Only in Miami: Ex-Marlins president David Samson joins fight vs. ‘boondoggle’ soccer stadium | Opinion
A fun little 130-second bomb has dropped in the escalating war over the city of Miami’s upcoming vote on whether to green-light the Inter Miami soccer stadium initiative.
City commissioners, scrambling to avoid being hit by shrapnel from the video, are set to say yay or nay next week unless the vote is delayed yet again because everybody is hiding away in a bunker.
The two-minute teaser video comes from Billy Corben, the Miami filmmaker, professional curmudgeon and champion of the people who agree with him, a role both self-appointed and voraciously held.
The hot button buzzwords are all in there, in an artful if obvious parade. The proposed Miami Freedom Park deal fronted by Inter Miami principal owner Jorge Mas and soccer legend David Beckham is called “a real estate hustle,” a “boondoggle,” “welfare for billionaires,” and (my personal favorite): “A billion-dollar heist happening in broad daylight!”
And this is where the whole thing gets, well, simply majestic in its splendor.
The star of the short film, the man Corben enlisted to warn the good people of Miami about this “boondoggle,” is (wait for it) ... David Samson!
Yes, that David Samson, for years the Marlins president and right hand of owner Jeffrey Loria. They got Marlins Park built because they convinced the county to sell $500 million in bonds, an onerous deal it will take decades to repay with interest
Hearing David Samson warn you about getting fleeced is a bit like the captain of the Titanic lecturing you on cruise ship safety, but I don’t call it hypocrisy. Too easy. I call it brilliance.
I mean, Samson by his own admission knows boondoggling a city, perhaps even heisting in broad daylight. Corben has called to the stand an expert witness!
Samson appeared at a Mas Miami event staged by friend Dan Le Batard in December 2018, soon after the Marlins were sold for $1.2 billion, and told a booing crowd: “Here’s why I love when you guys boo me. I want you to keep booing me because guess what? $1.2 billion. [Expletive] you!”
A raised middle finger lent punctuation. I was there that night. There was boozy playfulness more than anger in Samson’s tone, but he always has been fine with playing the villain, and still is in the Corben video. It closes with Samson saying, “I thought I’d be the final guy that [expletive] you. It turns out I’m not.”
The video campaign plays off the title of a 2002 soccer film called ”Bend It Like Beckham” with the naughty “Don’t Bend Over For Beckham.”
Involving Samson was the attention-getter it was designed to be but should not detract from the larger point:
Critics of the Freedom Park initiative have reason to object.
The city weighs whether to approve a 99-year no-bid lease below market value, at a time when rent prices in Miami are through the roof that fewer and fewer can afford to live under.
The deal for the 131 acres near the airport would transform the Melreese golf course into Freedom Park, which would feature a new soccer stadium but also be big business for Mas, the billionaire developer, including a hotel, massive shopping mall, restaurants and an office park.
Surely an infantry of doe-eyed young golfers threatened with displacement will be bused to next week’s vote so that city commissioners might be swayed by guilt.
The new stadium would be a major victory for Inter Miami, which has had to play its first three seasons in Major League Soccer in Fort Lauderdale. It also would be a real estate windfall for Mas. The deal at the very least should have been opened for competitive bidding.
No matter the (eventual) vote, half of Miami will be outraged. As usual..
The long-simmering controversy over the Freedom Park plan continues a nightmare launch to Miami’s MLS team. The club, born into a pandemic, has yet to field a consistent winning team into its third season , despite the glamorous imprimatur of the carefully manicured Beckham brand.
Inter Miami last year was fined $2 million for improprieties in its roster spending. And Beckham’s original dream of a picturesque waterfront stadium of course was long-ago drowned in Miami’s political morass. The second choice, a home in downtown Miami, also failed to happen.
The mind struggles to imagine many South Florida soccer fans who envision a stadium out near the airport, built on toxic land that needs to be scrubbed safe, as anything close to ideal.
Almost makes you wonder if it has been worth fighting over.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 11:59 AM.
