David Beckham Confirms Miami Plans, but Hurdles Remain

MIAMI - The soccer star David Beckham delivered a long-awaited but in many ways provisional commitment to Miami on Wednesday when he confirmed it as the future home of a Major League Soccer expansion team that he will own - alongside partners not yet named - and run.

Beckham made the announcement during a somewhat giddy news conference overlooking a radiantly sunny Biscayne Bay, an event punctuated by vigorous chants from fans who have been without a local team since 2001, when the previous M.L.S. team in South Florida, the Miami Fusion, was folded by the league.

'This is an exciting time for myself, for my family and friends,' Beckham told the crowd while perched on a stool between the M.L.S. commissioner, Don Garber, and the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos A. Gimenez, who is on record as being against the use of public money for privately owned sports facilities. As if to assure Gimenez of his access to deep pockets elsewhere, Beckham made a point of saying that investors were being lined up to become partners in building a stadium for the new team, and that the owners would not seek public financing for its construction.

But the news conference raised more questions than it answered. There is no deal in place for financing to build a stadium, or to lease or purchase the land on which to put it. The team has no name, and there seems to be only a vague notion of when its players might start playing in M.L.S. - perhaps in 2016. Nor was it clear where the team might play, even on a temporary basis, until its own stadium was completed.

The Miami team would be the 22nd in the league. M.L.S. currently has 19 clubs, but it will add two more - New York City F.C. and Orlando City S.C. - in 2015.

Beckham had inserted the right to buy a team into his original playing contract with the league in 2007, but he had to exercise that option before Dec. 31, 2013. Wednesday's announcement was merely confirmation that he had; building a stadium in which it can play will take more time.

In an interview after the news briefing, Garber said that in the last month or so he had personally looked at three properties in downtown Miami that might be suitable stadium sites for Beckham's team. 'We want that stadium to be downtown,' Garber said, mentioning in particular a site in Miami's seaport near the arena where the N.B.A.'s Miami Heat currently play.

When asked why he had chosen Miami for his new venture, Beckham replied, 'I mean, why not?' More concretely, he said that Miami had become a truly international city that is especially appealing to visitors and residents from Latin America and Europe, where soccer is far more popular.

'For me, I wanted to create a team that we can start from scratch,' Beckham said. 'I wanted to create a team that's very personal.'