Miami was awarded a Major League Soccer franchise on...Monday? I think it was Monday.
That is a bad sign. It made barely a ripple down here and escaped my notice entirely until Wednesday when I specifically googled "MLS expansion Miami."
Gonna play in Overtown. Community opposition there. It'll get built, the stadium will get built, all private funds. Overtown was where the original Miami Arena was located. Beckham's soccer team will play just about five blocks from there. I drove by there just today unbeknownst. The Miami Arena was home to the "Heat" the Florida "Panthers" hockey club, Miami "Hurricanes" basketball and assorted minor league pro teams in need of an arena. The nearest arena back in 1988 was in Hollywood, Florida, a helluva long way away.
Loved the Miami Arena. Loved its Overtown location. Loved the heart attack-inducing vertical steps up. "Bad" (Black) neighborhood Overtown, the guy whose eyes were too close together...Pat Williams, of the Orlando "Magic," trashed Miami's chances of getting an NBA team, "Their arena is in Overtown" (We had some...riots back then.) which led to a memorable Dave Barry magazine cover. Dave took umbrage at Pat-whose-eyes-were-too-close-together trashing Overtown for riots and welcomed Orlando to the NBA by twirling a basketball on his (middle) finger. "Jew see what Dave Barry did to us? Well I never." We did have a riot after that but Overtown's residents made sure the Miami Arena wasn't looted or whatever.
I think Beckham's Overtown soccer stadium will be okay. I don't know about the soccer team. Beckham's been working on this for eleven years for godssake. MLS wasn't convinced the stadium would ever get done and since it was being privately funded they weren't sure Beckham's ownership group had the heft to do it. Then late, in December of 2017, Beckham added Masayoshi Son, who I have no idea who the hell that is, and Jorge and Jose Mas, who I do know who they are, of biggest construction firm in the county, to the group that included himself, his agent and a "Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure, who, see Masayoshi Son. It seems to me an unwieldy group, patchwork. Maybe they'll sort it out.
The big problem as I see it is MLS. It is not major league soccer, it is minor league soccer. Yes, there are tons of major league soccer fans down here, I'm one of them, and the problem is we know the difference between true major league soccer in the English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and MLS. Hell, an MLS club can't even win the Sombrero Cup or whatever it's called with Mexico's top league teams. The Mexican league is like sixth worldwide, MLS isn't even sixth.
We know that, we know the difference, and I'm not giving up Manchester City for the Miami "Current" or whatever and I doubt if any Arsenal, Chelsea, Barca, Madrid, Juve or Inter fans are going to short circuit their allegiance for the "Current" or whatever. I cut my soccer teeth on the old Miami "Fusion" and when they folded I adopted Man City. Know why? Cuz the biggest "Fusion" fan on the message board had the handle of "Man City Fan." I corresponded once with the guy and I was impressed, hell, I was frigging astounded that "Man City Fan" was a "Fusion" fan (and he was a BIG "Fusion" fan, the biggest) was because an ex-City player, Ian-something as I recall, spent his golden years in MLS with the "Fusion." Manchester City got fans like that, that's my team! Now you know why.
Miamians are glamour-centric, maybe you've heard, if it's cool, if it's hot, if it's in, if there are celebs there, WE ARE THERE! The "Heatles"?! Oh baby. We'll still come late and leave early but we'll come. "Heat" pre-Big Three still packed the Miami Arena bandbox and the "Panthers," when they got on their run to the Stanley Cup during the Year of the Rat, that was insanity, the "Panthers" crowds that year were IN-SANE, but there has to be a hook, you have to give us a hook, maybe Beckham is the hook, he's old hook though, he's not even playing, he's just an owner, how many Miamians are going to get their bling fix by coming out to see an owner. The Miami "Bling"! Well, can probably do better than that. One thing about Miami's bling thing, we're stupid. It doesn't have to be real bling, you just have to convince us it's real and it's not overly hard because we're stupid. Big tits! That's bling. Nobody cares if they're silicone. Big diamond ring! Bling. If it's really cubic zirconium, lie to us, we'll believe. That's what Beckham has to do. Create bling. Since he can't play hire a silicon enhanced cubic zirconium studded girl who can. Maybe a guy, I don't know. A girl, definitely.
