Soccer stadium site gets airport’s clearance for takeoff

A bid to allow a soccer stadium, hotel and offices on the City of Miami’s former Melreese golf course got a kick ahead last week with the county Airports and Economic Development Committee’s unanimous OK.

The 25,000-seat stadium, the offices and the hotel aren’t cited in the legislation. It lists the only uses that could be banned in flight paths of Miami International Airport that cross Melreese, thereby legalizing the project.

An independent 750-room Miami Freedom Park Hotel is part of the project to replace the city’s only golf course. Developers with a 99-year lease vow to build offices, the stadium, a 4,600-car garage, a hotel due to open in April 2025 and more.

Commissioner Raquel Regalado cited that hotel as an economic threat to the county’s plans to profit from a hotel at the airport’s entrance, suggesting that Freedom Park Hotel’s room rates will be lower and it will be done earlier.

Though the legislation by Commissioner Keon Hardemon, the committee chairman, doesn’t mention Freedom Park, it surfaced as Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez asked how many of the 1,100 daily flights use the main runway, whose planes pass over Freedom Park, and how the change would affect airport operations.

Aviation Director Ralph Cutié replied there would be no impact because the Federal Aviation Administration has no requirements for that area, and soccer team “Inter Miami [said] they are committed to comply with all the FAA regulations.”

A 2021 66-page county-ordered report cited concerns over impacts to pilots and air traffic controllers from stadium lighting and glare; conflicts with helicopters, blimps, drones and banner-towing planes; impacts of construction cranes in flight paths; lasers and fireworks during stadium events; and impact to the communication and navigation facilities. A 2022 report said planned stadium height was above the county’s limit in the area.