Sure the city has been in the league before and is on Don Garber’s short-list of possible expansion cities but does the league want to go back there?
Maybe if the city gets a soccer stadium. Reports out of South Beach say that once the city demolishes the Orange Bowl they want to build not just a baseball stadium for the MLB Florida Marlins but also build a soccer stadium for a MLS club on that site.
League officials have “been in discussions with Miami City Mayor Manny Diaz to secure funding for a soccer stadium that would serve as home to an MLS expansion team,” said Dan Courtemanche, senior vice president of marketing and communications.
“…And soccer officials agree the Little Havana neighborhood would allow the league to “closely connect to our core soccer audience.”
Funding could be a roadblock for an 18,000- to 27,000-seat stadium.
A county- and city-funded retractable-roof baseball stadium alone long faced a $30 million funding gap that appeared to shut when the University of Miami football team left the Orange Bowl, freeing money earmarked for revamping the existing structure.
Would the MLS take back Miami if they got a stadium deal in place? I think so but it may take a few years before we find out if this happens. But if a deal is in place or at least in the works one could safely bet the MLS returning to Miami before long.
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