It will be a while before he gets final approval.
It appears that David Beckham has finally found land to build his Miami Major League Soccer stadium after nearly a decade long pursuit of first getting a team and then a stadium in the Miami market. The Miami City Commission gave its approval by a 4 to 1 vote to allow Beckham’s group to build a stadium on city owned property that Beckham’s group secured in a no bid process. But it is going to take a while for groundbreaking because Miami commissioners need to approve zoning changes on the city owned land and that vote will more than likely take place by the end of the year. That piece of city property which includes a golf course is a toxic waste site. That golf course was built on top of a layer of toxic ash from an old municipal incinerator. The stadium will be part of a stadium-village development that will include a hotel, shops, office space and a 58-acre park with public soccer fields. Beckham’s group claims no public money will be spent on the stadium-village. That may be true when it comes to putting cash directly into the project but there are those pesky details which might suggest there will be public money involved in the stadium-village plan.
The Beckham group’s 99-year lease agreement came after the city decided to deal only with Beckham’s group to use the land. The team is not obligated to build the commercial component around the soccer stadium where tax revenue to the city is supposed to come from. There is no timetable on when construction has to be completed so it might be a while before Miami sees any money from the stadium. How much tax will flow into Miami? What happens if there is a default? Questions that have not been answered.
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