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Marlins Clear Last Political Hurdle to New Stadium

In a process that has seemingly taken decades, if not centuries, the Florida Marlins have won the last votes of public bodies needed to begin construction of a new baseball stadium on the site of the former Orange Bowl. Both the Miami City Commission and the Dade County Commission have approved the Marlins' financing plan for the construction of a $515 million baseball only, 37,000 seat, retractable roof stadium and $94 in adjacent parking lots.

The financing arrangement is typically complex. Both the city and county will be supplying funds through a bed tax on the hotel industry. The Marlins' contribution will be $155 million, including $35 million in rent and the team will cover all cost overruns. Interestingly, last year during earlier permutations of the never-ending negotiations over this stadium, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria offered to pay $212 million towards construction of the stadium. In addition, the team has agreed to change its name to Miami Marlins.

The location of the stadium is not without considerable controversy. The Orange Bowl site is close to Little Havana which would place it near the heart of Miami's Latino community, presumably a solid base of support for the team. However, many of the club's current season ticket holders in Broward and Palm Beach Counties have indicated, loudly, that they have no intention of going to games in a stadium located at the Orange Bowl, mostly for travel and traffic reasons.

Will the stadium be a boost to the Marlins? It will be a significant boost to the bottom line if the Marlins can spend just enough on its pitiful payroll to put people in the seats. However, if the team doesn't use the new revenues generated by the stadium to dramatically boost payroll and change the pattern of dumping young players just as they begin to hit their prime earning and performing years, the fans will desert the team and stadium in droves.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on March 25, 2009 (boomark / email).