The mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos Giménez, conditioned the agreement for the transfer of the Open tennis from Miami to the Hard Rock Stadium, for the tournament to pay off the debts it claims to have with the local administration, its spokesman, Mike Hernández, informed Efe today.
The agreement between the county and the tournament tennis of Miami signed last week turned upside down this Tuesday after local authorities modified the conditions of the pact after learning of the existence of an audit that points to the existence of a debt greater than expected.
«The mayor did not know that there was another audit. It is very likely that they owe much more. He does not want them to pay more than what they owe, but what they owe, “said Hernández.
Those responsible for the tournament opposed the mayor’s new proposal, which proposes that an independent third party determine the amount to be paid.
The tournament refers to the agreement signed with Miami-Dade County on November 29, in which they promised to pay 1.3 million euros to move the competition from its emblematic location in Key Biscayne to the Hard Rock. , where the Miami Dolphins football team plays.
The agreement was waiting for the Miami-Dade county commissioners to approve it, and they did so this Tuesday with ten votes in favor and two against.
However, the county’s last-minute deal change puts the future of the Miami Open in an uncertain situation, as Wendy Elkin, vice president of the company that runs the tournament, IMG, told commissioners on Tuesday that the evidence is now at “grave risk of leaving Miami.”
IMG has already expressed in the past its intention to leave Miami, with whom it has signed a contract until 2023, if a new location in the area was not achieved that would allow the facilities to be expanded to the level of a Master 1,000 of the ATP circuit and Premier Mandatory of the WTA.
However, Hernández said that the mayor of Miami-Dade is “very optimistic” about the future of the tournament in Miami, since he does not see any other legal solution than the payment of the debt, because to undo the current contract, the tournament would have to pay about a million dollars a year until 2023.
Likewise, Hernández accused the tournament of knowing of the existence of this audit that would reveal new debts, an amount that could reach an extra million dollars to the 1.3 million already foreseen in the agreement.
This agreement was also signed by the owner of the stadium of the local soccer team, Stephen Ross, who is willing to invest 53 million dollars in facilities to host the event starting in 2019. EFE