I agree with the twitter post about this being "pretty much the WORST idea ever".
I mean, does Miami really want to be "Vegas-by-the-Sea"? This is truly an important turning point in Miami's short history.
Micky Arison warns of traffic nightmare if casinos come to downtown Miami
Micky Arison says he’s concerned a casino in downtown Miami will snarl traffic even worse in the city around the home of his Miami Heat basketball team.
BY DOUGLAS HANKS AND HANNAH SAMPSON
Miami Heat owner Micky Arison warned Monday that massive casino resorts in downtown Miami would likely cause traffic nightmares, turn off local basketball fans and generally
disrupt Miami’s urban revival.
“We’re on a roll, and I’m not sure this is the right way to continue it,” said the CEO of Carnival Corp. and majority owner of the Heat. “I just don’t know how Miami can handle that kind of traffic.”
Arison’s comments represent the most critical yet from South Florida’s corporate elite as the region considers a
plan that could bring the world’s largest casino to the Miami waterfront. It also reveals an interesting subplot to the ongoing gambling debate, since
the leading casino operator pursuing a Miami site also controls one of Carnival’s top rivals, Norwegian Cruise Line.
Genting, the largest casino operator in Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom and owner of 50 percent of Norwegian, has already spent about $500 million assembling a waterfront site in Miami. Genting wants to build a 5,200-room resort there, and current plans call for about 50 restaurants and nearly four times as many slot machines as the largest casino in Las Vegas, according to publicity materials and an architect working on the design.
Along with the Genting project,
a nearby site in Miami is reportedly under consideration for a casino by Las Vegas Sands.
Arison wrote on his Twitter account Friday night that he agreed with a post by someone who called a downtown Miami casino
“pretty much the WORST idea ever.”
Read more:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/3...#ixzz1cTUf3XqV