Mayor reaches $42M deal with Miami Heat

A deal between Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Miami Heat owner Micky Arison would give the team $42 million in subsidies to play at the AmericanAirlines Arena for an additional five years. The deal also ends a profit-sharing arrangement in favor of $23 million in payments to Miami-Dade’s parks department.

The county will continue to profit from the arena’s naming-rights agreement once the current deal with American Airlines expires in 2020.

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Arison was hoping for a 10-year extension through 2040, but Gimenez worried that the higher subsidies over that length of time would cut into hotel taxes. Miami-Dade’s current $6.4 million subsidy to the Heat will increase by $2 million a year between 2031 and 2035. [Miami Herald]Christopher Cameron