Miami-Dade ready to sell land to Beckham, MLS stadium may actually get built this century

David Beckham’s interminable quest for a new Miami soccer stadium “won a crucial endorsement” this week, according to the Miami Herald, when local county commissioner Audrey Edmonson endorsed the plan to sell Beckham three acres of county-owned land for $9 million. Which really shouldn’t come as that much surprise, given that when last heard from Edmonson was bragging about having gotten Beckham to provide local residents with a whole 50 jobs, half of which will pay more than minimum wage, but I guess actually getting her formal endorsement is a hurdle of a kind, so congrats to Becks for pulling that off?

The land sale is expected to go before the county commission next Tuesday, where it will likely pass. Then the stadium deal still needs approval from the Miami city council, where it’s likely to run into strong opposition from local residents fearing a traffic nightmare stemming from Beckham’s decision not to build any parking garages (likely because he has no land on which to put them): “I think it’s terrible for the neighborhood,” nearby resident Amanda Hand told the Herald. “You either have zero people or 25,000 people. It isn’t like a standard commercial use.”

Either way, unless you count selling him some county land as a steal, Beckham’s plan would be remarkably subsidy-free — he’d even pay property taxes on the land he acquired — largely because he got shot down every time he proposed a deal that would have gotten him any special benefits. He still needs to figure out where to get the money to pay for actually building the thing — he’s slowly added a few other private investors, but nobody’s saying how much money they’d put up or what they’d want in return — but that’s his problem. Here’s hoping he works it out soon, and is able to open a new chapter in Miami’s glorious history of supporting pro soccer … oh.

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3 comments on “Miami-Dade ready to sell land to Beckham, MLS stadium may actually get built this century

  1. In the early 1990s the was an amazing magazine published in Chicago called “Inland Architect.” They had an interesting article about the advantages of not having parking at a stadium. Arguing that spreading the cars around on surface streets, letting residents collect money for selling parking in their yards, and having smaller individually owned lots, lead to more pedestrian traffic spread around the neighborhood. It also encourage use of public transportation. I wonder if that would still hold true today.

    1. You want your elderly mother sitting outside in 100 degree weather for a few hours to charge $5 to park on your well manicured lawn? Seriously, what world do you live in?

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