May 06, 2005
Stick a fork in it
The Florida Marlins stadium-subsidy bill is dead, according to state senate president Tom Lee. (Who would know, since it's his chamber that has yet to vote on it.) "This bill just didn't have the support of the Florida Senate," declared Lee as the legislative session entered its final day. "It will not pass."
With the state once again declining to kick in $30 million in sales-tax rebates for the stadium, it's likely to be back to the drawing board for the Marlins and their political allies. On the one hand, $30 million doesn't seem like a huge hurdle for a $420 million stadium (the team and city and county have agreed to roughly go halfsies on the rest). On the other, that was the case last year, too, and nobody came running up in the 12 months since to offer to fill in the gap.
"The Marlins are going to be in Miami one way or another," Miami Mayor Manny Diaz told the Miami Herald yesterday. "If our state representatives can't see the big picture, then we'll have to do things on our own." What, and give up show business?
—Neil deMause
you gotta wonder if a new baseball stadium makes sense why MLB doesn't loan out the difference (like the NFL seems to do)? Or are they looking to get this tax free for years and years to come? I'm not quite sure how ~10% of the funding is stopping this project unless it's about more than just the construction money?
Posted by swedcrip on May 6, 2005 08:04 PM