What Now That Beckham's Miami Soccer Site Is Polluted?

High levels of pollution found at the Miami golf course slated for David Beckham’s Major League Soccer stadium raised questions about the project’s cost and completion timeline.

The retired soccer star and his partners want to open a 25,000-seat stadium and a 1 million-square-foot commercial complex on the 131-acre, city-owned site east of Miami International Airport in time for the Inter Miami CF team to play in 2022.

The site has arsenic levels more than twice the legal limit and other shallow soil pollutants at levels higher than originally thought, the Miami Herald first reported this week.

Inter Miami hired Miami Lakes-based EE&G Environmental Services LLC to do the environmental assessment.

The cleanup cost originally was estimated to be $35 million, although Mayor Francis Suarez this week said this could go up to $50 million.

For its part, the soccer group remained committed to its Melreese project.

“We continue to move forward with plans for Miami Freedom Park and the study’s findings will not deter our efforts,” officials said in an emailed statement.

The finding of contamination isn’t surprising and was expected, the group added.

“Due to the site’s history and use as a golf course which requires chemicals for maintenance, it has always been known that remediation of the Melreese site would have to take place before moving forward with Miami Freedom Park,” officials said in the email.

The contamination is at least in part from ash from a now closed municipal incinerator.

Still, Inter Miami has at least one backup plan. It’s building a soccer stadium at the site of Fort Lauderdale’s old Lockhart Stadium where it plans to play for two seasons.

Fort Lauderdale officials on Wednesday said the soccer group has given no indication of a change in plans.

Still, Inter Miami could use the Fort Lauderdale site longer since there are no restrictions on the 50-year deal Beckham struck with the city, the SunSentinel reported.

The soccer group also owns land in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood. It moved to close on that purchase in May after a legal challenge to the transaction was shot down.

When asked if it’s considering Overtown as an alternative in light of the pollution, the soccer group reiterated that it’s committed to opening in 2022 at Melreese.

After voters approved the Melreese soccer project last November, the team proposed a 99-year lease that the Miami City Commission is to consider Sept. 12.

Beckham’s venture partners are brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, who head infrastructure firm MasTec Inc., as well as British entrepreneur Simon Fuller, Sprint and SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son and Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure.

Related stories: 

David Beckham Moves on Miami Land Buy After Winning in Court

Judge Weighs Temporary Halt to Beckham’s Lockhart Stadium Demolition

Beckham Submits Soccer Stadium Lease Plan for Miami’s Melreese Golf Course