Miami had always been a destination for major sports teams and fans, especially in the 21st century. Major teams like the Miami Dolphins, Miami Heat and Inter Miami, are some of the watched teams in the country. These teams bring in millions of tourists a year to the city, which boosts the economy.

 

In 2023, it was reported that over 27.2 million people travelled to the city of Miami to watch these sports events. This number increasing every year due to things like the arrival of Soccer icon Lionel Messi to Inter Miami, and the hosting of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix every year in May. At the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix in 2024, I got the opportunity to interview a Mclaren fan called Jacobo Aviles, Aviles Stated "F1 is one of the biggest sports in the world, so as a resident of Georgia, traveling here to see this spectacle was a no brainer". At the Grand Prix in 2024, there was a record attendance of 275,000 spectators, with over half of those being people traveling from all over the world.

 

This all amounts to the economic boost that tourism brings to the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County. According to FloridaPolitics.com, tourism generates nearly $30 Billion in overall impact to the county. However as time goes on, the spectacle that is Miami sports seems to be becoming too expensive for the average resident of Miami. Tickets of most sports games being in the hundreds when less then a decade ago you could find tickets for less than $100. This has brought backlash to these teams as they seem to raise their prices to bring in more money from the foreign crowds that come. In an interview with Ruben Rodriguez, a native to Miami for 14 years, he stated "When I first got here, tickets for a Heat game or a Dolphins game, were not as expensive as they are now, even when the Miami Heat had LeBron James and Dwayne Wade". The rapid increase of these prices, has locals worried if these games are even worth going to.