It was a neat idea when it was first floating around, but Miami has been pretty steady in dissociating itself with the new Major League Soccer plans being put together in part by soccer superstar David Beckham. The new MLS venue is planned to be installed near Miami’s old football home, but the university is not currently attached to the work being done to put the pieces together.
The Palm Beach Post reported the verbal proposal for the new soccer stadium was given Friday morning, and Miami Athletics Director Blake James confirmed no representatives from Miami were present. That would seem to indicate the university is not tied to the project, at least at this point in time. According to James, Miami intends to keep playing football game sin SunLife Stadium “for the foreseeable future.” In May outgoing university president Donna Shalala confessed she had no idea where Miami would be playing football in the years to come.
The new MLS stadium is targeted to be constructed near Marlins Park, home to the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball. If you forgot or simply did not know, the baseball stadium was constructed on the site of the old Orange Bowl Stadium, which served as home to Miami Hurricanes football for years. Miami has struggled with attendance concerns since moving its football games to the NFL stadium. A new football stadium, even if originally designed to be a soccer stadium, closer to its roots would be a nice change for the Miami program and fanbase, but only time will tell what happens next.