Real Miami goes Vice City: Miami-Dade signs a $3.9 million GTA VI promo deal for the airport, port and traffic boxes

News · October 31, 2026 · Official, via Miami-Dade County

What happened: on October 28, 2026, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced a marketing and advertising package valued at $3.9 million tied to the release of Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19. Vice City, the game's big city, is a fictional take on Miami, so the real one is getting dressed up for launch.

What's coming to Miami-Dade

Miami International Airport (MIA): themed lighting, and promotional displays on the walkways that connect the airport parking garages to the terminals. The Miami Herald says the light installation is in the Central Garden courtyard outside Terminal E, in blue and pink.
PortMiami: themed lighting. Per the Herald, the port's huge cranes will be lit in GTA colors.
Traffic signal boxes: decorative game-themed wraps on selected cabinets around the county.
The "Welcome to Vice City" rooftop display on the county-owned Kaseya Center is part of an earlier $975,000 deal, which counts toward the $3.9 million.

The fine print

The package is an agreement between the county and Rockstar Games, plus separate ad purchases through the companies that sell ad space at MIA and on the county's transportation system.
Rockstar covers the cost of installing, maintaining and removing everything. The designs still need county approval under its content guidelines.
The county says the Kaseya Center money goes toward a long-awaited public park at Dan Paul Plaza, behind the arena. WLRN says that project has been stuck for more than 30 years.
The cities of Miami and Miami Beach have their own deals, including temporary banners in Downtown Miami and ads on beach concession equipment in Miami Beach, per the county.
Not everyone is a fan: WLRN and the Herald report that the county sheriff and some commissioners criticized the partnership because of the game's violence, and some commissioners objected that it didn't go to a full commission vote.

What it means for you

Flying into Miami or taking a cruise in the next few weeks? Look out for the pink-and-blue Vice City lighting. Neither the county nor WLRN has said exactly when each piece goes up or how long it stays.
The game itself is unchanged: November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with digital pre-load from November 10 (moved up from Nov 12 on Nov 3), per Rockstar.

Want to know how the in-game city lines up with the real one? Our Leonida and Vice City map guide.

Correction (Nov 4, 2026): Rockstar moved digital pre-load to November 10 (PS5 at midnight local time; Xbox from 7 p.m. ET on Nov 9). Download up to 212 GB. Boxed copies with a download code still arrive Nov 12. See our Nov 3 news post.

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