Field of Schemes
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March 03, 2010

Dolphins drop stadium reno tax ... for now

The Miami Dolphins are setting aside their push for a hotel tax hike to fund $250 million in stadium renovations, saying they'll now move ahead with a bid for the 2014 Super Bowl without renovation plans in place. Which contradicts somewhat Dolphins lobbyist Ron Book's earlier pronouncement that "we have to have something to show the owners, to show what we are doing to keep the stadium in a position that they find acceptable" for a Super Bowl bid to work, but that's just the sort of thing that lobbyists say, right?

Notwithstanding today's Miami Herald headline ("Miami Dolphins drop push to raise taxes for stadium upgrades"), the team is very much not dropping its push for a hotel tax hike or some other kind of public stadium subsidy, just putting it off for a few months:

The team backed off a plan to support state legislation that would have allowed Miami-Dade County to increase hotel bed taxes to raise dollars for stadium improvements. But the team and host committee officials are examing other funding options.
"We're not dropping either the idea of stadium improvements or the concept of pursuing public funding," [Dolphins CEO Mike] Dee said. "What we're doing is slowing down the process to match the ongoing discussion with the community."
Dee estimated renovation plans could be unveiled later this year.

Presumably Dee is banking on the economy having perked up by then, but he probably shouldn't count on it.

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