Months before the Miami Downtown Development Authority approved a controversial $100,000 gift to the UFC, an organization worth around $12 billion, the agency — funded through a special taxing district of downtown, Brickell and Edgewater property owners — gave more than four times as much to one of the wealthiest sports franchises in the world.
Last December, the DDA voted to give $450,000 — or $150,000 a year for three consecutive years — to FC Barcelona, a global brand that is valued at $5.6 billion, according to Forbes, to support moving their U.S. office from New York to Miami.
But they’re not done. On Tuesday, the DDA’s Economic Development Committee will consider giving $175,000 to the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship host committee. That makes a total of $725,000 in gifts to sports entities in just the last five months.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
Proponents will say that the these funds are incentives to bring these events here. That the economic impact they are a huge return on investment and that Miami’s image continues to be broadcast to the world as an iconic location for events. The UFC 
Village on Flager, for instance, drew thousands of people downtown that might not otherwise have gone there. And so what that one of the events organized was at a downtown spot owned by one of the board members? It’s just a coincidence.
The college national championship is expected to have at least a $275 million impact on the community. But it is sponsored already by huge billion dollar corporations like Nike, Amazon, Royal Caribbean and AT&T. Why does it need $175K that can be better spent elsewhere?
Plus, it will already be here. It was announced last month that the title game would be played at the Hard Rock Stadium.
“They’re already coming here. They already have the hotels booked,” said James Torres, the president of the Downtown Neighbors Association, who has been pressing to adjust or eliminate the DDA for month, citing bloated salaries and these “incentive” grants that he says are bogus.
“We are not the Greater Miami Visitors and Convention Bureau,” Torres told Political Cortadito. He calls it “another slap in the face.”
He said the money should be spent on the real issues that face downtown daily — the garbage on the street, the homelessness, the street lights that need repair. “They are supposed to combat blight,” he said of the DDA.
Torres, who ran unsuccessfully or commission in district 2, has asked to be given more than three minutes at the next commission meeting so he can make his presentation for removing homeowners from the taxing district to make the DDA more like a business improvement district — currently, residential property owners pay 58% of the annual $13.5 million budget — or eliminating it altogether. He has proposed putting a question on the ballot in November to let voters decide if it should be changed or dissolved.
“Downtown Miami families are being crushed by rising crime, a worsening condo crisis, homelessness, and double taxation,” Torres wrote in a letter to Mayor Francis Suarez earlier this month, before he even learned about the college championship check the DDA might be writing this week.
“This is not economic development. It is exploitation — not by the brands themselves, but by the DDA, which continues to operate as a taxpayer-funded slush fund, ignoring the needs of the people it taxes,” Torres wrote. “FC Barcelona is not a struggling local business or a neighborhood nonprofit organization. It is a multi-billion-dollar entertainment empire. And yet, while residents walk past graffiti-covered sidewalks, homeless encampments, and shuttered storefronts, City officials have joined the DDA in celebrating this latest handout — as if it were some major community victory. It is not.
“Mayor Suarez, you do not pay into the DDA taxing district, yet you’ve aligned yourself with the PR fanfare while remaining silent as Downtown residents plead for fairness. To your credit, you have worked hard to elevate Miami’s global profile — Ultra, Formula One, international marathons, and much more. That work has helped position our city as a world-class destination,” he continued.
“But here is the truth: Miami doesn’t need to buy prestige. Global brands want to be here.
Read related: Miami DDA gives UFC $100K for event, despite protest from downtowners
“We should not be paying them to show up — especially not with money taken from residents who are already stretched thin in the very neighborhoods being exploited,” he added.
Torres told Political Cortadito that the burden adds to an already crushing condo crisis. His own building has had a $21 million 
assessment. His piece of that is about $12,000, he says. The DDA already takes about $1,200 of his annual tax bill, he said.
Ernesto Cuesta, the longtime president of the Brickell Homeowners Association, has also asked for Brickell to be taken 0ut of the DDA taxing boundaries. He says the DDA stands for “Don’t Do Anything” for Brickell.
Both men were interviewed in a segment last week for CBS4 News — and that was before they learned of the college football championship giveaway that will be considered Tuesday. But it was within days of the announcement that FC Barcelona would be relocating here “with the support” of the DDA and Mayor Suarez attended the celebration.
In his letter, Torres asks Suarez to support putting the DDA’s future on the November ballot. “So the broader community can decide whether this agency still has a place in our city. Every day you remain silent is another day our communities are forced to fund a system they didn’t ask for, cannot afford, and no longer believe in.
“How much longer will you allow Downtown and Brickell residents to be held hostage by a bloated bureaucracy that continues to put image over impact?”
The DDA Economic Development Committee meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. and can be viewed via zoom here.
Ka-ching! Miami DDA is doling out more checks to billionaire companies added by Ladra on
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