_trouble_yet_again

Miami: Beckham's plan in trouble yet again?

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https://archpaper.com/tag/miami/

David Beckham’s soccer stadium could be derailed by lawsuit

Edit to add below story, which, oddly, though published a week or more after the above stories, does not even mention the Bruce Matheson lawsuit, which is extremely relevant to this topic; the writer says the Miami Beckham MLS project "now faces little opposition"; does he not know about the lawsuit?

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/sports/soccer/david-beckham-mls-franchise-ownership-miami.html

David Beckham Closes In on M.L.S. Franchise. Will Miami Care?

By KEN BELSON

JULY 30, 2017

MIAMI — The midday sun was beating down on a forlorn, nine-acre section of the Overtown neighborhood last month, and there wasn’t a soul in the streets. Boarded-up shops faced the lots on one side, and public housing on two others. High-rise apartments and office towers in downtown Miami, markers of the city’s rapid resurgence, glistened not far off.

The nearly empty land will get a makeover of its own in the coming months if Major League Soccer awards an expansion team to an investment group led by David Beckham, perhaps the world’s most glamorous former soccer player. The issue will be on the agenda again when the league’s owners meet on Wednesday in Chicago, where M.L.S. will host its annual All-Star Game, but a vote on approval could be closer than ever.

Beckham’s bid for a franchise, once thought to be foundering, now faces little opposition. If it is approved this year, Miami Beckham United — the team’s working title — will become the league’s 24th club as M.L.S. rushes to expand to 28 teams by 2020, and shovels and excavators will soon begin digging on the site in Overtown, a former county truck depot.

[ . . . ]

Support at the gate is one concern, but there are also questions about the 25,000-seat stadium that Beckham’s group has planned for a run-down corner of a historically black neighborhood. Beckham, who was not made available for an interview, settled on the tight spot after failing to acquire land at two locations near Biscayne Bay and on a third plot next to the Miami Marlins’ stadium in Little Havana, less than two miles away.

To crowbar a stadium into the land in Overtown, a few blocks from I-95 and the Miami River, the Beckham group would not build any parking. Instead, fans would have to walk from lots as much as 15 minutes away, or from one of the three nearby commuter rail stations.

That may be an urban planner’s dream, and it fits Garber’s vision of soccer teams in downtown locations, but it appears to be a naïve assumption to residents of Miami, where the heat can be oppressive, rain storms can strike at any time and driving is a way of life.

“I want Beckham to be in the league, and he’s the guy who can make Miami work,” said one M.L.S. owner who asked not to be named because the vote on the team had not taken place. “But when we sit in the room, that’s what we talk about.”

Residents of the adjacent Spring Garden neighborhood also worry about traffic and noise spilling into their quiet residential enclave, and fear that concerts and other events will fill the stadium on nights when the team isn’t playing.

[ . . . ]

Geography is critical for Luis Garcia, whose family has owned a fish restaurant on the Miami River just a few minutes by foot from the stadium site. In recent years, upscale restaurants have opened nearby, part of the spillover from downtown. Garcia, whose father first bought property in the area decades ago, said young soccer fans would help revitalize an area with a less than desirable reputation.

“David Beckham has validated my father’s vision,” Garcia said over a lunch of fish sandwiches. The stadium “will be an economic engine.”

Before that engine can start, Beckham will have to get zoning and other approvals, likely to come next year. Then, assuming that M.L.S. owners give Beckham the green light, he will have to assemble a roster, sign a few foreign stars and start the hard work of selling tickets to skeptical fans.

“The history of soccer and pro sports teams in Miami has been spotty at best,” said David Downs, a former commissioner of the N.A.S.L., who has lived in the city. “Getting over the political hurdles is a start. But that’s only the beginning of the challenges.”