Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his new BFF, soccer star David Beckham will be promoting their plans for a Major League Soccer stadium on public land Wednesday.
Opponents who are already calling this another case of “welfare for millionaires” because of the public land component might have a press conference to bash it on Thursday.
Cutler Bay Mayor Ed “Mac” MacDougall, who took on the Dolphins stadium scam last year and helped quash it in Tallahassee, told Ladra Wednesday that he would devote the same kind of energy to oppose any other sweetheart deal to millionaires who want any piece of the public pie.
“It’s another land grab and I’m going to fight it tooth and nail,” said the former cop and Vietnam veteran now running for Congress.
And where MacDougall puts his teeth and nails, auto mogul Norman Braman is likely to put his dollars.
The mayor and the millionaire bonded last year when they joined efforts to fight the Miami Dolphins stadium plan to use tourist tax dollars to improve the billionaire team owner’s stadium. MacDougall pledged $50,000 of his own money and Braman reportedly hired lobbyists to kill the deal.
They seem willing to do the same now.
Braman told Ladra Thursday that he did not want to rush to judgement. “There is no deal to oppose. The Mayor has stated no public funds,” he said. “Let’s see what happens.”
But he is supporting MacDougall’s run for Congress and it is hard to envision Braman support a giveaway of such valuable public land.
“They can’t pay these poor workers but they want to give premium land away,” MacDougall asked incredulously, referring to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s veto of the 5% that commissioners wanted to give back to county employees and the Port of Miami lot that the soccer stadium cheerleaders prefer.
“This belongs to the taxpayers,” MacDougall said, echoing the same concerns Ladra has heard from others that this deal will look like the one struck with the Miami Heat in 1999 — you know, the one where they just paid their first “revenue sharing” payment late last year.
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“Multimillionaires and billionaires should not be asking taxpayers to support their trophy ownerships. If professional sports teams are truly professional, then the owners should act accordingly. South Florida is a place where sports teams will naturally want to be. I love them all, just pay market rate for land and usage,” MacDougall said.
“Ask a teacher if they can afford to take their children to a sports game, instead of asking them to pay the owners to build it. They can not even afford to attend,” he added.
“I will support self sufficient sports teams. I just hope the leadership in Tallahassee stands strong.”
While this deal will not include tourist tax dollars for construction — Gimenez and pals learned not to touch that with an 11-foot pole after the last stadium scam — there is talk about Team Beckham going to Tallahassee to ask for a $3 million sales tax rebate like other sports teams get.
Like the Dolphins wanted last year.
Beckham and his investors have hired Tallahassee lobbyist Brian Ballard to that end. But he reportedly has an uphill battle.
The most vocal and main opponent to the Dolphins stadium deal, State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, said he hadn’t reviewed the financing of this soccer stadium deal and didn’t know enough about the county side to know whether he was for or against the concept.
He is unwilling, however, to give away any more sales tax dollars, he told Ladra.
“It will be very, very difficult for them to accomplish that. There just isn’t an appetite,” Trujillo said.
He said the Daytona raceway is asking for a tax rebate and other teams that already get tax rebates are asking for more and he just doesn’t see it happening.
Especially since any ask would first have to go before the Economic Development and Tourism Committee, which Trujillo chairs.
“And I can’t imagine I would listen to it,” he said.
Sweetheart soccer stadium deal already has opposition added by Ladra on
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