For Miami Soccer fans

from someone working to bring soccer to miami

As many of you know, I have partnered with Futbol Club Barcelona, one of the leading sporting institutions in the world, to bring Major League Soccer to Miami. The journey so far has been unlike anything I've experienced, and I am really hopeful that together with Barcelona, we will be able to do this for the soccer fans and citizens of Miami Dade.



To provide a little context, Major League Soccer received seven bids from cities across the United States and Canada, for only two expansion slots. All of the bids are strong, from appealing markets, and backed by strong ownership groups, like the co-founder of Home Depot, the owners of the Montreal Canadians, and even individuals like Steve Nash, the basketball player for the Suns. While the two franchises were originally supposed to start in 2011, we conditioned our bid on a March 2010 start which means we have really accelerated the selection process. In recent discussions the Commissioner and many of the team owners expressed strong support for our bid but were wary about the viability of a franchise in South Florida.



As a result, we have just two weeks to prove to Major League Soccer that Miami deserves a franchise. More precisely, we need at least 15,000 fans to sign up and over 5,000 season ticket requests. To gather support we have set up a website www.MiamiFCB.com that allows visitors to sign up as fans and, very importantly, express interest in season tickets. Please show your support for a Major League Soccer team in Miami by spreading the word, checking out the website, and signing up.