Soil isn’t the real MLS problem in Miami

Check your wallet, Miami taxpayers.

Yep, sports and politics are at it again. An environmental report involving the

David Beckham/ Jorge Mas soccer team and Melreese golf course is akin to the street hustler’s three-card carnie: The larger public tries to follow along, watching what they think really is the story, and will only realize in the end they’ve been following the wrong idea all along.

You’re already watching the wrong card here, folks.

The important card isn’t the arsenic and toxic waste in the soil, as spelled out in a report written by a consultant to the MLS team. True, the soil is being decried as surprisingly bad amid quotes of fear, trouble and danger.

And, well, let’s not make light what’s in the ground. It is bad, of course. It’s just not a surprise at all. Amid a lot of fear-mongering was this quote:

“The information in the report isn’t that much different than what we have

known about the site,” Lee Hefty, the director of Miami-Dade’s Division of Environmental Resources Management, told The Miami Herald.

Let this quote settle in for a moment. Again: There was no surprise in the report, according to the top local official on environmental issues. To repeat: It’s no different than what officials have known all along.

Why? Because the soil was studied two decades ago when Melreese underwent a major renovation, a source said. Everything known now was known back then and golfers have been playing on the site for years. The pollutants are deep enough that they don’t affect golfers, officials and environmentalists agreed then.

So what’s the big deal with this report? Well, follow the proper card here. Look what happened in the aftermath:

1. City Manager Emilio Gonzalez immediately closed Melreese golf course, citing further study needs to be done before golfers will be allowed back. With the golf course closed, there went a prime obstacle to the proposed stadium and major development on the land.

2. Also in the aftermath of this report, the big question became how to clean it up — a given, right? — and at what cost. That tackled the second prime obstacle: Public opinion. Fear runs rampant. Everyone agrees, it seems, the soil has to be cleaned up. Never mind that it only has to be cleaned up if you want to dig deep and develop massive structures.

3. Who do you think will pay the estimated $50 million (that’s conservative, a source said) to clean up the land? Well, this is another issue - though we’ll see where it goes as opposed to the first two. Mas has said he’s budgeted $35 million for a cleanup. Who pays the rest, assuming it costs that much more? Again, watch your wallets.

See, what’s painted as a problem is actually a wellplaced blessing for the soccer team. And it’s been strategically played by politicians, who see the benefit in backing power. We’ve been down this road before on the rip-off of Marlins Park (as I said several times in various columns). This isn’t just about money, though. It’s as much about changing the narrative on a public park so it can fit the idea of big development.

Broward and Palm Beach can chuckle along in watching what’s happening in Dade.

But keep your eye on the proper card. And it’s not the environmental report.