February 21, 2008
County passes Marlins stadium bill - kinda
And it's official: The Miami-Dade County commission has just voted 9-3 to approve the Florida Marlins' stadium plan, which would use about $360 million in public funding towards a $525 million stadium. With the Miami city commission having approved the plan earlier today, that should be the last piece of the puzzle for the Marlins' long-awaited stadium dreams...
...except that, as the Associated Press reports:
Several issues, including the particularly thorny matter of deciding if city or county police and fire departments will be patrolling the new facility, remain unresolved. An agreement on the police-fire staffing front must be struck within 30 days, or the plan - and maybe the Marlins franchise - would likely be doomed.
"This has to be resolved within 30 days ... so therefore, the inability to resolve this political issue kills baseball in South Florida," Major League Baseball president Bob DuPuy said. "That's the consequence."
Is it still an ultimatum when they make the same threat every year? Maybe it's a penultimatum.
I find it funny that as part of the deal, if it passes, is that they'll be forced to rename the team as the Miami Marlins. It doesn't quite roll of the tongue as the current name does.
Posted by jmauro on February 22, 2008 03:34 PM
There were actually several Miami Marlins minor-league teams over the years, before the city got a big-league franchise. (Satchel Paige pitched for one of them.) The MLB team only got tagged "Florida" because they wanted to appeal to fans in the rest of the state (this was pre-Devil Rays).
I wonder if most Miamians think of this renaming as a benefit, or if they'd rather just keep the old name. I sure can't see it doing much to help the city's profile - anyone who is aware of the Marlins at all knows they're in Miami.
Posted by Neil on February 22, 2008 03:42 PM
So we have the Marlins unhappy with their open air facilities and wanting taxpayers to pay for a domed stadium. Up north a hundred miles or so, the Tampa Bay Rays want their existing (and fairly new) domed stadium torn down so they can have an open air facility. Each of these deals is likely to end up costing taxpayers at least $500 million when all is said and done. But why not simply switch the teams? The Marlins could have the domed stadium they want and the Rays could have the open air stadium they want.
Posted by Ed on February 23, 2008 07:37 AM
Well at least they're not renamed the Miami Marlins of Palm Beach. Cause that would be just plain silly.
Posted by jmauro on February 24, 2008 01:49 PM