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Beckham looking for partners in MLS Miami

Overtown MLS stadium

David Beckham is shopping stakes on a new MLS Miami stadium, team and potential youth academy, as he and his partners work to raise $300 million to cover all costs for a 2018 launch.

Beckham’s investment group already contained some pretty big names, like Simon Fuller, creator of American Idol, as well as other foreign stakeholders. But with some pretty big costs on the horizon and the need to get things rolling very shortly, he’s been spending the last six months shaking the trees and working on the money. From the Miami Herald:

Beckham has spent the past six months spanning the globe in search of deep-pocketed equity partners to help shoulder the estimated $300 million it will cost to construct a new stadium, establish a front office and acquire high-quality players.

According to sources close to the negotiations, there has been “vast interest’’ from serious investors, including Russian business tycoon Roman Abramovich, the owner of English Premier League giant Chelsea; a Chinese group; a few Americans; and a couple of groups from the Middle East, including Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), which owns the top soccer team in the French league, Paris Saint Germain (PSG), for which Beckham played in 2013.

The Miami team needs to have its ownership and funding in place in order to close the stadium land deal.

Nothing has closed yet, but that’s not stopping Miami Beckham United’s Tim Leiweke from meeting with Miami officials to discuss the specifics of a new stadium and the various zoning issues involved. The first of them was yesterday; more will be coming up. There are some firm deadlines coming up in development of the 25,000-seat stadium envisioned for Miami’s Overtown area, at the corner of NW 6th Avenue and NW 7th Street: Miami Beckham United wants to close on the purchase of the land parcel by the end of the month.

RELATED STORIES: Beckham group now looks to Overtown MLS site; David Beckham dropping Little Havana stadium site: reports; Leiweke: Miami MLS stadium deal in trouble; Miami MLS stadium plan developing; Tim Leiweke joins Beckham MLS effort: Report

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