Inter Miami’s inaugural game at Nu Stadium was the culmination of co-owner David Beckham’s 13-year odyssey to first establish an MLS team in Miami, then “fill it with superstars, win major honors and, critically, build a world class arena for the team to play in,” according to Chris Smith of the London GUARDIAN. Prior to Saturday’s debut, Beckham said, “We had no name. We had no fans. We had no stadium. Today I stand in our new home. We are the champions of MLS. We have the best player in the history of the game playing in Miami.” This was Beckham’s “victory lap.” The stadium is an “exceptional place to watch the game.” Smith: “A proper bowl, it envelopes the pitch with an overhanging oval canopy that contains the noise. It feels spacious, offering the feel of a larger arena, while the single-tiered stands maintain some level of intimacy.” The seats are “pink, white and black.” Neon pink lights “hang from the rafters” giving a “very Miami” feel. Beckham, decked in a club suit, “beamed during the pregame ribbon cutting event,” alongside fellow co-owners Jorge and Jose Mas. The billionaire engineering tycoons’ resources and political pull in their hometown were “vital to getting the stadium project over the line” (London GUARDIAN, 4/5).
FINALLY HOME: Jorge Mas prior to the game said in Spanish to the sold-out crowd of 26,700 that the team is “finally home.” In Ft. Lauderdale, Dave Hyde wrote Jorge Mas is a “Miami guy, who wanted his team in Miami, and spent eight years making it happen.” Beckham started on the case 13 years ago when he claimed Miami as the team he would be part-owner in as his MLS contract allowed. Beckham looked at the scene before him and said, “Dreams really can come true” (South Florida SUN SENTINEL, 4/4). In Miami, Greg Cote wrote the “long-awaited christening” of Nu Stadium happened Saturday night, and the wait “was way too long.” The location of the new stadium is “hardly ideal,” 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 [F] Lionel Messi” (MIAMI HERALD, 4/5).
MAGNIFICENT, AREN’T THEY: USA TODAY’s Safid Deen noted MLS Commissioner Don Garber also “praised Beckham and Mas for their work in Nu Stadium at Miami Freedom Park.” Garber: “It’s absolutely spectacular. It feels to me like a building that could rival any sports facility anywhere in the world. Not just soccer stadiums, but any sports building” (USA TODAY, 4/5). THE ATHLETIC’s Avi Creditor wrote the fan culture “was evident throughout,” and “so was Messi’s presence,” just as it is in the stadium’s two-story team store and on signage and imagery all around the arena. That was “most apparent” at The Messi Stand, which encompasses sections 117-121 in the lower bowl and 217-223 in the upper bowl on the stadium’s east side. It is “no different from a seating perspective to any other section.” Some “may think it’s odd or even in poor form to name a stadium feature after an active player like Miami has done for Messi.” But Messi will “be attached to this club long after his playing days are done.” He has “brought global appeal to the club in the form of shirt sales and eyeballs.” And if there were “ever anyone to be the exception to the rule in matters of the sport and stadium procedure, it would be him” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/5).
