I don’t especially disagree with the meat of this Miami Herald article on the Heat‘s lease extension proposal — though I’m not sure my assessment that it’s a reasonable price to pay for locking the Heat in for a few more years, if there’s nothing more to the deal we don’t know about, qualifies as a “thumbs-up” as the Herald puts it — but the lede, oh, the lede:
The Miami Heat sees a proposed arena agreement with higher government subsidies and fixed rent to Miami-Dade County as a more affordable option for the public than having to build the team a new arena.
“We’re trying to avoid a new stadium,” Eric Woolworth, the Heat’s president of business operations, told the Miami Herald Editorial Board on Wednesday. Added Jorge Luis Lopez, a Heat lobbyist and lawyer: “This is a conscious decision by the owner to avoid that kind of situation.”
Why, yes, giving the team about $6 million toward renovations would be cheaper than tearing down a 14-year-old arena that you abandoned a 12-year-old arena to move into. Other things that it would be cheaper than:
- Buying Heat owner Micky Arison an undeveloped Brazilian island, so that the team can commune with exotic birds and flowers on off days.
- Having Christo build a giant statue of LeBron James out of oil drums.
- Financing a manned mission to Mars, with or without the Indiana Pacers on board.
This is fun! So thanks, Micky Arison, for sparing the world the expense of all these other things you’re not doing. I can give an unqualified thumbs-up to that.