@PatriciaMazzei
Miami-Dade County plans to charge David Beckham some amount of rent if he builds a Major League Soccer stadium on public land. But across the country, government hasn’t necessarily done well as professional soccer’s landlord.
Only two of 12 existing MLS stadiums have been built without local tax-payer funding for construction — as Beckham and his investors have promised to do — and on public property, a Miami Herald analysis has found. And the terms of those deals, in Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, were quite different, leaving little in the way of a blueprint for Miami-Dade.
The county isn’t looking for precedent as it considers crafting its own agreement, Mayor Carlos Gimenez said.
“I don’t look to the other stadiums,” he said. “What I said I want is fair market value for rent.”
“Fair” is subjective, but at least one of the two existing privately funded stadiums on public land seems to have gotten relatively cheap land for construction.
Last year, California State University-Dominguez Hills, home to the StubHub Center where the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA teams play, received just under $800,000 in rent and shared profits from the 88-acre stadium and sports complex, according to the university. That’s about $9,100 an acre.
For comparison, consider that in 2013, administrators for the state-owned fairgrounds in Ohio, which houses the Columbus Crew Stadium, said they took in about $335,000 from the 15-acre facility — about $22,300 an acre.
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