MIAMI (CelebrityAccess) — David Beckham’s proposed Major League Soccer stadium has run into legal shoals after a local attorney filed a lawsuit alleging that the City of Miami violated the state’s constitution when it offered certain privileges to the developers.
According to the Daily Business Review, attorney Douglas Muir claims the City of Miami skirted its own laws when it approved a referendum to lease a public golf course for the stadium without a competitive bidding process.
Muir also claimed that proposed amendments to the city charter and the resolutions authorizing a November 6th referendum asking voters to approve the lease are unconstitutional.
“The granting of special privileges to individual private entities by passage of special laws prohibited by the Florida Constitution is an unconstitutional practice which the city should not be wasting taxpayer money defending in court,” Muir wrote in a letter to the city, per the DBR.
Miami Freedom Park, the developers of the proposed stadium, successfully intervened as a defendant in the suit. The developers are represented by Shubin & Bass.
Attorneys for Miami Freedom Park argued that Muir has no standing to sue because he has not demonstrated any special injury which would qualify him as a plaintiff.
They also claim that Muir’s assessment of the City Charter is inaccurate, noting that the section Muir cited in his suit deals with the city procuring private contracts for services, not city leases.
“This is a good time to highlight the irony of Muir’s complaint,” attorneys for Miami Freedom Park argued, according to DBF. “He alleges that the city is depriving the public from a legal right to competitive bidding … yet at the same time he seeks to deprive the public from the right to vote on the proposed charter amendment.”
The suit comes just weeks after the City Commission voted 3-2 to hold a referendum in November asking voters to approve the plan to rent the property for $3.5 million a year to Miami Freedom Park LLC,
Miami Freedom Park is a consortium of investors led by David Beckham, and include brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, who operate the Coral Gables-based engineering firm MasTec Inc.
The developers are seeking to build a 25,000-seat stadium, as well as a tech hub, retail, and entertainment venues and public soccer fields.
