While Miami's governments argue over Grand Theft Auto VI branding, the private sector just went ahead and did it. A giant GTA 6 Vice City sign is going up on the roof of the Kaseya Center, the downtown arena home to the National Basketball Association team, Miami Heat. By the looks of it, installation is already underway.
Local journalist Francisco Alvarado first reported that Basketball Properties, the Miami Heat affiliate that runs the arena, was finishing a deal with Rockstar Games and Miami-Dade County for the rooftop sign. A day later, a bystander named Ryan Rea posted photos of workers prepping the lettering materials, saying crews were getting ready to install it and offered to livestream the whole thing.
Just to clarify, this isn't a government deal. The Miami Beach vote and the City of Miami banner ordinance are public actions that require the approval of select officials. Instead, this is a private commercial arrangement between two entities, particularly the arena's operator and Take-Two Interactive. The only involvement the county has here is in issuing a permit. As soon as that's signed and a deal between both parties are in place, this is good to go.
GTA 6 Marketing in Miami
Track | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
Kaseya Center | A giant rooftop GTA 6 Vice City sign | Installation reportedly underway |
Miami Beach | Branding on private beach chairs and umbrellas | A 4-3 vote to negotiate |
City of Miami | Downtown banners in an "Event Area" | Ordinance introduced, not adopted |
Miami-Dade County | A full airport-and-transit takeover | Talks only, facing opposition |
The private arena deal is the first of the four with anything physically going up.
At the moment, the public efforts, the beach chairs, the downtown banners and the county's grand airport takeover, are tangled in politics, optics and opposition. All the while, the private one, a company paying an arena to hang a sign on its own building, needed none of that. It just needed a check to clear, which may be how a lot of Rockstar's launch marketing is going to reach Miami. The debating councils are the ones who make the most noise, while Rockstar and Take-Two strike similar advertisement deals quietly and privately, putting to good use its unlimited resources.
Based on how fast things are progressing, it's safe to say that the first real, physical piece of Miami's Vice City makeover will be a sign on a basketball arena, going up two months before GTA 6 launches.
So the first real, physical piece of Miami's Vice City makeover is not a neon airport or a wrapped train. It is a sign on a basketball arena, going up any moment now.