Sports Business SOS: Can David Beckham Succeed Where Others Have Failed In the Miami Sports Market?

It's surprising that Major League Soccer (MLS) would come back to the South Florida market even with the David Beckham name brand powering their potential return to the area.

MLS previously had a team based out of South Beach, the Miami Fusion, part of the league's expansion in 1998, along with the Chicago Fire. Ken Horowtiz bought the Fusion for $20 million and spent another $5 million to renovate Lockhart Stadium, turning it from an 8,000-capacity facility used for high school football games to a soccer-specific stadium that could seat 20,000 fans.

But Horowitz was losing money on the operation, an estimated $15 million a year, running the team and maintaining the stadium, forcing him to fold the franchise in 2001 despite coming within a goal of an MLS Cup appearance.

Horowitz blamed the South Florida sports market, with the third lowest average attendance in the league despite an increase of 4,000 to 11,177 in attendance, and generating the lowest revenue in the league the year they folded, despite a deep playoff run.

"The reality is that South Florida is a very difficult sports market," said Horowitz at the time the Fusion folded. "Even the established professional sports teams, the Marlins, the Heat, and the Panthers, are all suffering. The Miami Dolphins routinely need to black out TV games from local broadcasts because they haven't been able to fill their stadium on a regular basis."

Horowitz may have a point. The Miami Dolphins (ranked 20th out 32 teams in the National Football League teams), the Florida Panthers (ranked 22nd out of 30 National Hockey League teams), and the Miami Marlins (ranked 29th out of 30 teams in Major League Baseball) have had their struggles attracting fans to attend their games.

"The fan base is very diverse down here and many people simply don't have local ties to the area and have trouble identifying with the local sports teams," said Horowitz. "They typically identify more with the teams from states or countries they might have come from."

Horowitz's biggest hurdle he could not overcome was lack of corporate sponsorship support, making it extremely difficult to raise money to run a successful sports operation.

"They had almost no revenue from corporate sponsorships," said MLS commissioner Don Garber, at the team Miami folded. "The issue in Miami is the lack of revenue and the lack of future potential revenue. It really lacked viability as a business."

Beckham - the eighth highest paid athlete in the world,  according to Forbes - will certainly not have a problem attracting corporate sponsors, with deals in place with Adidas, Samsung, H&M, and Sainsbury. The former midfielder, who played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, and the Los Angeles Galaxy, also has the financial backing of American Idol creator Simon Fuller, whose worth $560 million. Marcelo Claure, CEO of Brightstar Corporation - a Miami-based wireless service company who also owns Bolivar, one Bolivia's top clubs - is also said to be working with Beckham in bringing soccer to South Beach.

While Beckham's star-power may be able to attract Miami fans to a new MLS team, where fans have supported LeBron James and the Miami Heat (third in attendance out of 30 teams in the National Basketball Association), Beckham still has to overcome the weather conditions players would have to face in the league's Spring-to-Fall season.

"We also have problems with the local heat and rain during the summer," said Horowitz. "The Marlins have been trying to have a domed stadium built to take care of that problem and it's been an ongoing problem for us."

Building a soccer-specific facility for a new Miami team will cost money--money that may have to come out of Beckham's and his investors' pockets. While Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez is supportive of MLS and Beckham, touring possible sites for a stadium with the soccer superstar, the city may be squeamish about investing tax dollars into a new facility after the fiasco with the construction of Marlins Parks.

Voters are still angry that lawmakers used state taxes to pay for three-quarters of the Marlins' stadium, with owner Jeffrey Loria trading the teams' top players within a year of moving into the new facility. The Dolphins have found it difficult to get tax support for their proposed $400 million in renovations for Sun Life Stadium, which includes a construction of a canopy to cover fans from rain and sun, new seats, new video boards, and improved concourses, as a result of the backlash against the Marlins - something Beckham may have to keep in mind, when he considers his planning for a soccer-specific stadium.

"There's a much more tangible public benefit," said Mayor Gimenez to the New York Times in a recent interview, a fierce opponent of the Marlins' project but supporters of the Dolphins proposal. "But the Marlins' stadium has created such an adverse appetite for another deal because the Marlins have really poisoned the well."

Garber, even as the Miami Fusion folded, always intended to return to Miami despite the hurdles that Horowitz faced. MLS is hoping that the Beckham name brand can succeed where Horowitz had failed.

"If we were able to secure a situation with a new investor or perhaps with an approach that could have different economics to it, then we would certainly welcome returning to the Miami market," said Garber after the Fusion folded. "What we are hoping for is that in time we can have further discussions with the city, the corporate community and the fan groups to gain a greater level of support."

Former GolTV host and current co-host of the "Mad About Fútbol" show, Juan Arango, believes that the market as well as the league has changed to where Beckham can succeed in Miami.

"When comparing Horowitz and Beckham we are talking about two completely different eras in the existence of MLS," says Arango to LatinoPost.com. "He had the potential for doing great things with his franchise back in the day, but failed to make something significant happen, even though in the final season of the Fusion they got to the semifinals."

Arango also believes the fans will show up to Miami soccer games despite the hot temperatures or claims of a fair-weather fanbase that is not as into sports as other markets, noting that Miami attracts many Brazilians, Argentinians, Colombians, as well as people from the Caribbean and Europe, making it a valuable market.

"Between fans, TV ratings for football matches and tickets being sold to top flight events, you know the potential is there in a big way, said Arango. "If the product is good,  fans will go if it's humid," said Arango. "What I mean by good, is that the product is competitive and there is a chance to see some quality football week in and week out."