A Florida, in the United States, is one of the most popular destinations for Brazilian travelers. According to research by the Kayak platform for 2023, Orlando It is Miami They are on the podium of the most searched cities, alongside Lisbon. Orlando is home to the parks of Disneywhile Miami, known for its beaches and water attractions, stands out for its involvement with the world of sportshosting competitions of different modalities, such as Formula 1, tennis It is UFCand becoming the home of stars, like Lionel Messi It is Jimmy Butler.
In football, businessmen with Cuban family origins, Jorge and José Mas, in partnership with former player David Beckham, made Inter Miami one of the football powerhouses in the United States. All thanks to the signings of sports stars. The world champion with the Argentine national team, Messi, was followed by former Barcelona teammates and today leads a constellation, formed by Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. Soon, Ángel Di María could be the next to join the group. The next step is the construction of the new stadium for the team.
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Jorge Mas’s fortune, according to the magazine Forbes, is estimated at US$1.8 billion, approximately R$9.1 billion. His father, Jorge Mas Canosa, went into exile in the United States after opposing Commander Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba. Died in 1997 due to lung cancer, Canosa played an important role in the articulation of American movements against his native country and became an important businessman in the engineering, infrastructure, energy and communications sectors.
In basketball, the Miami Heat is owned by billionaire (fortune of US$ 7.8 billion, R$ 40 billion) in the cruise line business Micky Arison. Eliminated by the Boston Celtics in the quarterfinals of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs, the franchise has high-level players, the main one being Jimmy Butler, who is a friend of Neymar. Bam Adebayo, Nikola Jović and Tyler Herro also stand out.
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Sports complex in Miami Gardens
In Miami Gardens, a city neighboring Miami, Florida’s major sports center is built around the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, an American football team that competes in the NFL. This complex and the franchise belong to construction businessman Stephen M. Ross, whose fortune is estimated at US$10.1 billion (R$51 billion). The venue hosts the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix and the Miami Tennis Open. The stadium has already been chosen to host the 2024 Copa América football final – which takes place between June 20 and July 14 -, in addition to the third place decision for the 2026 World Cup, including, obviously, other games from the other phases of these competitions.
“Several factors explain why Miami has become a sports hub. The climate helps a lot. as there are almost eight months of sunny days and mild temperatures in the city. The sports facilities are modern and well equipped. Miami grew a lot after the pandemic, as it benefited from the decentralization caused by the global crisis at the time. The city stands out as the Dubai of the Western Hemisphere, attracting people, mainly Latin American and ultra-rich businesspeople from around the world, in search of sun, luxury, lifestyle and lower taxes”, says Daniel Ickowicz, director of Elite International Realty, international real estate consultancy.
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Hosting Formula 1 in Miami required a lot of negotiation with residents, who were concerned about the category’s impacts on traffic, noise pollution and how this could even affect the classes of young people and children in the city. In contrast, the 2023 GP, according to the event’s organizers, generated US$449 million in the local economy, approximately R$2.3 billion. For comparison purposes, in São Paulo, the race in Interlagos generated an impact of R$1.64 billion last year.
“There is an increase in acceptance by the population, especially when they realize that these events directly impact the local economy and investors. As last year was only the second edition of the GP in the city, it is normal for some problems, mainly logistical, to occur and diminish with each event, year after year”, points out Ickowicz, who also points to the Latino community as a factor crucial for the region’s sporting development. According to the most recent data from 2020, 26.5% of Florida’s population is Hispanic.
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“Many successful Latin American businesspeople have recently moved to Miami and many more are expected to arrive. This migration directly impacts not only the local economy as a whole, but also sports in the region, as the Latin people are a public that enjoys and consumes sports a lot”, says Ickowicz.
What impacts do sporting events have on a city?
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Important sporting events, such as Formula 1 and a World Cup, force the city to undergo structural adaptation, which drives the hotel, food, transport and entertainment sectors. These spheres are fundamental to making a city a tourist and commercial destination.
“Miami is a good example of how a public-private partnership strategy can make sport a tool for urban development and business multiplication. It was these partnerships that enabled the construction of cutting-edge facilities, the organization of major events and the multiplication of outdoor activities, promoting the city as a tourist destination and consolidating its association with healthy lifestyles”, analyzes Joaquim Lo Prete, country manager from Absolut Sport in Brazil, a sports experience agency.
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The city of São Paulo, for example, has an ambitious plan to become the main sports hub in Latin America. Candidate to host the 2031 Pan American Games, the capital of São Paulo will host the first NFL game in the country on September 6th. At the Neo Química Arena, the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers will face each other. The city also hopes to host an NBA game soon. São Paulo is already the only one in the world to host the three main FIA motorsport events: Formula 1, Formula E and World Endurance Championship (WEC).
However, any city in the country is far from experiencing the reality of Miami, according to Thiago Freitas, COO of Roc Nation Sports in Brazil, an entertainment company run by singer Jay-Z. “What happens there depends on several aspects inherent to an open economy, encouraging entrepreneurship and valuing the most qualified and dedicated people. Brazil represents the opposite of all this. We will not have, for at least two decades, any possibility of replicating its success.”
“For a city to become an international hub for sports, arts, and events related to these, it is necessary, first of all, to be an attractive city for immigrants, for the flow of people and ideas, to be a city that makes people of different nationalities want to live there, and no city in Brazil is that interesting, not even São Paulo”, adds Freitas. “Our cities are unsafe, expensive – due to the limited supply of services, resulting from high taxes and charges – and three quarters of our population is unable to keep up with the pace of innovation in the world”.
