Wednesday, October 21, 2015

School Board Will Get to Own Beckham's Major League Soccer Stadium. By Geniusofdespair

Will he wear the Miami Dade school uniform?
According to Doug Hanks of the Miami Herald:
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has reportedly told David Beckham's representatives that he will not object to Miami partnering with the school system to build a soccer stadium, despite the obvious political play his camp sees for the mayor's 2016 opponent: Raquel Regalado, a school board member and daughter of Miami's mayor.

In a private meeting with soccer negotiators Monday, Gimenez was told of the potential deal, which would have Miami-Dade's school system own the stadium. Until then, the plan was for Miami-Dade itself to own the stadium in order to spare Beckham from having to pay property taxes.
This gives school kids all sorts of advantages. They get to use the stadium for their events and they are putting in a track for them. The School Board is not paying money. School Superintendent Carvalho is negotiating other details. I guess the kids will be walking billboards for the stadium with T Shirts etc. Are they going to buy uniforms for our kids? 

Major League Soccer wanted Beckham's to  do a REAL educational component at the stadium. That is how the School Board got involved. The School Board now spend over $300,000 rent a year for hosting events and graduations at other venues. The school board will be able to stage them at the stadium and televise school events such as battle of the bands.  Carvalho also wants a magnet school on the site paid for by the Soccer franchise. The school board admits they get nothing from the other stadiums and teams because of deals they didn't make.

Beckham United is going to pay to build it but the School Board will own the stadium so they can make it tax exempt. The County agreed it would be tax exempt early on so the School Board lost that revenue because of the County.  They make no revenue from any of the stadiums, and they wish they had a say in that but they don't. The question remaining was would it be tax exempt by the School Board or The County. The School Board opted to take it on to at least get the rental savings for large events (could total half a million at least).

The soccer franchise Fusion didn't succeed because it had no fan base. That is why Major League Soccer wants this educational partnership. It will help with the fan base and create good vibes in the community for the franchise. It is a win for our students. The Miami Heat pays lip service to our school kids, having a team member paying a visit once in awhile to a school. This one is a real partnership where the schools will have USE of the building.

The Miami Herald wrote about this today, they said a city referendum is going to take place.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

This really doesn't make sense. Why is the school board involved. I never thought there was enough land at Marlins stadium. Could it at all be related to the school board's headquarters?

Anonymous said...

The school board already owns WLRN-FM public radio and I don't know if that really works out any more. Now they want to own a soccer stadium?

Anonymous said...

I was going to mention the WLRN radio station too. What is the reasoning for them getting into things like this? Seems like they should concentrate on the schools (and not using the board as a launchpad to other politics...).

Anonymous said...

This is exciting and shows smart thinking. Miami-Dade residents, in the western portion, LOVE their soccer. Carvalho is a genius. SCORE for the county!!

Anonymous said...

WTF? I wish the Superintendent would stick to running the school board and reducing the huge class sizes.

Anonymous said...

I think we should all wait to see the details on this before we start celebrating the genius behind this. This is Miami, after all.

Anonymous said...

Yes the superintendent should stick to school boarding and not trolling blogs posting glowing reviews of himself. By the way not one of these public private partnership's has ever played out as advertised. Please find me one credible study that shows they pay off I have a dozen from the Harvard business review to the Guardian that says they don't

Geniusofdespair said...

People. It has to be owned by a public entity to get the tax breaks all stadiums enjoy. The school board did NOT have them forgo taxes, they are late-comers to the deal. The Board will get perks for the kids and save rental money. What is the beef? At least we get something.

WOOF said...

What's next subsidized Cricket,
Australian Rules Football?

Anonymous said...

Regarding this deal, Crespo asks, "Has everything in Miami turned to sh-t?" Yes, people, it has.

Anonymous said...

All of you against this deal: Would you rather have the county own it? That is the choice. The County brokered the original deal.

More Millions for Billionares said...

No I would rather Beckman build it,own it, maintain it and pay his taxes just like everyone else..and if a couple a mil a year is too much to pay in property tax , then maybe it's not that viable a business to start with

Anonymous said...

WLRN: the lamest public radio station in the nation.

Anonymous said...

Owning a MLS soccer stadium is not within the School District's mission. Their job is to educate our children, not provide a tax-free pass through for a private corporation.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Geniusofdespair said...

No Ito or ita's remember?

More than T-shirts! said...

