Both Fort Lauderdale Stadium and Lockhart Stadium, which are rich in history, may be demolished in the near future. David Beckham’s plans to demolish the Lockhart Stadium area in Fort Lauderdale and replace it with a new Major League Soccer site were settled earlier this month, but a rival bidder is now suing Beckham and the city to stop the demolition.
The project involved demolishing a 1950s-era stadium and replacing it with a 130-million-dollar, 18,000-seat, canopied stadium and a 64-acre training facility. The all-star joint venture (JV) partnership consisted of the Orlando office of Barton Malow, which brought its national expertise in sports facility construction management; Lamartec, which was initially awarded the contract and served as the project lead; and Moss Construction, which brought its extensive knowledge of the South Florida market and its subcontractors.
Lockhart Stadium History
In 1959, in northern Fort Lauderdale, a new stadium was created to provide American football and track and field facilities for four local schools. Before the Fort Lauderdale Strikers became secondary tenants, it was controlled by academics for almost two decades.
In the early 1980s, Fort Lauderdale’s football/soccer team began an unrivaled history of this sport in the United States. Despite the Strikers’ many relocations to different cities, a full renovation of the stadium to make it “soccer-specific” was completed in 1998. Before joining the Strikers, he played for the MLS team Miami Fusion, which is about to fold.
Lockhart Stadium design
Since 2016, Lockhart Stadium has been unoccupied and is awaiting a new purpose. According to a plan by Miami Beckham United, the stadium would be taken apart and put back together in a different way (turned 90 degrees), this time with almost all steel again.
Only the double-tiered main grandstand would offer significant amenities, including two levels of hospitality spaces with a view of the field. It would be connected to a multi-level parking structure on the other side of the street, which would replace the ugly Lockhart surface parking.
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The capacity of the Lockhart stadium
First, there would need to be room for 18,000 people for two MLS seasons of Inter Miami, a permanent USL satellite team, concerts, and other events.
The Inter training academy would replace an abandoned baseball complex north of the stadium. It would include 7 full-sized fields, with an additional 6 fields (3 full-sized and 3 small) spread across the area, either on top of the garages or towards the south end of the space. Lastly, a park with restaurants would be built to the south of the stadium. This would make the area easier for locals to get to.
Lockhart Stadium renovation
The temporary home of David Beckham’s Inter Miami Major League Soccer franchise in South Florida was remodeled from an aging old stadium and rebuilt in approximately ten months. This section covers the initiative of the joint venture.
The construction crew hastened the completion of the project by employing the following strategies:
Divide and conquer. The JV partnership was divided into two teams, with one team managing the stadium and the other team managing the training facilities. For coordinated leadership, the teams shared a general superintendent and vice president, but each team had its own project manager and vice president.
Allocation of assets In the past, multiple teams competing for the same subcontractors on a project would have made the dual team strategy challenging. In this situation, however, the new solution required each subcontractor to designate two separate teams in order to eliminate confusion and streamline interactions. Moreover, Barton Malow assigned a BIM coordinator to each team and utilized Virtual Design + Construction technology. This made sure that when the parts got to the site, the superintendents could almost see where they should go. This saved time and prevented problems.
Lockhart Stadium, Fort Lauderdale
Miami FC moved from Miami to Lockhart Stadium in 2009 and changed their name to Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 2011. The Strikers played there until 2016, when they announced a transfer to the stadium at Central Broward Regional Park. Even though the team’s owners said the move was because the city couldn’t pay for needed stadium changes, it was thought that there were other reasons because the Strikers broke up quickly because of money problems.
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