David Beckham Visits Empty Stadium As MLS Club's Home Debut Delayed

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Inter Miami owner and president David Beckham and his wife, Victoria, took their four children to the club's empty stadium and posted a video on Instagram.

Those matches culminated a wild six-year effort filled with setbacks and frustrations.

Beckham, 44, came to the United States in 2007, the global icon leaving Real Madrid for a deal with the Galaxy that included the option to buy an MLS expansion club at a discounted price.

Over six seasons with the Galaxy, Beckham helped raise the sport's US profile and was a major contributor to the club's 2011 and 2012 MLS Cup titles.

After retiring in 2013, Beckham decided to exercise his option for an MLS expansion team in 2014 and sought to build a soccer-specific stadium in Miami.

Struggles with city leaders and civic groups followed, location after location foiled by one problem after another, and MLS hesitated to award a franchise to a group without a stadium plan set in place.

Beckham joined with Miami-based construction magnates Jorge and Jose Mas in 2017 and that represented a turning point in his quest.

In 2018, city officials approved construction of the Miami Freedom Park complex near Miami International Airport, its centrepiece being a new 25,000-seat stadium that is expected to be ready for Inter Miami to move into in 2022.

"Everything we've tried to do to get this franchise up and running was a challenge," Beckham said last month.

"There wasn't one (easy) thing -- from finding the land, thinking what kind of stadium we want, what kind of players we want, what kind of manager we want, even down to what tiles we had in the showers -- everything was a challenge.

"But I wasn't going to give up."