The US city of Miami has rejected former England football captain David Beckham’s plan to build a football stadium on a city waterfront.

The city determined the proposed location next to a major basketball arena was “inappropriate”.

Mr Beckham has travelled to the city frequently in recent months to launch a Major League Soccer club.

His business group, Beckham Miami United, has said it will continue to pursue alternative locations.

The group is required to finalise a stadium deal before it can win approval from MLS, the US professional football league, to open a club.

An earlier proposal for a waterfront stadium site also experienced local resistance from cruise lines.

Scrutiny of the deal rose sharply after the city provided $500m (£298m) in public funding to build a new stadium for the Miami Marlins baseball team.

Public anger over that deal is said to have contributed to a 2011 vote ousting the former Miami-Dade County mayor from office.

Beckham Miami United has agreed to finance a $250m stadium – expected to seat an estimated 20,000 spectators – and pay rent on the publicly owned land.

His partners in the endeavour include British entrepreneur Simon Fuller and mobile phone services billionaire Marcelo Claure.

-Punch

Posted by admin on Jun 11 2014. Filed under Headlines, Soccer, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry