Pete Garcia Pitches for MLS Soccer at FIU

[FIUFanatic]

Interesting article, now that new ideas are being thrown around as for building a new MLS Stadium for Soccer in Miami, comes in Pete Garcia and makes it very, very clear that FIU's new stadium is willing, ready, and able to be used for MLS. I know there were some rumors on this board a while back that the stadium did not meet soccer standards, or that the administration had dropped those plans...I guess this article puts those rumors to rest. The only thing that brings out my curiosity is why would PG offer the stadium "rent free", at least initially to the MLS.....concessions, parking fees?...


www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/381012.html

SOCCER STADIUM
FIU could spoil Miami's soccer stadium plan
Trying to woo a soccer team to its new on-campus stadium, Florida International University is offering free rent.
Posted on Wed, Jan. 16, 2008Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
By MATTHEW I. PINZUR
[e-mail]
The vision for a new sports and entertainment complex on the Orange Bowl site includes a $100 million, 25,000-seat home for a new Major League Soccer team.

But in addition to competition from Atlanta, Las Vegas and five other major American and Canadian cities, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz will have to fend off a much closer challenger: Florida International University.

''We're willing to do whatever it takes to get Major League Soccer in our stadium,'' said Pete Garcia, athletic director at FIU, which is opening a nearly 18,000-seat field in September on its main West Dade campus.

The stadium will be home to the FIU football team, which only plays six home games a year. With 19 luxury suites, 1,400 club seats and locker rooms that conform to soccer-league standards -- and a design that could later expand to as many as 45,000 seats -- Garcia believes it would be ideal for the MLS.

''If I have to give them free rent, I'll give it to them,'' he said. ``Let them get a better deal than that at the Orange Bowl site.''

Yet league spokesman Will Kuhns said MLS is ''focusing on the Orange Bowl site'' and that negotiations with the city continue. Diaz said he has been negotiating for an MLS team since he took office six years ago and said league commissioner Don Garber ``loves the Orange Bowl site.''

The mayor cautioned that Garcia's offer is only viable if an MLS team ``is going to want to play on a college campus instead of having their own stadium.''

''They have not indicated that's their desired result,'' Diaz said.

Garcia mentioned the offer Tuesday morning at a meeting of the county's Sports Commission.

''When Pete Garcia said that, you could here a pin drop,'' said County Commissioner José ''Pepe'' Diaz, who chairs the sports commission.

With FIU's stadium already under construction, he said local government should think carefully before building yet another major facility.

''In tough times right now, the community needs to look at where money's going to come,'' he said.

Early estimates of a soccer stadium at the Orange Bowl hover around $100 million, which the city would fund with Convention Development Tax money -- generally raised from hotel bed taxes and only spent on sports and convention centers.

But City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff said that money would be better spent on a new downtown convention center -- if the soccer league is willing to play at FIU. ''We desperately need a world-class convention center in downtown Miami,'' he said

[MaXx]

If MLS is willing to play at our stadium I think they should play at FIU and use that money elsewhere.

[gpantera]

The title could have read:


“City Officials Finally Get Smart About Budget Allocations – Supports FIU’s Bid for MLS”


Or


“FIU saves Miami $100M by Offering Its New Stadium to Bolster MLS Bid”


Instead, they used spew anti-FIU rhetoric – they actually prefer to spend $100 million in tax payer dollars versus thinking efficiently and maximizing the use of FIU’s brand new stadium which is a public asset anyway – I guess this really is a banana republic – how sad. Am I missing something?

[jar86]

I'm attending a Leadership Seminar at NSU and it's kinda cool to see the Dolphins training camp on campus. Perhaps something like this could do the same for FIU.