In June, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava put forward a “GTA VI × MDC” marketing partnership with Rockstar Games with the aim of turning certain areas of the city into a real-life replica of Vice City from GTA 6, as reported by The Miamian in response to a public records request.
The scheme would involve giving thematic treatments to parts of Miami International Airport, PortMiami, Metrorail stations, Tropical Park, and other buildings owned by the county, using approved GTA 6 characters and visual references.
However, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz and the county’s judicial system have opposed the proposal, and the deal has not yet been formally agreed. The sheriff gave reasons based on the game’s criminal themes for opposing it.
Miami-Dade’s GTA 6 Tie-In Plan and Sheriff’s Objection
Last week, when a request for public records was made, it was found that the proposal comprised a number of themed installations on county land.
The Vice City Motor Fest event would bring together classic cars, custom vehicles, lowriders, motorcycles, tropical graphics, and local entertainment all in a supervised and family-friendly environment.
At Miami International Airport, an aircraft decorated with Vice City logos would act as the main feature, together with a baggage claim inspired by GTA 6, themed luggage carts, limited-edition luggage tags, and signage, so that passengers arriving there see messages saying “Welcome to Vice City”.
There was also a suggestion involving a visual display at a dockyard modelled on Port Gellhorn from GTA 6, the display to be made use of cargo containers, cranes, and cruise ships.
A “Vice City Radio Lab” would provide the community with access to equipment for recording, editing and working with digital media for the purposes of music production, podcasting, carrying out oral histories, sound engineering and the development of video games.
Further proposals consisted of Metromover cars covered with Vice City colours and logos, signage at important locations, and custom sewer or stormwater manhole covers.
Rosie Cordero-Stutz, the sheriff of Miami-Dade, has opposed the scheme. “Grand Theft Auto is a video game series based on criminal behaviour,” she said in a statement.
“The fictional world of the game involves murder, robbery, drug running, carjacking, violence directed at law enforcement, and other activities which are exactly the kinds of things that the men and women of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office work every day to prevent.”
Those comments were included in a news release put out by Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, a Republican who is seen as a possible candidate to take over as mayor after Cava in 2028.
The report also states that Cordero-Stutz and Cava are at the moment trying to win support from the County Commission for their competing funding proposals for the Sheriff’s Office in the county’s 2027 budget.
Court Objections and Unanswered Questions About the GTA 6 Deal
The judicial system in the county also requested that Cava not include the courts in any promotional crossovers for GTA 6. “We do not think that our courthouses should form part of a promotional campaign for a video game whose main themes involve criminal activity, violence, law enforcement pursuits and other fictional representations of crime,” Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo and Clerk Juan Fernandez-Barquin stated in a letter to the mayor.
The letter did admit that a deal would provide “significant” economic opportunities which could result in financial benefits for Miami-Dade County.
The marketing arrangement has not yet been officially agreed upon, and it is uncertain if Rockstar Games has replied to the proposal.
The objections arise in the context of a dispute over the budget between the sheriff and the mayor, thus providing a political background to the criticism.
It has not been decided whether the tie-in will go ahead and in what form it will take given the objections from the sheriff and the court; this involves local political issues, and the information given above relates only to the confirmed and attributable facts.
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