{"id":219348,"date":"2026-04-05T06:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/219348\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T06:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:26:10","slug":"cote-12-years-later-david-beckhams-miami-dream-came-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/219348\/","title":{"rendered":"Cote: 12 years later, David Beckham\u2019s Miami dream came true"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took 12 years for this dream to come true, 12 years for this team to flash signs outside and in this new stadium that read, \u2018The wait is over. We\u2019re home.\u2019<\/p>\n

Finally: Inter Miami is in Miami.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited christening of Nu Stadium at Miami Freedom Park happened Saturday night — but not entirely following the feelgood script — in a 2-2 Major League Soccer draw with Austin FC. The dressed-in-pink new palace filled to its compact 26,700 capacity for its long-awaited debut, but neither the rushed-to-be-finished stadium nor the home team seemed all-the-way ready for opening night.<\/p>\n

Miami trailed 1-0 fast, in the sixth minute, when the defense left Guilherme Biro unmarked for a downward header off a corner kick, gifting Biro the forever-history of the first goal in the new stadium. But the home team didn\u2019t trail long.<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi of course — definitely as if scripted — made it 1-1 in the 10th minute on a header from the center of the box into the upper right corner. Then (not in the opening-night script) it started to rain for a little bit.<\/p>\n

Austin made it 2-1 in the 53rd minute when Jayden Nelson\u2019s right foot finished a fast break into the bottom left corner.<\/p>\n

But Miami at least salvaged the tie in the 81st minute as Luis Suarez, who\u2019d just been subbed-in, finished with his left foot in close, redirecting a header by German Berterame off a Mateo Silvetti corner. (A would-be winning goal by Suarez seconds into extra-time was negated by offside.)<\/p>\n

As if foreshadowing the result, Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano warned his team about Saturday\u2019s game, saying, \u201cWe have to be careful about how we manage our emotions. We know this is a celebratory day for the club inaugurating their new stadium — the stadium they had dreamed of since the very beginning, and which took so much effort to build. But we must try not to get too caught up in all the festivities and hype surrounding the celebration. Instead we need to harness all that positive energy that will be in the air [and] channel it onto the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game started about 35 minutes late, but, hey, when you\u2019ve waited 12 years for something, what\u2019s another half hour? Miami superstar Marc Anthony sent chills with his national anthem. Pregame fireworks flew. The game and a new era of Inter Miami had begun, with not even the unexpected tie game able to overshadow the magnitude of the night.<\/p>\n

There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony a couple of hours before the game, gigantic scissors slicing a pink ribbon. During pregame warmups David Beckham and the Mas brothers walked toward the end-zone where all the most rabid fans do the flag-waving and drum-beating and raised their hands to applaud the cheering fans. Beckham climbed over a short barrier and spent a couple of minutes with fans who leaned down from the stands as the man who started all this 12 years ago signed autographs and posed for selfies.<\/p>\n

It was on a February morning in 2014 when British former soccer superstar Beckham stood on an outside deck at Perez Art Museum in downtown Miami to announce his intention to form an ownership group to buy an MLS franchise and put it in Miami. He wasn\u2019t lying. Just took awhile.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami at last joined the league six years later in 2020, that first season starting just as the Covid-19 pandemic did, but played those first six years in what was supposed to be a temporary home in Fort Lauderdale … six years to fight through political obstacles and legal challenges, to finally settle on a site and then get a new stadium built<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a journey,\u201d said MLS commissioner Don Garber, who was with Beckham 12 years ago and again at Saturday\u2019s christening of the new stadium. \u201cThe journey really came to a conclusion today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The location of the new stadium is hardly ideal. The wait was way too long. But it was hard to complain Saturday because there was no way, 12 years ago, that Beckham would have dared dream that Inter Miami might someday play its first game in Miami not only as the reigning MLS champion — but led as well by Messi, the greatest player in the biggest sport in the world.<\/p>\n

