Construction is unfolding at a busy pace in Fort Lauderdale, where Inter Miami CF is looking to complete a new stadium by the 2020 MLS season.
Backed by an ownership group that includes David Beckham, as well as Jorge and Jose Mas and other investors, Inter Miami CF will begin MLS play next season as an expansion team. The club’s long-term goal is to build a new stadium as part of a larger development plan in Miami, but in the interim it will play home matches in a new venue that is currently being built at the former site of Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.
With the 2020 MLS season approaching, construction crews are working 12 hours per day, seven days a week to complete the venue–which will anchor the organization’s training complex. Construction is on schedule as some of the key team facilities take shape, providing a sign of what Inter Miami CF will experience next season. More from the AP:
At any given time, there are about 225 workers on the job site — the whereabouts of all of them tracked with an app that gets data from a chip attached to the back of their hard hats. If there’s lightning in the area, work gets halted for 30 minutes until the cell passes. And that’s a big deal, because even with next season still months away every minute counts.
Nothing is ready, yet — but it will be.
“The way it was built out, we’re thinking of the athlete first from the minute they walk in,” said Jacklyne Ramos, the team’s vice president of communications as she stood inside what will be the building containing the locker room and other key spaces for the team. “The main stadium, that’s for the games. Where we are now, this is where they’ll live.”
The Associated Press got a tour on Monday of what will be Inter Miami’s inaugural home. The shell of the team’s headquarters — locker rooms, equipment room, dining area, coach’s office, what will become the sports performance lab, the academy workout facilities and more — is coming together. Every detail has been thought of; the walk from the players’ parking lot to the building will be short, the training room will be small (“I don’t want them comfortable in there,” [Inter Miami sporting director Paul] McDonough said), and an area will be built just off the outside wall of the locker room to air out cleats after training sessions.
In addition to hosting Inter Miami CF matches, the Fort Lauderdale stadium will serve as home to the organization’s USL League One club when it begins play in 2020. Inter Miami CF will be one of two expansion teams to join MLS in 2020, with Nashville SC also set play its inaugural season.
Rendering courtesy Inter Miami CF.
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