Whoa, David Beckham’s Miami MLS stadium project has a deadline, according to the Miami New Times!
According to a timeline given to school board members today, the sports icon and his business partners have until just December 5 to have a plan ironed out and presented to Major League Soccer. That doesn’t mean a plan has to be totally approved by then, it just means that a there has to be a plan to approve in the first place.
That’s … okay, hang on a minute. This is what Beckham himself is telling the Miami-Dade school board, which he would presumably only do in order to increase the pressure on them to approve his deal by which the school board would take over ownership of his new stadium in order to get him off the hook for property taxes. There’s no particular reason for MLS to set a December 5 deadline, other than to help Beckham get his stadium deal pushed through — so I’m going to say it’s safe to assume this is a two-minute warning, and not anything real.
The board seems likely to approve its part of the deal anyway, with the bigger holdups being getting private landowners to sell their property, and a public referendum to approve the deal that would be held on March 15. I can’t wait to see the selfies that Beckham poses for with residents to try to win that one.
The school board should be clear about how much money from the general education funds will be used to maintain, secure, insure and operate the stadium. But then school boards rarely make this clear since many get on the board through their participation in the athletics boosters. That is how school districts organize the parents and local citizens. Athletics and band boosters run most high schools at the behest of many superintendents and principals. It is more fun for them to operate a rec center than an education institution.
I agree let’s shutter all schools and go back to private education.
“… go back to private education.”
That’s a very, very long trip. “To infinity and beyond” comes to mind.
People Magazine just named David Beckham the “Sexiest Man Alive.” So that’s got to help him get this stadium deal done. [sarcasm]
@DaveBrett
That just means he can get the same money in smaller cash contributions just by walking around and posing. That is a far more sustainable financial plan.
Not to beat a dead horse. I will leave Miami as the subject.