David Beckham's MLS Stadium Faces Opposition From Overtown, Spring Garden Residents
Iconic English soccer player David Beckham can add unhappy neighbors to the list of obstacles facing his efforts to bring a Major League Soccer (MLS) stadium to Miami.
A new community group calling itself the Overtown Spring Garden Community Collective is working to organize residents in Overtown and Spring Gardens in opposition to the plans, per the Miami New Times. Residents in those neighborhoods found flyers on their doorsteps last week urging them to “Stop the Stadium!” and “Take Action Now,” citing the lack of infrastructure to support the stadium, lack of parking, and diminished quality of life for nearby residents.
Beckham wants to build the stadium near the Miami River in Overtown. Although the city has yet to give Beckham final approval for the plans, officials did give him the go-ahead to continue negotiations for the project. The stadium plans have been stalled for a number of reasons – a stalled land deal with the county, disagreement over policing for the new stadium, and a lawsuit filed against the project last month.
Spring Garden attorney Amanda Quirke Hand said the anti-stadium group is a grassroots organization, newly formed to fight the perception that Overtown and Spring Garden are totally separate areas with little shared interest in the stadium or other issues. She said the group is planning to protest at county and city commission meetings.
“We need to work together because we're equally frustrated with this perception that the stadium is a done deal and that we don't have a voice anymore,” Hand told the New Times. “It's not true.”
Beckham settled on the Overtown location after considering others in areas such as the Port of Miami and Little Havana. The group has assembled several privately owned parcels of land, along with a $9 million plot of county-owned land near the Miami River for the project.