Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami (Inter Miami CF) designed and oncstructed its training centre and academy home on the site of the former Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Aside from an 19,000-seat capacity stadium and the training complex, Inter Miami and the City of Fort Laudedale converted the abandoned Lockhart Stadium and Fort Lauderdale baseball stadium into a 64-acre (25.90 hectares) park into a soccer-centric community destination featuring green space and soccer fields for public use.
Plan Approved By City of Fort Lauderdale With a 5-0 Vote of City Commissioners.
UPDATE: On March 19, 2019, this plan was approved by the City of Fort Lauderdale. Read More Here: City-commissioners-unanimously-approve-moving-forward-with-inter-miami-cf-facility-at-lockhart-stadium/
Demolition Day Focuses On The Future For Soccer in South Florida.
May 8, 2019 — Inter Miami CF hold ceremony to mark start of revitalisation of Lockhart
Details of the Plan
The training complex is used by Inter Miami CF, as well as its youth academy and Fort Lauderdale CF, the team’s United Soccer League One team.
Lockhart Stadium was the home of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers throughout their various incarnations in the defunct North American Soccer League. The original stadium opened in 1959 and little in the way of upgrades had been done over the years. It was the home of the Miami Fusion, an MLS team that never actually played in Miami and taken away by the league after the 2001 season.
Video courtesy of Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami The remains of Lockhart Stadium in February 2019.
“The site isn’t being used now, so our idea is we would go and build a state-of-the-art training facility, youth fields that would house our [youth] academy our MLS team, and that would really become our home base of operation for training and development.”
Paul McDonough , former Sporting Director, Inter Miami
Then sporting director Paul McDonough was asked about the choice of the team’s training center and stadium. He said, “It’s a privilege to be able to present a sustainable proposal that honours that history and revitalises the area. Our training facility will serve all of South Florida’s soccer community and provide amateur and professional athletes the opportunity to achieve their goals both on and off the field.”
He added: “The most important pillar of our legacy is our youth academy, where future players will have the opportunity to train alongside the professionals and aspire to one day represent our community in front of their hometown crowd. This proposal will establish our daily soccer operations in a centralised location that caters to youth players from all of South Florida, including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.”
He added that the project will include a multi-purpose sports stadium that would host professional national and international matches, tournaments and exhibition games. The franchise’s vision ties in with the City of Fort Lauderdale’s desire to reactivate the former Lockhart Stadium site with a multi-use sports facility that provides a public benefit.
“With the Lockhart Stadium proposal, alongside Miami Freedom Park, we are poised to re-establish South Florida as the preeminent global soccer destination,” added McDonough.
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