I work at MDCPS and every year the district spends close to a million dollars renting locations for events out of the general fund. The graduations alone are close to half a million. So we teachers are excited about this deal because that million dollars from the general fund can now go to us, we are long overdue for real cost of living increases! I work at a Heat Nation school and it angers me that the Miami Heat and the Marlins come to our school to give away T-shirts and promote their brands. Our kids deserve more than T-shirts. This Soccer thing was going to happen no matter what the difference is that now the money that would have gone to Carlos Gimenez and the Commissioners is going to our schools to help our kids and teachers. GOAL!!!!!

Anonymous said...

As a parent with a child in the public school system I am appalled by the Superintendent's comments regarding providing a captive fan base for Beckham's team with our schoolchildren. This deal is inappropriate on so many levels. But I'm sure there are enough people in Miami who will be duped by the freebies - a new school! - soccer tickets! - celebrities! - to get this approved. This is just another reason I am considering leaving Miami altogether. I can't continue worrying about the corruption and ineptitude of both our government officials and citizens.

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure "more than T-shirts" is really a a Beckham lobbyist and/or Public relations shill. Super obvious.

Anonymous said...

The County was going to accept "ownership" of the stadium to make the facility tax exempt - and get nothing in exchange but more photos of Gimenez drueling and going gaga over Beckham. By having the School Board accept ownership, the students in public schools are going to have access to a great facility to celebrate graduations, track meets, and major district football games. Our kids are going to "own" this stadium, instilling pride and enthusiasm for soccer and sports in general. The public benefit of this move by Carvalho and Regalado is tremendous. Putting Gimenez on the bench, and allowing our students to take the field is a beautiful thing. Congratulations to the Dade County Public School System for intervening to ensure the public interest is considered.

Miami History 101 said...

About WLRN- can't you people google it? School Board had station licence just like every other government they just negotiated with WLRN back in the day and the City of Miami and County didn't bother.

"WLRN-TV first signed on the air on September 7, 1962 as WSEC-TV; it was the second non-commercial educational television station in the market. Operating an a member station of National Educational Television (NET), WSEC was originally owned by the Dade County School Board, which had persuaded the Federal Communications Commission to reallocate the channel 17 license for non-commercial use.

At the time, the Dade County School Board was part-owner of the VHF channel 2 allocation in the market as part of a shared-time agreement with Community Television Foundation of South Florida, owners of WPBT. Under the original arrangement, the School Board operated the channel 2 frequency for five hours each day as WTHS-TV, carrying instructional television during the daytime hours, while the Community Television Foundation would take over the channel for two hours each evening to broadcast WPBT. Community Television Foundation had already begun increasing WPBT's operating hours, a process that accelerated with WSEC's sign-on. The 1970 formation of PBS brought a further increase in WPBT's broadcasting hours. By the late 1970s, PBS had grown enough that the split-time arrangement no longer made sense for a market of Miami/Fort Lauderdale's size. In 1979, the Dade County School Board returned the WTHS license to the FCC, while WPBT took over channel 2 full-time. Most of WTHS' educational programming moved to WSEC, which changed its call letters to the current WLRN-TV, to match its sister public radio station. Gradually, WLRN-TV evolved into a secondary PBS station for South Florida, alongside WPBT."

Guess you folks don't remember when teachers tuned in with students to WLRN during classes. Thanks for making me feel old . . .

Anonymous said...

Love the Gimenez on the bench analogy. Which begs the question if Miami-County was to own it what was going to be the benefit to taxpayers? Aside from Tickets and contributions for Gimenez and his staff?

Anonymous said...

OMG! Does this mean that Gimenez's gordo friend, Garcia-Toledo, will not get the stadium seating contracts??? Horror of horrors! I am sure Gordo is the "anonymous" complaining about Carvalho entering into this deal. Good luck muscling the stadium seating contract through the School Board.

Stingaree Football! said...

Finally a place to watch the Miami High vs Gables football game. So sick of Tropical Park, there are never enough seat, the parking is a mess and the traffic is a killer. If you don't follow highschool football read this. We need a stadium! http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/high-school/prep-miami-dade/article37430091.html

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when you have a smart woman lawyer, who happens to serve in elected office, getting involved in these typically macho-stupid negotiations. Raquel Regalado envisioned a scenario where the public could benefit, and her extremely capable CEO is making it happen. Thank you, Raguel and Alberto Carvalho.

Gifted said...

