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Days After David Beckham’s Miami Victory Party, A Warning: ‘It Is Not A Done Deal.’

Pedro Portal
/
Miami Herald
Jorge R. Cibran, a senior administrator in Miami-Dade’s housing department, assures public-housing residents that complexes near a proposed David Beckham stadium are not being considered for demolition. ";

A group trying to block David Beckham and partners from building a 25,000-seat soccer stadium in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood packed a community center on Thursday night and urged residents to resist the plan.

“It is not a done deal,” said Bishop James Adams, the organizer and a pastor at the St. John Institutional Missionary Baptist Church, who coaxed the audience of about 40 people to repeat the slogan. “Say it again.”

His message captured some of the on-the-ground reality facing Beckham after his triumphant return to Miami on Monday to celebrate Major League Soccer approving an expansion franchise nearly five years after Beckham began his stadium quest. But while Beckham and partners — including Miami business titans Jorge and José Mas — won league approval for a team, the group still has not finalized the purchase of three acres needed for a planned nine-acre Overtown stadium, or won city approval for street closures and zoning changes around the land where Northwest Sixth Street meets Sixth Avenue.

Read more with our partner,the Miami Herald.

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