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“Bringing an MLS club to Miami has been a hell of a journey,” David Beckham said today at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts as he officially announced that Major League Soccer awarded a franchise to Miami.
Today, after a years-long attempt to bring a professional soccer team to the city, it’s official. “There were times when we sat back and said, this dream is not going to happen,” Beckham said in his emotional speech. “The one thing that kept me going is you guys. You guys are the reason that this is happening today. Our fan support has literally been relentless.”
Beckham and his partners weren’t the only ones to welcome a team to Miami: the crew enlisted some starpower with a welcome video featuring Serena Williams, Will Smith, Neymar, Jay-Z, Alex Morgan, and more (turns out we have J.Lo to thank for all this). If you want to see the celeb video, tune in at around the 45 minute mark of the live stream.
While the announcement was long on emotion, there wasn’t ton of time spent on substantive details about the team. The Miami Herald fills in with more info: the team name, colors, and logo will all debut in the coming months and fans are going to help give input into those decision. Then play will kick off for the 2020 season. According to the Herald, the stadium is slated to open in 2021 in Overtown, at the intersection of Sixth Street and Sixth Avenue.