Inter Miami CF’s search for a temporary home for their first days in MLS took another turn on Thursday, with the Miami Herald reporting that the expansion club have ruled out Marlins Park.
In November owner Jorge Mas cited the retractable-roof baseball stadium in the Little Havana neighborhood as a leading contender to serve as Inter’s stadium while their own proposed soccer-specific facility at Miami Freedom Park is built, also suggesting that Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Dolphins, was in play.
But Inter and Marlins officials have concluded that the overlapping nature of the MLS and MLB seasons could pose “operational issues” as well as excessive wear and tear on the playing surface at Marlins Park. While Hard Rock could be a possibility for a few one-off games, it now sounds unlikely to be the primary home for Inter when the new club first takes the field in 2020.
“Frankly, we have a preferred site. We’re going to be making an announcement on that late February, early March, which I think will be great for our fans, for our team and our sponsors,” Mas told the Herald. “We don’t feel at this time that Marlins Park is the ideal fit for us.”
Other possible venues include college football stadiums at Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University, though both lie well outside Miami’s urban core. Also of note: Late last month Inter proposed a training facility and small stadium for a future USL team at the site of Lockhart Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, a now-abandoned venue that hosted Miami Fusion FC in MLS's early years.
Local TV station CBS4 reported that Inter were in talks with FIU about playing at Riccardo Silva Stadium, which sports an artificial-turf pitch and holds 20,000 spectators.
