David Beckham's plan to bring a Major League Soccer team to Miami will be formally announced on Monday, according to reports.
A person with knowledge of the announcement told The Associated Press that Beckham and his partners are planning an event on Monday to formally reveal the team name and other details about the club. Nothing has been confirmed by the team or MLS officials.
A spokesman in the Miami-Dade mayor's office told the Miami Herald that mayor Carlos Gimenez is planning to attend an event on Monday.
Jorge Mas, a majority partner in Beckham's group, told the Herald earlier this month that the prolonged saga would be completed by the end of January.
Beckham has spent the last four years trying to bring a team to Miami. MLS officials were hoping to announce a deal last summer, but there have been several hurdles including lawsuits surrounding Miami-Dade County's sale of some land to the Beckham group.
Most of Miami's delays have centered around finding a suitable stadium site, but the group last year secured a site in Miami's Overtown neighborhood.
In December, the MLS Board of Governors voted to approve the composition of the club's ownership group, clearing the way for the league's official addition in the coming weeks. Mas, his brother Jose, and Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will be majority owners, with Beckham holding a minority stake.
The Miami project has always been separate from MLS's other ongoing expansion plans, which plans to add four teams. Nashville was confirmed as the first expansion team last month, and an announcement on a second -- one of Sacramento, Cincinnati or Detroit -- is expected before the season begins in March.
Those teams will pay an expansion fee in the range of $150 million, but Beckham's group will pay significantly less as part of the deal he signed with the league when he agreed to play for the LA Galaxy in 2007.
Miami's fee was originally said to be $25 million, but the Herald reported that the Miami franchise will now pay more.