That is a bad sign. It made barely a ripple down here and escaped my notice entirely until Wednesday when I specifically googled "MLS expansion Miami."
Gonna play in Overtown. Community opposition there. It'll get built, the stadium will get built, all private funds. Overtown was where the original Miami Arena was located. Beckham's soccer team will play just about five blocks from there. I drove by there just today unbeknownst. The Miami Arena was home to the "Heat" the Florida "Panthers" hockey club, Miami "Hurricanes" basketball and assorted minor league pro teams in need of an arena. The nearest arena back in 1988 was in Hollywood, Florida, a helluva long way away.
Loved the Miami Arena. Loved its Overtown location. Loved the heart attack-inducing vertical steps up. "Bad" (Black) neighborhood Overtown, the guy whose eyes were too close together...Pat Williams, of the Orlando "Magic," trashed Miami's chances of getting an NBA team, "Their arena is in Overtown" (We had some...riots back then.) which led to a memorable Dave Barry magazine cover. Dave took umbrage at Pat-whose-eyes-were-too-close-together trashing Overtown for riots and welcomed Orlando to the NBA by twirling a basketball on his (middle) finger. "Jew see what Dave Barry did to us? Well I never." We did have a riot after that but Overtown's residents made sure the Miami Arena wasn't looted or whatever.
I think Beckham's Overtown soccer stadium will be okay. I don't know about the soccer team. Beckham's been working on this for eleven years for godssake. MLS wasn't convinced the stadium would ever get done and since it was being privately funded they weren't sure Beckham's ownership group had the heft to do it. Then late, in December of 2017, Beckham added Masayoshi Son, who I have no idea who the hell that is, and Jorge and Jose Mas, who I do know who they are, of biggest construction firm in the county, to the group that included himself, his agent and a "Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure, who, see Masayoshi Son. It seems to me an unwieldy group, patchwork. Maybe they'll sort it out.
The big problem as I see it is MLS. It is not major league soccer, it is minor league soccer. Yes, there are tons of major league soccer fans down here, I'm one of them, and the problem is we know the difference between true major league soccer in the English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and MLS. Hell, an MLS club can't even win the Sombrero Cup or whatever it's called with Mexico's top league teams. The Mexican league is like sixth worldwide, MLS isn't even sixth.
We know that, we know the difference, and I'm not giving up Manchester City for the Miami "Current" or whatever and I doubt if any Arsenal, Chelsea, Barca, Madrid, Juve or Inter fans are going to short circuit their allegiance for the "Current" or whatever. I cut my soccer teeth on the old Miami "Fusion" and when they folded I adopted Man City. Know why? Cuz the biggest "Fusion" fan on the message board had the handle of "Man City Fan." I corresponded once with the guy and I was impressed, hell, I was frigging astounded that "Man City Fan" was a "Fusion" fan (and he was a BIG "Fusion" fan, the biggest) was because an ex-City player, Ian-something as I recall, spent his golden years in MLS with the "Fusion." Manchester City got fans like that, that's my team! Now you know why.
Miamians are glamour-centric, maybe you've heard, if it's cool, if it's hot, if it's in, if there are celebs there, WE ARE THERE! The "Heatles"?! Oh baby. We'll still come late and leave early but we'll come. "Heat" pre-Big Three still packed the Miami Arena bandbox and the "Panthers," when they got on their run to the Stanley Cup during the Year of the Rat, that was insanity, the "Panthers" crowds that year were IN-SANE, but there has to be a hook, you have to give us a hook, maybe Beckham is the hook, he's old hook though, he's not even playing, he's just an owner, how many Miamians are going to get their bling fix by coming out to see an owner. The Miami "Bling"! Well, can probably do better than that. One thing about Miami's bling thing, we're stupid. It doesn't have to be real bling, you just have to convince us it's real and it's not overly hard because we're stupid. Big tits! That's bling. Nobody cares if they're silicone. Big diamond ring! Bling. If it's really cubic zirconium, lie to us, we'll believe. That's what Beckham has to do. Create bling. Since he can't play hire a silicon enhanced cubic zirconium studded girl who can. Maybe a guy, I don't know. A girl, definitely.
