Why does David Beckham need investors for his Miami team?

On the face of it, David Beckham isn’t the sort of man who needs more money. He is wealthy by any measurable standard. The combination of a lucrative playing career and an even more lucrative string of endorsements makes him one of the richest players in the modern game.

All of those things are well and good by normal measures, but they aren’t necessarily enough to serve as the majority investor for a MLS expansion team. Beckham is on the hunt for additional partners to get his Miami expansion team off the ground, according to a report in the Miami Herald.

The reasons behind the search are fairly simple:

Beckham requires more capital to reduce his exposure

 Building a team from scratch is not cheap. There are significant expenses in the planning

stages. Beckham already has a few partners on board -- including longtime manager Simon Fuller and Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure -- and former Anschutz Entertainment Group CEO Tim Leiweke running the show.

Beckham boasts the necessary capital (the Sunday Times estimated the Beckham family fortune at $650 million last year) to just about shoulder the load, but he isn’t planning to tie up a large chunk of it in his MLS excursion. This is a buy-low play designed to make use of an option in his MLS playing contract to purchase a franchise at a reduced rate (if the clause or some sort of successor agreement remains in operation) and then reap the benefits of the immediate equity generated.

Beckham and his partners plan to privately fund their stadium efforts …

Public financing for stadium projects is a virtual non-starter in south Florida. Beckham and his partners found that out the hard way as they lurched from site to site in search of the perfect deal. The agreement eventually struck in December involved the purchase of several parcels in Overtown, the promise to buy county land at market rate and the willingness to shoulder property taxes once the stadium is build.

It is -- all things considered -- the most expensive way to pursue a stadium project. The current investment group boasts plenty of resources to bring the deal to life, but the prospect of spending at least $150 million on a new ground means it makes sense to spread out that burden.

… and then increase that expenditure to build the team and its infrastructure

The costs don’t stop there. Beckham requires a new, purpose-built training ground to serve as the foundation for his team. And then he needs to splash the cash on high-profile players once the team takes the field to generate interest in his team.

It isn’t particularly expensive to build a MLS roster (the payroll costs -- even with three Designated Players -- are likely to fall below $30 million a season, which is a modest number compared to clubs in major European leagues), but the accumulation of expenses piles up quickly.

There are certain standards for a Beckham-led team to satisfy. It isn’t enough to just stitch everything together. In order to meet the established standards of Brand Beckham, the group needs to spend a lot of money. And that’s why Beckham hopes to bring more of it on board before his team truly takes flight.