After $1.5 million gift to NFL, Miami Beach expected a free concert. It never came
When the Super Bowl Host Committee came before the Miami Beach City Commission in 2018, the committee told the city it planned to hold a free concert on the beach after requesting about $1.5 million in waived fees and sponsorship dollars.
The money was approved. The concert — billed as a “public benefit” to the city for hosting the Super Bowl — never happened.
Instead, music fans can pay between $270 and $12,000 to get into Gronk Beach and see former New England Patriots star Rob Gronkowski and a pack of his DJ friends during an electronic dance party being held Saturday at the publicly owned North Beach Bandshell.
The only public benefit that will go directly to residents is 15% off tickets to the NFL Experience at the Miami Beach Convention Center. That’s $3 off $20 tickets, and $6 off $40 tickets. Those planning to go from Thursday to Saturday will pay the higher price.
One city leader, Commissioner Steven Meiner, said he wants to know why — and learn more about the economic impact of the Super Bowl on the Miami Beach community.
“I am working on finding out more information about the free concert and plan to add as a discussion item for the February 12th Commission meeting,” he wrote in a text message.
It’s another example of how Super Bowl host cities bend over backwards to lure the NFL to town, offering millions in incentives to rake in the publicity and tax revenues from hotels and restaurants that the Big Game promises to bring.
Miami-Dade County’s $4 million cash subsidy of the Super Bowl includes $1 million for team hotels in downtown Miami and Aventura.
“I think what happens when you have a big event like this, the NFL can take it wherever they can take it,” said Miami Beach Commissioner David Richardson, who supports the investments the city made in the Super Bowl. “We have to decide as a community how much we’re willing to tolerate.”
Even in its gifts to host cities, rarely does anything come without strings attached.
At Miami Beach Senior High School on Wednesday, dignitaries unveiled one of three “legacy projects” the NFL helps bring to host cities during every Super Bowl.
But the NFL chipped in only about a quarter of the total cost to renovate the high school’s football field. The city of Miami Beach paid $350,000 — or $100,000 more than the NFL did, according to an accounting of the $1.1 million project by Miami-Dade Public Schools. The Dolphins Foundation paid $250,000. The school district paid the rest.
Rodney Barreto, chairman of Miami’s Host Committee, said some would argue the city is spending too much money on luring the most popular and wealthiest sports league in the country.
“I think the notion that the city is using taxpayers’ money to help promote a game is wrong,” he told the Miami Herald. “A lot of people would argue it the other way, but I would argue that this is just great for the community.”
Barreto said the committee, a nonprofit formed to compete for the Super Bowl and handle organizing efforts locally, planned to bring a free concert to Miami Beach. But plans changed, and that free concert was canceled. The host committee is offering free live music at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami, where the league’s NFL Live festival is being held, said Karla Fortuny, a media representative with the Host Committee.
“We have [events] throughout the whole region,” Barreto said. “Miami Beach has gotten its fair share of stuff, it’s going to be tough to move around Miami Beach.”
Miami Beach Tourism and Culture Director Matt Kenny said the free concert that the Host Committee was planning would have been conditioned on a city waiver of $178,250 in special event permit fees, separate from the $1.5 million in other waived fees and contributions from the city.
The Host Committee was “hoping to do a concert, but that did not come to fruition,” he said in an email. Because the event did not happen, there were no fees to be waived.
So what’s in it for Miami Beach taxpayers?
The NFL brought its NFL Experience, a six-day Super Bowl expo, to the city’s convention center — and waived 15% off the ticket price for residents.
Kids get in free. So does the NFL.
The city agreed to waive up to $857,540 in rental fees for the NFL to shut down its convention center for much of the week and double as a media center for the roughly 6,000 credentialed media members.
The Host Committee asked the city to suspend permits for unaffiliated commercial advertisements and mobile or temporary food concessions within a mile of all Super Bowl-related events.
City leaders, including Richardson, said the economic benefit of hosting a Super Bowl far outweighs any incentives the city gave the NFL.
A market analysis and economic impact report presented to the city after the 2010 Super Bowl, the last Super Bowl hosted in South Florida, estimated that the Big Game generated $82,848,170 in combined media exposure for South Florida. Out-of-town visitors in Miami for the game spent an average of $947 per day on accommodations, meals, transportation and other expenses, the Host Committee said.
In Miami-Dade County, the direct economic impact of hosting the Super Bowl was $39.6 million, the report found. Indirect business taxes in the area alone were $14.1 million.
“I think we have to look at this from an economic impact perspective,” said Commissioner Ricky Arriola. “I think the investment directly pays for itself.”
He called the city’s investments a “no brainer” considering what the city is expecting to receive in return. Without offering specific figures, he said the tax revenues from hotels and added retail sales, along with the media exposure, will give the city a net-positive return on investment.
The expected surge in resort tax revenues can fund city services like the free trolley that runs around the city, Commissioner Mark Samuelian said.
“Those resort taxes allow us to do a better job serving the residents,” he said. “I always look at the cost and the benefits, including the impact on our residents. Here, because of the enormous impact on resort taxes, free publicity for the community, I think that our [investment] is extremely well spent.”
.JPG)