Gimenez on CBS-4: Port soccer stadium site is just ‘viable’

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In an interview with Jim DeFede that airs Sunday on Channel 4, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez calls the Port of Miami simply “a viable site” for a soccer stadium to accommodate the expansion Major League Soccer team that retired British player David Beckham wants to bring to Miami.

Not the “best site.” Not even “a great site,” mind you. Just a “viable site.”

Asked if he thought the port was “right now” the “best” site, Gimenez — who has likely heard from staff that many commissioners do not like the site for the stadium — is non-committal.

And, in what seems like a crisis management campaign to defuse the mounting opposition to the port location for a future stadium, Gimenez again dismissed the intelligence of anyone who is already against it.

“A lot of the things being said about why it’s not a good site are frankly not true,” Gimenez tells DeFede on WFOR CBS-4’s Facing South Florida, which starts at 11:30 a.m. — and which is unlikely to be as good as it was last week when there was a cat fight between Soccer On the Bay’s paid New York City booster John Alschuler and Miami Seaport Alliance’s paid voice of the opposition John Fox.

Still, Ladra’s gonna watch to see Gimenez, who is also expected to talk about the upcoming budget shortfall, try to save himself from this free fall.

“What I’ve told the Beckham group from the get-go is that my first priority about the Port of Miami is viability of the Port of Miami, because it is the second largest economic generator here in Miami-Dade County,” Gimenez says, according to a preview of the program online.

“And I certainly wouldn’t be putting forth something to the public if that becomes the site — and I’m not saying it is — that is going to jeopardize the second largest economic generator in our county,” the mayor tells DeFede.

Gimenez also told Ladra on Thursday that he did not necessarily have a preference for the port site — even though he seems to have focused all his energies on that location since late last year, when began the secret talks about the stadium for an MLS team with retired British soccer star David Beckham. “That’s a lie,” he called back over his shoulder as he walked quickly away from me and Political Cortadito news partner Mira TV cameraman Axel Oliveros on Thursday after he left a particularly hostile crowed at the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Association meeting.

But DeFede apparently thought Gimenez preferred the Port site, too. Like the say in the Geico commercials, everybody knows that.

Could it be because Beckham and his investors, who have very clearly stated that the 20-acre port site in downtown Miami is their preferred home, have indicated that it would be a deal breaker to offer anything but one of the most valuable pieces of waterfront property owned by taxpayers?

C’mon! Like Ladra said last year, when the mayor and his cronies’ threat was we would lose professional soccer if we didn’t vote to fund the renovations of the Miami Dolphins stadium with tourist tax dollars: Miami is a natural for soccer and it’s going to be here.

Does anybody really believe that Major League Soccer and anyone with dollar signs in their eyes would give up a chance to start a team — with the endorsements, TV time and merchandise that entails — in what is undoubtedly the largest soccer market in the U.S.? A team that is poised to become, almost immediately, the top team and the most beloved team in the country?

Because what many people don’t realize is that this is Major League Soccer, not World Cup soccer. There will be no Messi sightings. Real Madrid will not be playing here. This will be for about 20 U.S. teams and three from Canada. No big stars. Yet.

Or could the port preference be driven by his buddy and former driver, increasingly influential lobbyist Ralph Garcia-Toledo, who has been forever working to bring the Pan American Games to South Florida?

Ladra really hopes DeFede asks him that follow up question.

Because while Miami is definitely poised to become the place where the big American soccer stars will be no matter where the stadium is, a waterfront stadium near the MetroRail with a pedestrian bridge to downtown shops and restaurants sure looks better in PowerPoint.

And it may yield better returns on naming rights and future television broadcasts of such events.

  Carlos Gimenez, MLS soccer, PortMiami, soccer stadium