FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - The Fort Lauderdale City Commission listened to two proposals to redevelop the disused Lockhart Stadium.
Commissioners heard the two proposals at a meeting at city hall, at 100 N Andrews Ave., Monday.
FXE Futbol is proposing a $100 million makeover of the 60-year-old stadium, at 1350 NW 55th St.
Their renovation would include a renovation of the stadium, over 30 acres of community space, a Topgolf facility, youth and championship-level fields and a United Soccer League Division 2 team.
David Beckham and other members of his Inter Miami CF ownership group spoke at the abandoned structure last week to detail their plans for the stadium.
Beckham’s group wishes to build a $60 million, 18,000 seat stadium, which would see the current stadium razed, and they would bring in a Major League Soccer team that would spend two years in Fort Lauderdale for their games as well as community facilities, and then, it would turn into a training facility.
“Our commitment is also to South Florida because we also feel that, you know, we’re not coming here for just two years, and we’re gonna desert this,” Beckham said last Thursday.
John Paul Reynal, FXE Futbol’s Managing Partner, attended Monday’s commission meeting.
Reynal said, “I think that the city of Fort Lauderdale deserves a professional soccer team for the next 50 years, and the Beckham folks have been very honest about the fact they want to come here and play for two years while they get their stadium built in Miami, so what we’re saying is, you know, we’re telling the city and folks here in Fort Lauderdale that, ‘Do you want a two-year MLS experience, or do you want to have a 50-year professional soccer experience?”
“Our home base of our training facility will be there for as long as we’re there,” Inter Miami CF spokesperson Paul McDonough said. “Fifty years, 48 years, 50 years. We said the MLS team will play here for two years at least, and then we’ll see where it goes.”
Residents who attended the meeting had questions about the two proposals.
“I don’t want to see anybody make a promise and pull the rug from underneath,” one resident said.
“I really am concerned about public land for public use,” another resident said. “The most soccer fields possible for the use of our youth and adults.”
Commissioners are expected to decide which proposal to negotiate with on Tuesday.
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