Payouts lined up to host World Cup, NASCAR mega-events

Miami-Dade is looking ahead to two of next year’s premier sports events, the FIFA World Cup 2026 soccer matches and the NASCAR Championship Weekend, with eyes on how much the county could have to spend to host these big-money, high-profile spectacles.

Last week, commissioners voted to increase their World Cup payout for matches already coming here in 2026 while they were also asked to commit to talks with NASCAR about funding if the Homestead Motor Speedway is chosen for its annual event.

Interwoven with talks about added sports aid is recognition that the county is facing budget shortfalls after years of inflated post-covid spending fueled by federal funds. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has asked departments to budget for potential 10% cuts. Financial support to sporting events could further deplete county funds.

At the end of last week’s meeting, Kionne McGhee asked fellow commissioners to commit to a future conversation with NASCAR about “providing in-kind services from county departments or legally available tourist development taxes or convention development taxes” to bring the annual Championship Weekend to Homestead next year. A site is not yet chosen. This year’s three-day event is in Phoenix, with the championship car race on Nov. 2.

“We’re just trying to get NASCAR to bring its Championship Weekend to Miami-Dade County, specifically down in the South Dade district,” said Mr. McGhee, who represents that area.

The request, which passed, brought a caution from Commissioner Oliver Gilbert III, who supported the offer.

“Before we do these things,” Mr. Gilbert said, “understand that the county is the backstop for these things. We should be. There’ll be an influx of revenue that we weren’t anticipating. But the board before us – they’re the people who made the decisions on the World Cup and stuff – but in the real world, the county is the backstop for these things.”

The backstop position was brought home during the meeting as the commission by preliminary vote agreed to add $10.5 million to next year’s World Cup support, to which the county had already committed $10.5 million cash plus in-kind services of the type that Mr. McGhee is seeking for NASCAR.

“When we say in-kind services,” Mr. Gilbert said, “the in-kind services we’re talking about is police and fire, and so we’re in a position now with the sheriff [whose office just became independent of the mayor and commission] where we can’t just in-kind. We have to write a check to the sheriff for that.”

“We’ll get a lot more than we spend” from NASCAR, Mr. Gilbert said, “but we just need eyes open on this.”

With eyes on that in-kind services bill coming due, commissioners also unanimously backed a call by Eileen Higgins urging Congress to appropriate $625 million to the 12 US communities that will host FIFA World Cup matches next June 11 to July 19, including of course Miami. If divided equally, that would be $52 million per community to pay in-kind bills. The county’s currently planned in-kind World Cup spending is $25 million.

“While I recognize the significant positive impact this event will have on our county,” Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins wrote to constituents after last week’s preliminary vote to add to World Cup funding, “I continue to have concerns about the potentially negative fiscal impact a $21 million contribution will have on our budget…. I am not confident that we can afford this expenditure.”