Miami-Dade Commission not sold on port soccer stadium

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All this hand-wringing about the possibility of a Major League Soccer stadium at the Port of Miami may be for nothing. It appears there is not enough support on the Miami-Dade Commission for the giveaway of 20 acres of land at the port to make way for the development of a 25,000-seat stadium.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who keeps saying there are no details on the proposal, may not have brought the details to the dais because he knows he does not have the votes. At least based on the information we’ve gathered so far.

And if we know, he knows.

Gimenez told me he didn’t know how commissioners felt when I chased him in the parking lot Thursday after the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Association meeting, to get a comment on his obsession with stadiums for Political Cortadito news partner Mira TV. But everyone knows there are members of his staff (read: Chief of Staff Lisa Martinez) who talk to commissioners and their aides and chiefs of staffs on a regular basis to get feedback and their “read” on the mayor’s agenda items.

Judging from the public and private statements of commissioners conversations with staff and interested parties, and observations of other political junkies, Ladra has come believe that if commissioners were to vote today on instructing the mayor to negotiate with David Beckham‘s bunch for a stadium on the port site — you know, just to see what comes back at them — the motion would lose, probably by a tight margin.

The spread I’m calling is either a 7-6 or an 8-5 with a slight possibility of a 9-4 for political cover.

If Ladra is right, Beckham and his buddies should have spent less time courting Gimenez and more time among the 13 people who have to give the plan a green light. They are the electeds who really have control, although the mayor likes to pretend it is him.

Here is how Ladra has the vote lining up today:

Against — Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa and Commissioners Esteban Bovo, Audrey Edmonson, Barbara Jordan, Jean Monestime, Dennis Moss and Juan Zapata, who likes the FIU campus, would vote against it.

Ladra would have put Commissioner Xavier “Mayor Sir” Suarez in that column, because he originally liked the Miami Intermodal Center area just east of the airport better. But he says he is on the fence now and wants to stay open to what Gimenez brings them.

In favor of the port site — Commissioners Bruno Barreiro, whose district the port is in, Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Javier Souto and Sally Heyman, because of her longtime friendship with Neisen Kasdin, who is lobbying for the Beckham group.

Ladra may have put Vice Chair Lynda Bell in that group but she is the only one facing a real re-election challenge and may vote the other way if she sees the motion will lose.

But for that to happen, the mayor would have to bring it to the table. And nobody thinks that’s coming to an agenda near you any time soon.

  Carlos Gimenez, Juan Zapata, Lynda Bell, MLS soccer, PortMiami, soccer stadium, Xavier Suarez