Miami's proposal for a Formula One grand prix includes the suggestion of hosting the race on a Sunday morning in order to capitalise on a worldwide audience.
Earlier this month, Miami's City Commission approved plans to host a street race next year. That decision means the city and the event organisers, led by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, are now free to negotiate the terms of the deal, which will run from 2019 to 2028, with F1 management.
Details of the race itself are sketchy in places. A circuit layout has been circulated on social media, although ESPN understands this is a draft. The proposed circuit is also the subject of a dispute over the area of land around the AmericanAirlines Arena -- the home of the Miami Heat -- which may prompt alterations to the final layout.
Planners are keen for the circuit not to venture too far into downtown in order to prevent local opposition from business and homeowners associations, hence its current route across a bridge and around the port area.
If the grand prix does make it on to next year's calendar, it seems likely it will take place in October, ahead of the U.S. Grand Prix at Austin's Circuit of the Americas. F1 races have traditionally taken place in the early afternoon, although in recent years some, such as Singapore, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, have started in the evening so they can be conducted under floodlights.
According to Ken Russell, the city commissioner for the district set to host most of the current circuit, Miami is open to the prospect of going in the other direction to accommodate as many viewers as possible.
"The [planning] deck I received giving an intro to the race and what might be involved suggested a morning race because of the air time around the world, that if we had a morning race in Miami it would be an afternoon showing in Europe and a prime-time race in Asia," Russell told ESPN. "A morning race may not have as much of the nighttime visual excitement, but it's still a really impressive backdrop with the sky-line and such."
A morning race would also help avoid a clash with Sunday afternoon NFL games, as the season will be in full swing by mid-October. Ross' Dolphins play at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, north of the Biscayne Bay area where the race is currently slated for.
If the F1 race does make next year's calendar, it will kick off a big six months of sport for Miami -- in February 2020, that stadium will host the NFL's Super Bowl to crown the 2019 champion. The last time the city hosted that event was in 2010.