Say what you want about Regalado. But she has the ability to get things done. Even as a school board member she was able to make a better deal than the Mayor. AND not take credit for it.

Oops. I mean "The Superintendent" ;-)

Anonymous said...

Yes this deal puts "Gimenez on the bench" rather than in a sky box with his cronies. So the stadium was going to get the tax exemption from the county and the public would have gotten nothing. With the school board providing the exemption our children benefit - there is some public benefit with this deal. What's the downside? I'm not a soccer fan, but understand that so many are and that this is a sport where girls are having a real opportunity. So, thank you Mr. Carvalho and Board Member Regalado!

Anonymous said...

Raquel Regalado, Regalado father and Regalado brother and assorted minions. Oh please stop posting BS on this blog. We know it's you defending this deal and confusing the real issues with insider political bs rivalries and dynasties that citizens don't care about. What we do care about is how the school board runs it's schools. Seems that would be enough to deal with. If you need a bigger stadium, build it yourself. And BTW, do we really need another bogus magnet school - why do high schoolers need to study sports management. In a district with dismal reading and math scores and drop out rates, how about focusing on basics? How about reducing class sizes? How about fixing up decrepit schools that were built poorly in the 1950's? How about making sure kids aren't using outdated textbooks? That's just the short list of problems.

Anonymous said...

Will the school board now sell its headquarters building and WLRN land on Biscayne Boulevard to Beckham's business partners for their fabulous luxury retail entertainment condo projects? Is this what is also behind this deal? Is this also an opportunity for Raquel Regalado to boost her mayoral race campaign contributions from Beckham and partners and lobbyists? Let's look behind this deal to see the real politics. The schoolchildren are only pawns. I hope the rest of the school board have the integrity and intelligence to ask the right questions and I hope the local media and bloggers report on it.

Geniusofdespair said...

Now I am seeing this clearly. Thank you trolls, I know from where you come.

The mayor of Miami Dade County, Carlos Gimenez wanted to fill in the FEC slip and put this stupid soccer stadium there. City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, to his credit, would not fill in the slip.

Mayor Gimenez must have done some polling on the soccer stadium and found out the underwear model/soccer player was not polling well so he backed off from the stadium deal. He is stubborn he never backs off so it had to be the polling (he is doing enough of it, Dario Moreno is making a fortune). Now he is trying to hold the school board accountable, i.e. Raquel Regalado and painting the stadium with a new brush.

In the background Gimenez will portray this deal as bad as he can, even though it was his deal to begin with. Savvy Politician? No Gimenez just lots and lots of polling. Too bad, a lot of his pals were set to get contracts in the building of the stadium. The greater need, however, is to get reelected at any cost. Screw your friends.

I hate the idea of a stadium but then, of course, I hate soccer. They are putting the stadium in a good place not on our waterfront next to the AA Arena. The school board is not laying out any money (except the loss in tax dollars not negotiated by them). The school system will get FREE use of the stadium. Do you realize that other public entities like the AA Arena and the Arsht Center CHARGED THEM RENT? Anyway, my concern is location and money. Both of those seem to have been addressed. I don't like this being used as a political hot potato.

Anonymous said...

The location of this stadium is wonderful since the Baseball stadium is a financial loser. Double down and see if this new facility doesn't pump economic life into that area. I'm not a soccer nor baseball fan but I am a resident and taxpayer since the 1980's and this is a much better deal than the knee jerk one presented by Mayor Gimenez. I now only blame the Mayor for a portion of his deed. It's his handlers, who are doing a disservice to our community, they deserve to burn in hell.

Anonymous said...

Better than the deal with building condos on top of the Cultural Center, Mayor Gimenez can just build the Beckham soccer stadium on top of the Main Library and HistoryMIami complex. Then he can watch the matches from his 29th floor office.

Anonymous said...

damn...can we count the Regalado family members chiming in on the topic? The Mayor pouted like a child that he was kept out of county negotiations until he got his way - he didn't care if soccer was here or not - he wanted credit. Gimenez is a pr--- but to his credit he said all he wants is soccer - no matter how.

Anonymous said...

Since Billionaire Beckham and friends will not pay city taxes and will get free public land, will the City do anything for the long suffering, long neglected Little Havana neighborhood surrounding these palacial stadiums of luxury skyboxes? The area is a slum where there has been virtually no investments in infrastructure, no street trees, no public parks, no beautification projects. The elaborate and costly Marlins Stadium did nothing for the neighborhood. And this one won't either. Shameful.