Commissioners to debate Inter Miami stadium and commercial complex. Watch it live
Update: After hours of discussion, Miami commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the lease agreements for Miami Freedom Park. Read more here.
Thursday is a big day for David Beckham’s nearly decade-long odyssey to field a Major League Soccer team in a new Miami stadium.
Miami commissioners are scheduled to discuss and possibly vote on a series of lease agreements that would put Beckham and his local partners, business magnates Jorge and Jose Mas, a major step closer to redeveloping city-owned Melreese golf course into a sprawling $1 billion commercial and stadium complex.
Interviews with commissioners suggest they still have many questions about the deal, and a vote might not happen Thursday.
Beckham and his partners have spent years exploring several sites, haggling with politicians, and campaigning during a referendum that saw voters authorize the city to negotiate a 99-year no-bid lease for a commercial and stadium complex on the city’s only publicly owned golf course.
In the meantime, Inter Miami debuted at a new practice facility and stadium in Fort Lauderdale while Beckham and his local co-owners hashed out a deal for Miami Freedom Park.
Inter Miami fans, parks advocates, political watchers and South Florida’s real estate community have all weighed in on what would be a major land deal, a turning point for the future of professional soccer in the Magic City and a controversial stadium agreement in a city still smarting from the much-maligned public financing deal to build the Miami Marlins ballpark.
Supporters tout the deal as a boon for Miami packed with tax windfalls, job creation and repurposed parkland, all in an arrangement that would require the team to pay for the redevelopment without municipal bonds or city tax dollars.
Opponents frame the proposal as a questionable no-bid land deal that would hand over control of a large piece of public land to a private, for-profit business under meager financial terms at a moment when South Florida’s real estate market is hot.
READ MORE: Inter Miami responds to Billy Corben/David Samson anti-Miami Freedom Park video
Commissioners are expected to discuss questions such as on the team’s minimum rent, splitting proceeds with the city from a stadium naming rights deal, and promised contributions to improve city parks.
In the end, Beckham and the Mas brothers will need four of five commissioners to vote in favor for the deal to move forward. Commissioner Manolo Reyes has pledged to vote against Miami Freedom Park since it was conceived in 2018. The remaining four are in powerful positions to influence the final terms of the agreement.
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 1:30 PM.