As Beckham told the crowd before the opening-night game, \u201cThirteen years ago [before his announcement a year later] we had no fans, no team, no dream. Now we have a championship team and the best player in the history of soccer. To the fans, thank you for your patience and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Quick aside: The club and presumably Messi himself are sort of quietly rebranding him from Lionel to Leo. It\u2019s the \u2018Leo Messi Stand\u2019 at the new stadium, and the club in contact with media now refer mostly to Leo.)<\/p>\n

The word MIAMI is spelled out in huge block letters painted across five sections of the new stadium. And this club finally being in this city was more than Beckham\u2019s dream, it was destiny. Beckham\u2019s money-men partners are Miami brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, billionaire businessmen, leaders of the construction giant MasTec, and sons of a Cuban exile leader. They are the Miami-version American Dream, and their team needed to be part of Miami as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis dream was born on the shoulders of those who came before us,\u201d said Jorge Mas of the new stadium<\/p>\n

This marks the first new home for a major South Florida professional team in 14 years, since the Miami Marlins moved into their current ballpark in 2012. The Heat moved into their current building for the 1999-2000 season, the Panthers began playing at their current arena in the 1998-99 season, and the Dolphins opened in their current stadium in 1987.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami\u2019s new home that seemingly took forever to get built went up in only 16 months, ground-breaking to Saturday. It was a rush job, and it\u2019s a stadium still not finished even as it opens. From the inside it looks complete. The pitch is pristine. It\u2019s open-air but with every seat covered in case of rain by massive scaffolding and canopies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpectacular. Breathtaking,\u201d said Garber with the biased enthusiasm you\u2019d expect from a league commissioner. \u201cThey\u2019ve done the unthinkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messi called the new place \u201ctruly impressive\u201d and said of Saturday\u2019s christening, \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a really beautiful day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, they were scrambling until the last moments to gain an occupancy certificate from the city. \u201cIt\u2019s still got some work to be done,\u201d as Garber put it.<\/p>\n

Fans arriving were walking through an ongoing construction site. Massive cranes loomed high as the stadium just outside it. Huge construction vehicles were partly hidden behind tarp-covered chain link. It is still several weeks and likely longer from being fully finished. As it was the stadium was not really ready for the start of the season, with Miami playing its first five games (going 3-1-1) on the road to accommodate the last-minute stuff needed to make Saturday doable.<\/p>\n

Neither is the location of the new stadium ideal — or what was first envisioned, 12 years ago, as a waterfront facility nearer the Port of Miami or off Biscayne Bay neighboring the Heat arena. Instead it wound up neighboring Miami International Airport and its related traffic. MIA is one of America\u2019s top-10 busiest with 53 million annual passengers (third in international passengers) and Inter Miami won\u2019t play a home game, any day, any time, without that proximity as a constant reminder.<\/p>\n

But nobody seemed bothered Saturday night by the new stadium\u2019s location, or by the work left to be done finishing it, or by the long delay realizing this night, or even by settling for a draw.<\/p>\n

The stadium is a beauty, and it was full of fans cheering for the reigning league champions, and cheering for Leo Messi.<\/p>\n

And David Beckham\u2019s dream came true, after all: Inter Miami is finally in Miami, and here to stay.<\/p>\n

The MLS commissioner Garber in praising the new stadium called Miami \u201ca club with global aspirations\u201d and pretty much credited this franchise, Beckham to Messi, for leading the entire league\u2019s momentum and evolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid shined a light in our league,\u201d said Garber. \u201cAnd Leo\u2019s taken that torch.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 4, 2026 at 10:13 PM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Greg Cote is a Miami Herald sports columnist who in 2025 won a first-place Green Eyeshade award in Sports Commentary and has finished top 10 in column writing by the Associated Press Sports Editors on multiple occasions. Greg also hosts The Greg Cote Show podcast and appears regularly on The Dan LeBatard Show With Stugotz.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took 12 years for this dream to come true, 12 years for this team to flash signs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-219348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}