I'm not super familiar with Miami and I'm sure Overtown isn't great from what I've read about it before. Just never heard someone describe where they live in such poetically bad terms. More like the journalist put words in their mouth.
You may be on to something about the quote. But I can attest to the Overtown issues, though I dont live in South Florida. LeBron James' last year with the Miami Heat, I happened to be visiting Miami. My hotel was near the metrorail, so I decided to use it rather than have to search for parking near the stadium (and honestly, just to do something different). The stop for the arena was the Overtown stop. I had been warned at the hotel that Overtown was not the greatest neighborhood, but being a native of NYC growing up in the late 70s and early 80s, that kind of talk never scares me off. I got off that train, and damn ... the 6 or 7 block walk to the arena was absolutely littered with drug addicts, homeless and shady characters who had no reason to be standing where they were. I found myself thinking I was VERY lucky to have worn sneakers and spent much of my time thinking about which way to run if something kicked off.
I was talking to a friend of mine in Miami and he thinks the stadium plan might be a dud and Beckham is waiting for a way to get a better site like the waterfront site he wanted a while ago. Though Loria may have ruined any goodwill a sports team will ever have in Miami after his latest stunt. Overtown is overwhelmingly black. It was essentially the colored part of town when Miami was formed. It was the place where African Americans settled when they were shut out of middle class neighborhoods post war. As the wealth percolated into Miami, Overtown never really saw any of it. Now, as rich Miami expands, Overtown is ripe for gentrification and some see the Beckham stadium as the icing on the cake.
She's a real person although some places have her older than 32. It definitely doesn't read like something a real person would say. Worst mod ever.
I don't think there's a simple answer as to whether they make money or not. Professional team sports has never been purely a ROI game. It's a straddle the line game where you re-invest any profits / or invest sustainable losses / in the effort to feed one's ego by winning. As income rises, so do costs. And the "billionaire" thing isn't a simple bank-balance requirement. The important number is how much liquid cash or credit do you have? You can have a billion dollars and not be easily able to write a $10 million check (or get an affordable loan to do so) if all of your wealth is tied up or otherwise leveraged. The $150 million expansion fee is the big test. That's generally straight up cash. And I suspect almost everyone has to take out a loan or sell some investments to write that check. I'm guessing MLS doesn't allow the stake in MLS to be the collateral guaranteeing repayment of any notes raised to pay for an expansion fee. The money invested in building a stadium, building/renting practice facilities, paying for 100 people on staff without generating much revenue the first year or two, building out a youth academy system, and all of the other start-up costs - most of those can probably be leveraged and paid for with loans - but you're still going to need cash to make the make the payments and cover unanticipated expenses. Plus I suspect the league requires investors to maintain a minimum amount of ready cash on hand for any league cash calls. Short version: You need a couple billionaires.
There's some sort of community kitchen directly across the street from Orlando City Stadium. A visit to the site of OCS five years ago (which I did when in town for a USWNT friendly at Camping World Stadium) would've left the same impression.
its not that bad of a location. Look to the west of the stadium... Million dollar houses with expensive boats docked behind them. These guys will have a shorter walk to the stadium than people taking the Metro Rail riders. The stadium is midway between Marlin's Park and the American Airlines Arena. My recollection was that the bad part of town was further north. I haven't been to that part of Miami since the Dolphins left the Orange Bowl. I doubt its changed much.
First, the short answer is yes, they make money. Do the math. Second, if you already have an existing team, a lot of those start up costs are already there: staff, scouting, perhaps academy. If you already have a suitable stadium, you do not need a billionaire.
My wife went to med school in Miami and left in 2015, so I was in Miami several months out of the year for a while, but haven't been back since. Anyhow, your description fits my recollection of the area at the time. Overtown is pretty bad. I remember driving through some streets that seemed like a 3rd-world country--trash piled up to head height on the sidewalks, cracked-out homeless dudes meandering along in the middle of the road, etc. But I do think the worst of it is north of the stadium location. When we left, that area around the stadium was gentrifying as fancy condo buildings went up along the river to the south and the building boom downtown pushed into there from the east. So, I'd imagine by now that that area around the stadium is decent...still a bit rough around the edges, but not requiring you to put your life at risk walking to/from the metro.
Update on Cincinnati stadium situation... https://www.cincinnati.com/story/op...ecision-must-positive-neighborhood/307568002/ MLS or not expected this month. Stadium TBD. Looks like Oakley or West End, maybe. Depending. Then there is Newport. And, last, but not least, UC offered a sale/leaseback for Nippert a while back. https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinn...pert-stadium-still-be-a-permanent-option.html
Looks to me like they are not quite there yet. Ditto Sac. Detroit would be a turf/dome/NFL little brother situation. Austin is not close. If I am MLS's shoes, I would kick the can.
Nashville shield in MLS banner now links to https://www.mls2nashville.com/ This site has existed all along, but MLS web team had just failed to link it properly.
I'm a bit late to this comment, but that's essentially what happened when Dell Loy Hansen bought full ownership of RSL from Dave Checketts. Checketts wanted to maintain his position, but the league wouldn't approve it.
Myself and many of my fellow Philly Union fans are hoping this will be the case with Jay Sugarman sooner rather then later....... The Union were already lagging behind the rest of the league, and with the new injections of investment in player recruiting that gap is becoming all that more difficult for them to overcome.
MLS learned a lesson awhile ago when they let a badly under capitilized owner have a team with Horowitz in Miami. They will never allow that to happen again. When trying to get a team owner wealth far out ranks any other requirement for the league. I remember I spoke with Ivan Grazitis back in the day when he was still working for MLS and he commented that even if you won the 500 million dollar powerball loterry you would still not have enough to be approved to buy a team. They want people who have the cash to last in case times get tough and also to invest to improve the league.
You could add Andrew Hauptman on the list, his wife/father in law have the money to bad they don't give Andrew any of it. http://www.yolandaslittleblackbook....len_bronfman_hauptman_brentwood_park_mansion/ For those who missed Yolanda’s last story, the Bronfman-Hauptmans are a low-profile but inordinately wealthy family who have long resided in Los Angeles. Our Mr. Hauptman is a Harvard MBA who was formerly a Universal Studios exec and is now the owner of the Chicago Fire, a Major League Soccer team. He is also the owner of Andell Entertainment, which has produced several big-screen feature films. However, it is Mr. Hauptman’s wife Ellen Bronfman Hauptman who has the real big bucks. This lady, y’all, is an heiress to the multi-billion dollar Seagram Company liquor fortune. Her father, Charles Bronfman, is a legit billionaire philanthropist (according to Forbes).
Income: ticket revenue, parking & concession revenue, merchandise revenue, stadium sponsor, jersey sponsor, other corporate sponsors, local tv/radio deals, league tv deal share, league merchandising deal share, sum share, expansion fee share, revenue from other events at stadium (tix, park, concessions, merch). Costs: player salaries, facility rents, travel & training, staff salaries, scouting costs, marketing, facility improvements. If you add up each list you will find that MLS teams are in the black pretty easily. No matter how the owners define team revenue.