Careful Miami, there are some who want to bend us over a barrel — again!
Al’s Loupe
Careful Miami, there are some who want to bend us over a barrel — again!
By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alfernandez@the-beach.net
Miamians beware! Cover your pockets. A fight appears imminent; they’re after our money, again. My fear is that even if the majority of this community may be opposed to the plan currently being cooked up, some of our political and business leaders just won’t care. If you doubt my assertion (after reading this), think back to the new Miami Marlins baseball stadium being built mostly with our tax dollars.
There’s a group in town, and from out of town too, who want to bend us over a barrel and…
Super Bowl Sunday in Miami turned out to be one of those days the Chamber of Commerce dreams of. The sky was a baby blue. There was hardly a cloud in the heavens. Maximum temperatures during the day may have peaked at a little over 70 degrees. At game time more than 100 million people watched and temperatures hovered around the 60 degree mark — maybe a little cooler by game’s end. Compare that “chill” to most of the rest of the country, which finds itself awash in snow and freezing temperatures.
Here’s the buzz. National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell came into town bullying some and threatening others to not bring back the Super Bowl to Miami. His grouse: the 2007 Super Bowl, also held in Miami, turned out to be a wonderful football game, but played under a rain storm. And there are many people, and sponsors, who pay top dollar to participate in this modern day sports bacchanalia, who were upset because they got wet. Oh heavens! the sight of a rich, wet person. So Goodell decided to show us who’s boss while demonstrating (ahummm) his generous side and a way out of his dog house.
What the NFL proposes, and some in town approve, is that a roof be added to what has been termed by the league an outdated football stadium (approximately 20 years old) where the Miami Dolphins play. Initial estimates put the figure to fix the problem at a mere $250 million. And that’s with a hole in the middle. In other words, our modern day gladiators would still get wet — if it rained. For the record, the Super Bowl has been held in Miami 10 times; the game played three years ago was the first time it ever rained. Goodell may consider suing the Lord up in the heavens for that one. Maybe he can volunteer some of what he collects to the ‘Miami Stadium Roof Project’.
Pushing forward the idea from the Miami leaderships side (leadership is a tough word here, I propose to change it to stealership — these guys mostly steal I have seen very few lead) is super lobbyist and Super Bowl Committee president Rodney Barreto. Few on the county commission get elected (mostly reelected) without Rodney hosting a fundraiser for him or her.
The argument in favor of the project is that the Super Bowl brings in about $400 million to the area’s economy during the week of the game. If you believe that, there’s some land in the Everglades (deep in the swamp) that I’d like to sell you. As far as I’m concerned, the Super game helped increase our traffic jams, while costing us clean up after parties who woke me at midnight when fireworks went off on the beach. Oh, yeah, that’s right, we also were visited by several randy football players who were arrested for rape and grabbing girlfriends by the neck — and not nicely.
Seriously, I am sure Super week is a positive for the Miami economy. The televised game with the millions watching is a testimony to Miami’s great weather in February. But $400 million, that figure was picked from out of a hat.
And as for the roof on the stadium, if the NFL wants it, let them pay for it. Hell, the owner of the Dolphins just bought the team for a little more than a billion dollars. A lousy football player, who works 6 months out of the year, a lousy one remember, earns about a million a year. Still, the NFL wants the poor working stiff — a great deal who make minimum wage, while others are just plain out of a job — to pay for the stadium.
If there was ONE politician with balls in this town, he or she should have stared down Goodell (and Barreto) and told them to take their football game to Minnesota, where you will find a roof on its stadium, and where the temperature is also in the teens — and that’s on a good day in February. Or Detroit, even Washington, D.C., where it snowed and the temperature hovered around 20 degrees.
Go ask the rich folk: Miami or Detroit? Miami or Minnesota, or Washington, or New York? San Diego, maybe…? but boring. Dallas, in the 20s and 30s this week.
If the NFL doesn’t want to return to Miami because of a roof, then it’s their loss. I’m still going to watch the game — on TV. Super Bowl tickets are expensive; I can’t afford them.
One last thing, that quarter billion will probably turn into an easy billion. Especially when they find out it’s much easier to build a new stadium rather than adjust a new roof to a 20-year-old structure. In fact, somebody told me Barreto was seen walking around with a jar of Vaseline during Super Bowl week. I wonder why?
We cannot allow this to happen — again!
