In Miami, David Beckham Has Wrought America’s Best Stadium Deal
 

In Miami, David Beckham Has Wrought America’s Best Stadium Deal


JUNE 7 2017

By Henry Grabar

Read More: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/...dium_deal.html




http://www.slate.com/content/dam/sla...e.52.30_pm.png

People in Miami hate the transit there, not only is it horrid, but they even cut back on service. So people are gonna end up taking their cars there, also knowing how Miami fans are, once the team starts losing, they'll stop showing up to games or support others.

Unless there are thousands of nearby parking spaces, this will never work. Nice sentiment, but not realistic.

Wouldn't even work in equivalent areas in most transit-oriented cities. In South Florida no one is taking the bus from Coral Gables or wherever to watch a soccer match.

Maybe just focus on the part about it being privately built with no tax money.

Lets not forget about American Dream, aka U.S.'s largest mall proposal. The expect 300k visitors a day. Imagine the traffic nightmare for that area.

This might be kind of a unique case. Soccer fans, at least here in Chicago, tend to fall into two camps: wealthy, educated elites and working-class Latinos.

The wealthier fans tend to be familiar with European culture, lean liberal (usually) and probably wouldn't scoff at taking transit to a soccer game, at least if there was a convenient rail option. With a Metrorail stop near the stadium site, that seems somewhat plausible.

The Latino fans are more of a unknown, surely some of them would be comfortable taking a bus or train, but I also know the car culture in Miami is huge.

Another factor, I wouldn't underestimate the power of the private sector to provide parking. It looks like there are many large parcels of vacant land east of the stadium around I-95 where you could park hundreds of cars easily with little or no improvements needed. Couple that with a permit-parking program on streets, and you end up with a Wrigley Field situation... parking is available but scarce and therefore expensive, so price-sensitive fans will find another way to get to the game.

Except for the land part, this deal just about describes both the Giant's stadium (AT&T Park) and the U/C Warriors arena (Chase Center) in San Francisco. San Francisco, perhaps unlike Miami, happened to have a large brownfield site, a former rail yard called Mission Bay, which is being redeveloped over more than a decade in which is wanted to encourage development so it has made sites available to the 2 teams there, but the money for construction and subsequent ownership is all private and niether site will, when everything is finished, have much parking for cars. AT&T Park sits at what will be the juncture of 2 light rail lines and across the street from a commuter rail terminal. Chase center is on one of those light rail lines a bit further down the waterfront. Both stadia will also be seved by ferry/water taxi transportation.

AT&T Park (owned and built by the Giants)
http://www.mlb.com/sf/images/ballpar...al_480x207.jpg
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/ballpark/

Chase Center (being built and to be owned by the Warriors)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ase_Center.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_...(San_Francisco)

People in Miami don't hate mass transit they just hate the rail transit they have which is very limited.
Metromover downtown carries over 30,000 passengers on it's 4.8 mile route on a daily basis so your statement is inaccurate.
This soccer stadium will be less than a mile from a Metrorail station.
Believe it or not when the Orange Bowl still existed and was home to the Miami Dolphins & the University of Miami Hurricanes football team in the 1980's thousands of fans didn't have parking garages nearby and they parked on people's lawns in Little Havana where they were charged and walked to the stadium anyways and this was before Metrorail.

As for "losing" teams when you dismiss your roster after winning 2 World Series like the Marlins did & threaten to leave the area it really was hard to maintain the fan base.
You should know about fan loyalty though when the Expos dumped your Montreal for DC.
Not to mention for exporting Loria to Miami.

There's plenty of parking around AT&T Park. And not only private parking, but Giants parking.

http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/s...ing_tailgating

The article seems to imply that this Miami arena lacks any adjacent parking, and that visitors will be dependent on transit (and presumably taxis/Uber). That would be pretty odd, esp. in a city like Miami.

Even in Europe, major soccer arenas have plenty of parking. Stade de France in Paris and Allianz Arena in Munich have loads of parking, and these cities have fantastic transit.

It should also be pointed at that this is Overtown. Not the most pleasant place to walk through. This is what the walk between the metrorail station and the stadium site looks like:
https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7828...7i13312!8i6656

The quality of the walk seems important. If there's a wide sidewalk and you can talk to your friends, that's comraderie and part of the game's enjoyment. If you're going single-file down a major road and weaving past the slow folks, not so much.

All of my city's stadiums and arenas rely on walk sheds. Driving is popular despite good transit to all of them, which of course fills up. They all have some parking onsite but most people walk, maybe a half mile or a mile. This becomes part of the game atmosphere.

It could also be too hot to walk for too long.

This Miami stadium has been in the works for years and years and years (or at least since Beckham retired). I'll believe it when I see it.

How many entities out there can afford private land to privately build a stadium where a city and taxpayers are off the hook.

It's due to be developed: By the Giants. It's a temporary parking lot only and that was always the plan.

http://sfport.com/sites/default/file...issionRock.jpg
http://sfport.com/missionrock

Nearly all of the major league professional sports teams in major markets can afford it but then, of course, they wouldn't make as much money for their billionaire owners and might have to economize by paying lower salaries to their multimillionaire players. There may be a few teams in the smallest markets who truly couldn't afford it but they are a minority.

One other consideration that affects the public interest, though, is where the sites are. While nearly always private land can be acquired, it is not always ideally sited. By donating the land, cities can control where the stadia are built and control their own burdens for new infrastructure etc.

The question is not how many entities can "afford" it, but how many cities don't fall for the blackmail from sports leagues and owners to use public money?

L.A. doesn't use public tax money on stadiums, and right now two are being built with private funds:

Hollywood Park NFL Stadium (opening 2021):
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8gNz...0320-007.0.jpg
https://la.curbed.com/2015/3/23/9977...billboard-roof

LAFC MLS Stadium (opening 2018):
https://www.mobilesportsreport.com/w...0.43.51-AM.png
https://www.mobilesportsreport.com/2...occer-stadium/

My understanding is that the NY Giants/Jets stadium was built with private money. If you are a major market you shouldn't pony up taxpayer money to build stadiums. Lesser markets that can be leveraged by greedy owners will usually pay up (Atlanta, Minneapolis are a couple that come to mind that have new taxpayer funded stadiums opening.)

It's easier in a bigger and richer city. Land prices and construction costs will generally be higher, but naming rights, luxury box sales, season ticket sales, broadcast deals, shirt sales, etc., tend to be much better. Depending on the league and local arrangments, a large percentage of that can flow to the team directly.

Seattle's potential rebuild of Key Arena is also privately financed. But they'd start with the existing Key Arena roof and land...saving the roof probably costs way more than it saves, but I'd guesstimate the land would be worth in the low six figures. The mayor appears to prefer this over a proposal to use private land but require public financial help and a street vacation, with a location by the stadiums south of Downtown.

Breaking news, make that 3 privately funded arenas / stadiums in LA as the Clippers will be announcing a deal with the city of Inglewood tomorrow.

Do cities in Florida not have laws against parking on your lawn? That's the kind of thing you expect to see in a small rural town somewhere. Not in a major metro area.

I don't see too many families making that walk.