David Beckham's bid to bring Major League Soccer to Miami may have hit a serious roadblock, but rumors he's abandoning it in order to join another group bidding on Chivas USA seem premature at best.
David Beckham probably isn’t abandoning Miami to join Chivas USA ownership bid
While owning a team in Los Angeles may be attractive, it seems unlikely Beckham would ditch longtime business partners for a group of Asian investors.
Kevork Djansezian
On a cursory glance, the Yahoo report makes sense on a very basic level. Beckham’s Miami ownership group was recently dealt a significant blow when their second attempt to find a location for their desired waterfront stadium was shot down. It’s entirely possible that they’ve decided the political and community climate in Miami is just proving too difficult and have given up. Beckham’s ties to Southern California, after playing for the Galaxy from 2007-2012, are well established. A rebranded Chivas USA could very well become one of MLS’s glory franchises and Beckham’s star power would obviously be a point in its favor.
And yet this rumor doesn’t quite pass the smell test.
For one, the idea that Miami has already been abandoned seems a tad premature. Beckham only officially started working with Miami politicians about six months ago and as frustrating as this process has surely been, it can’t have been wholly unexpected. After exercising his option to buy the franchise rights at a cut-rate price -- and presumably not being given that same deal if they pull out of of Miami -- there’s still a ton of financial upside to make it work there.
What better way to get the attention of Miami politicians -- who seem to want MLS, even if they aren’t so far willing to bend over backward to accommodate it -- than to suggest there are options elsewhere?
It’s also entirely possible that this potential Chivas USA ownership group -- reportedly made up of Asian investors -- is genuinely interested in adding Beckham to their bid. That’s, of course, a lot different that Beckham actually joining it.
The group Beckham has assembled was done so carefully. Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure is the money man and Beckham has been working with him for at least a year. The other parts of the group are people who Beckham has been doing business with for even longer. For all the glitz and glamour Beckham has been surrounded by, he’s always shown a loyalty streak during both his playing and business careers. The idea that Beckham would simply abandon them in order to insure his place on the MLS Board of Governors would be a significant departure from how he’s behaved up until now.
Beckham’s dreams of a waterfront stadium in Miami may be on life support, but it seems unlikely this is what pulls the plug.
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