Inter Miami CF, Football

Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami, referred to as Inter Miami CF or Inter Miami, is a professional soccer expansion team to be based in Miami, Florida.[1] The team is due to begin play in Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2020, with its permanent home stadium opening a season or two later pending final decisions about financing and location.[2] The ownership group, formed in 2013 as Miami Beckham United, now works through Miami Freedom Park LLC.[3] The group is led by David Beckham, his business partner Simon Fuller, and Miami-based Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure,[4] while Masayoshi Son and brothers Jorge and Jose Mas were added to the ownership group in 2017.[5] The effort originated in a contract Beckham signed with MLS in 2007: he joined LA Galaxy and negotiated an option to own an expansion team at a discounted franchise fee.[3] MLS officially awarded the group an expansion team on January 29, 2018.[6][7] The award represented part of a larger expansion of MLS that would increase its number of teams to 24 by 2020 and 28 after that. Since Beckham's original announcement of his intention to place a team in Miami, Los Angeles FC, Minnesota United, and Atlanta United have begun MLS play. A November 2018 referendum saw roughly 60% of city voters approving a measure to convert a city-owned golf course near the international airport into Inter Miami CF's new stadium, Miami Freedom Park.[8]