April 22, 2010

Miami audit threatens Marlins stadium opening

Whuh-oh. The Florida Marlins' new stadium — or at least its parking garages — might not be ready for opening day 2012 as planned, as an SEC audit of the city's books could delay a planned May bond sale for the garages:

On the hook for $75 million worth of parking sites around the new Little Havana landmark -- a mixture of garages and surface lots totaling just under 6,000 spaces -- the city hoped to sell bonds by May 10.

Now the city is looking at May 24, at the earliest.

If the new stadium isn't ready, presumably the Marlins could play some games at their old home stadium (I honestly couldn't remember what it's officially called this week), or run shuttle buses, or something. Or MLB could just schedule the team for a long road trip the start of April, just in case.

Meanwhile, the Miami Herald notes that the Marlins will ultimately pay off the garage bonds by buying almost all of the parking spaces for $10 a pop, though it notes that this "could be a boon to the ballclub," which could "resell the spaces for any price the team wishes for its 81 home games, playoffs or events outside the season." Of course, that also means the Marlins take on the risk that nobody comes to the games — but that could never happen.