The Miami-Dade County School Board wants a piece of the potential MLS action in South Florida.
The board members met in an emergency session on Thursday to discuss the possibilities of getting involved in David Beckham’s efforts to bring an MLS franchise to Miami, according to the Miami Herald.
The school board — which oversees the fourth largest county in the United States — felt it has been excluded in negotiations of big facilities in the area in the past and wanted to have a voice in the decision-making of the stadium proposal.
“One thing that I feel is we should not only expect respect, we should demand respect,” board chair Perla Tabares Hantman said. “If nothing else, we certainly should be included — must be included — and we have not been.”
A previously proposed partnership with Miami-Dade County suggested that Beckham could build a stadium tax-free. Beckham could still be exempted from paying the taxes should the school board get involved, only that the board would be able to negotiate for its own benefits in return if it does so.
“It’s an idea: Do we want to get something big in return and be a part of the picture, or get nothing at all,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.
Some of the suggested perks the district wants to benefit from including graduations, football games and band competitions. The district spends close to half a million dollars a year on renting facilities for graduation ceremonies alone, according to the Miami Herald.
The board members gave a nod to Carvalho to pursue the negotiations, which are expected to move along quickly. If the ballot language for the stadium deal on a Miami resident referendum could be approved by the end of the calendar year, it could be posed to voters during the presidential primary in March to avoid hosting a separate special election.
What do you think of this development? Would allowing the Miami-Dade County School Board to get involved in the potential MLS franchise be a good idea?
Share your thoughts below.
I don’t understand why the school board needs to intervene in the building of an MLS stadium. Reading this article it seems like egos are bruised for not being consulted on the stadium. Read the comments above by the board chair. Perhaps the school board would be better off on concentrating their efforts on educating the children in Dade County.
If the district really feels spending a half million dollars a year on renting facilities is too much why haven’t they done something about this sooner.
It’s seems the politics in Dade County are too much for this stadium to be built. Perhaps David Beckham should pull out of Miami and negotiate with the league to bring a team to another city.
Becks has to be wondering what happened. The dream of a glamourous waterfront cathedral to soccer, capitalism and celebrity chock full of the rich and famous has degraded into a back lot 2nd rate facility hosting JV football practice, band camp and fundraising car-washes. Looks as though no-one wants to do a thing to facilitate this happening, but everyone wants to hedge their bet and assure they get a piece if by chance it does.
What happened is that Miami is not impressed by a has been underwear model trying to build a stadium no local soccer fan cares about.
It would be sad if it wasn’t so damn funny
“Carvalho said that any deal would have to be cost-free for the district and protect the school system from liability. The school district would own the facility.
In return, the district wants use of the stadium for its events like band competitions, football showdowns and graduations. The district spends more than $450,000 a year on facility rentals for graduation ceremonies alone.”
“There also has been talk of building a school or other space into the stadium that could be used for educational purposes.
Board member Lubby Navarro also asked the district to consider negotiating naming rights for the stadium.”
So, if I am understanding this right, Beckham’s group was already given the tax-free go ahead by the city/county. Now, the School district is saying, if you want tax-free status, you have to partner with us, to do so you have to let us use the stadium whenever we want, ruin your pitch, build us a school in the stadium, let us own the naming rights, pay for the entire thing and absolve us of any liability. Did they forgot to include that everyone on the board has at least one family member that needs a job with the team, and at least one of their kid’s must be on the team. Maybe I am reading this wrong, but this looks like the fastest way to kill this whole project.
At the end of the day we are no better than Qatar. We evict people and spend government money building playgrounds for the rich and famous,
Share with College Football….yeahhh.
American Football lines on Beckam’s Football field? Ewwwwww.