Take if from former Miami Marlins President David Samson — because he knows a bad deal when he sees one.
Samson is the narrator of a new mini documentary video about the Miami Freedom Park deal, a 99-year, no-bid lease of the city of Miami’s largest public park for a real estate complex of stores, restaurants, offices and a hotel all disguised as a soccer stadium which may come before the city commission next week — if it’s not delayed yet again because it’s still not ready.
Read related: Premature and postponed: Miami Freedom Park deal not ready for vote
“If you thought the Marlins Park deal was shitty, wait until you get a load of this,” Samson says, though at first you can only see his evil grin in front of a microphone in a two-minute video created by local political observer and award-winning documentary filmmaker Billy Corben — a favorite target of Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s — who likens the crappy deal to the Marlins Stadium ripoff, which everyone knows was a scam.
“The city wants to give billionaire Jorge Mas, David Beckham and their InterMiami soccer team a 99 year, no-bid lease below market value on 131 acres of parkland at Melreese, that’s Miami’s single largest piece of public property,” the as-of-yet unknown narrator says.
“They want you to think this is about a soccer stadium but it’s just another real estate hustle to pave paradise and build a hotel, office park and shopping mall.
“This is a billion dollar heist happening in broad daylight,” Samson says, adding the scoop from Political Cortadito about City Manager Art Noriega, the city’s lead negotiator, being offered a job with the team once it’s done.
“The Melreese giveaway is so bad, it would make the Marlins stadium deal look good,” Samson dares say. “Take it from me, someone who actually negotiated with your politicians and almost single-handedly ended stadium public financing.”
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Then you hear the scratch of a record when it stops suddenly.
“Almost,” he says with a smirk. He’s getting off on this.
“I thought I’d be the final guy who fucked you,” Samson says. “It turns out, I’m not.”
Marlins Park is considered the papi of all Miami boondoggles. Paid for with almost $500 million in bonds from the county and the city of Miami at a very bad time for bonds, the public’s total payout by 2049 will be at least $2.6 billion, according to Georgia State University’s Sport and Urban Policy Initiative.
And the public outcry led to the political demise of former and recalled mayor Carlos Alvarez and anybody else who had anything to do with it. Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro were never elected again.
(Pssst: Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, you should take note.)
Corben told Ladra he wanted to know what Samson, now an armchair pundit with a sports business podcast, thought of the deal. So he called him and asked.
“When Clarice Starling was going after Buffalo Bill, she went to Hanibal Lecter for help. So that’s what I did,” Corben said. We know that Samson is Lecter. But is Mas Buffalo Bill or is Beckham?
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The video is already making rounds on Twitter.
“I’m hoping for a slightly more palatable if not better deal, and for the commissioners to stop doing what they’ve been doing their whole careers, which is horse trading to give themselves the best deals,” Corben said.
But it might backfire, because, can we really believe anything Samson says?
Marlins Park’s David Samson: Miami Freedom Park is a ‘billion dollar heist’ added by Ladra on
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