Photos show Inter Miami's progress at new stadium for Messi

Construction on Miami Freedom Park has been progressing well since the last updates. Once completed, the stadium will become the new home of Major League Soccer side Inter Miami. Club officials remain committed to the original plan of the arena being ready at some point during 2025. This, quite intentionally, coincides with Lionel Messi’s final year under contract with the team.

Crews first began demolition of the new stadium site back in September. The location is on a 131-acre lot just east of Miami International Airport. It was formerly the city-owned Melreese Country Club. Then, Inter Miami took over with this elite facility.

Miami Freedom Park will have 25,000 total seats on Inter Miami matchdays. This would become a slight increase of 4,000 fans compared to the club’s current DRV PNK Stadium. The move to the bigger arena would put Miami around the average stadium capacity in the North American league.

Along with the actual stadium, the plans for the new site also include several mixed-use buildings. This includes office and retail space, a hotel, public soccer fields, as well as an open park.

Exact spot for Inter Miami’s stadium showing progress

According to new photos of Miami Freedom Park posted on social media, an outline of where the actual arena will feature is already visible. This is a fairly significant difference from when we last looked at the progress of the construction. Back in November, crews were just leveling the massive piece of land. Crews needed to remove physical pollution in the area, too.

Nevertheless, it certainly seems as if significant progress is being made on the site. The recent aforementioned photos, obtained by an X account called World Stadiums, clearly outline the exact spot of the new stadium.

Although construction of the arena itself has not yet begun, crews are readying for the next step of the process. Along with the photos, Miami-based journalist Alex Windley has suggested that a groundbreaking ceremony could soon be scheduled.

Miami area politicians looking for extra public funding

As construction continues on Miami Freedom Park, it was reported in December that the Miami-Dade County Commission is asking for public funds to help complete the project. Miami New Times reported that the group was calling on state officials to stick the public with a $5 million tax bill.

The extra cash would be paid to clean up contaminated soil at the site and improve drainage. This news came years after Inter Miami managing owner Jorge Mas claimed that the club would be 100% responsible for funding the new stadium. Nevertheless, the $5 million request is likely to be for the park side of the site and not for the arena itself.

Regardless of the possible tax hit on the public, construction of Miami Freedom Park looks set to be on schedule. Inter Miami heads into the 2024 MLS campaign looking to progress on their previous campaign, which had mixed results. Messi and company are currently in preseason preparations and will kick off the upcoming season on Feb. 21. Before that, Inter Miami has two friendlies next week in Saudi Arabia.

PHOTOS: Futbol Miami TV, Alex Windley (@aaw_1998, X) and @Worldstadium23