March 24, 2005

When threats collide

That Wayne Huizenga sure knows how to ruin a good pity party. No sooner had Florida state legislators started buying the Marlins' claims that they need a new stadium because they're getting evicted in 2010 than their landlord Huizenga started backing off from that threat. "Let's say for some reason or another they didn't get their thing done and they wanted to stay," Huizenga told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "OK, fine. That's not the end of the world as long as we can make the improvements we need to make and work out some of the issues." I haven't seen any public response from Marlins execs yet, but they can't be too thrilled to have their best threat card pulled out from under them at a key moment for their stadium-subsidy bill.

Meanwhile, Huizenga is also pushing for the NFL to approve a plan for him to turn the area around Dolphins Stadium into what he calls a "Supersite," with amenities that would let the league stage even more events during Super Bowl week, bringing in even more revenue. To do so, however, he'd want to be named a regular Super Bowl site - say, every three years - which would put a crimp in promises being made to other cities that if they build new stadiums, the big game will come. (The NFL, as expected, voted this week to grant the 2010 Super Bowl to New York if the city builds a new Jets stadium by then, and cities from San Diego to Indianapolis have been offered similar carrots.) At this rate, they're going to need to play two Super Bowls a year just to keep up.