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This is how Ladra thinks it really went down:
The Heat are on the verge of becoming, perhaps, the most profitable team in the NBA (if they aren’t already). They have just 
won their third consecutive Eastern Conference championship and are on their way to possibly their fourth national title. They have the Three Kings, arguably the three most popular players in the league, and, like any business that has its growing pains, is expected to hit the gravy teenage puberty years just about now. The team could reasonably make $10 million or $20 million or even $50 million next year or the year after that.
And, it would become increasingly difficult to hide that money among inflated expenses as they have been accused of doing over the past 14 years in order to get away with paying us that $250,000 on our multi-million asset. In fact, Ladra thinks that we might be able to recoup some of those stolen funds if we hire any brand new FIU grad accountant at $29,000 a year to go over some of their expenses like we are reportedly doing with the Marlins liquor fund (more on that later). Or maybe give it to a UM accounting class as a project.
The people who work for Micky Arison, owner of the Heat and the richest man in Florida, are smarter than our county commissioners and they knew all this was coming. They knew it when they made that paltry $250,000 payment last year after 14 years of nada. They saw the future windfall on the horizon and were determined to find a way to keep more of it. That’s really the only reason to make that insult of a payment. So that the commission — maybe with the encouragement (wink, wink) of a lobbyist or two — would instruct the mayor, as they did in January, to renegotiate the terms of an already sweetheart deal.
The richest man in Florida and the smart people who work for him also saw the public outcry on the proposed tax giveaway for the Miami Dolphins stadium last year and the proposed soccer stadium this year and knew their window of opportunity might get closed by a public who was increasingly waking up to the county’s corporate welfare welcome mat. They needed a new deal now so they could keep more of the ka-ching later.
Enter Jorge Luis Lopez, the mayor’s best friend, travel buddy and the Miami Heat’s lobbyist, hired by the richest man in Florida to make this new contract happen. Ladra can see Arison now: “Hey, Jorge. We gotta change this contract because we’re going to make a limoload of money and we can’t hide it anymore. It’s bulging out of our pockets. Our creative accountants are complaining.”
Lopez — who not only has a cushy relationship with Gimenez but, like any good lobbyist, with many if not all the commissioners as a proficient campaign fundraiser — convinces the mayor and commissioners to approve a deal where the Heat gives what looks like a big sum of $1 million a year to parks, in lieu of what looks like could have been $5 or $10 million from them annually in the future from profit sharing, and which could have been used for anything out of the general fund. Oh, and that’s $1 million back from the $6.4 million we give them every year in hotel bed tax subsidies — which we now know could be used for parks or libraries! — and which goes up (rather than down) to $8.5 mil in 2030.
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Mayor, Miami Heat bait and switch to ‘better deal’ for who? added by Ladra on
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The Miami Heat have taken advantage of idiots in the County Legal Dept and of greedy stupid politicans for decades. No rent? Why did the Heat NOT pay rent for decades? And why was Parcel B never renovated into the promised park?
[…] Flashback: Mayor, Miami Heat bait and switch to ‘better deal’ for who? […]
[…] Flashback: Mayor, Miami Heat bait and switch to ‘better deal’ for who? […]
It is 2022 and the idiots at the County are still pandering to the criminals at the Heat. When will County officials force the Heat to renovate Parcel B into the promised park? That 4 acre site should be covered in grass and trees, NOT concrete and dumpsters.
Carlos Gimenez helped the billionaire owner of the Heat get ANOTHER sweetheart lease. Taxpayers get screwed again. And now we learn Carlos Gimenez is a Trump Cult member. How predictable.
[…] Commissioner Xavier “Mayor Sir” Suarez was the only one who made any sense — to approve the “much better deal” for the arena that really may only be better for Micky Arison, the owner of the Miami Heat, and his lobbyist, none other than Jorge Luis […]
[…] Related story: Mayor, Miami Heat bait and switch to better deal for who? […]
I believe Mayor Gimenez, turned a crap Penelas deal, into something much better for the County. My understanding of the deal is the county, if they pick up the naming rights good garner up to and additional 2.5 million per year.
In fact the majority of Lynda time was spent addressing the no compete clause.
She clearly figured out any sketchy land deal or tax break would trip the clause and she also knew the 9 starry eyed votes were there Tuesday to override.
So if you agree with Ladra’s above premise this deal was cooked by Mickey and served by the mayor, then clearly Mickey would want the no compete clause left in the contract giving him voice in the the soccer deal.
So what I thought was really happing was Lynda was going up against the Heat trying delete the no complete clause to lay tracks for her new BFF Beckman. The money had nothing to do with it.
“When I read this agreement…it is much, much, much better and even better than what we have now.. I don’t think that’s to be question.”
Lynda Bell comments on her opinion of the proposed Heat contract before the vote.6/3/14
An engineering report every two years – that’s what was promised and a key phrase repeated by the a Mayor. Really? The old Miami arena was abandoned as too small and not enough expensive sky boxes – would an engineer have found those flaws?
The way intelligent people have allowed the entire state to be gerrymandered, this contract has passed by a public that didn’t want to look closely at the figures because of a winning streak. We are lazy. We will pay dearly for it.
Hang on there, sparky. You may not like the Mayor, his decisions and the bulk of the County Commission who took a very bad Heat deal and made it into a reality, but don’t drag Commissioner Lynda Bell into this fight simply because you like Daniella Levine.
First off, Lynda was majorly against the Marlins Stadium deal even before she ran for the Commission. Once there, when the Dolphins wanted a new renovations for their stadium, she told the team to renovate it themselves.
When Pretty Boy Beckham brought along his “song and dance” for a soccer stadium at PortMiami, not only did she tell him to build it himself but also questioned the site he wants to build the darn thing.
Finally, when the secret Heat deal became public, she was one of the first public officials to issue a statement condemning how the deal was conducted. (that was about a month ago for those of you in the “cheap seats.”) And she’s the head of the Miami-Dade Sports Commission!
Now, you may favor the “Glorified Caseworker” from New York and that’s fine, but if you’re going to criticize do it correctly and fairly. Otherwise, you’re just misleading the public.
Then again, we do live in Miami!
Not only will time prove what boot licking, starstruck, ass kissing rubes they are. They are going to find by not addressing the no compete clause in the Heat contract yesterday like county attorney tried to warn them, they are STUPID boot licking, starstruck ass kicking rubes. When Beckham comes in next month they will all discover he has to pay off Mickey to let him build his stadium next door.
And by the way Bell’s No vote was strictly pro forma. She is the head cheerleader of these starstruck ass kissers. Like everyone else in the room she counted that Heat had their 9 votes without her. She needed a “no” vote on the record to defend herself in her district 8 race from Daniella Levine Cava who has figured out the real dynamics of these stadium give away deals and has come out strongly against them.