The Miami Arena will hopefully close sale on Thursday. That means the county and city can officially sign a deal in the clear.

 

The issues of the lein/letter of credit, the state tax rebate and land still have to be resolved.

 

The lein/letter of credit and land buyout plans should be done soon.

 

The State Tax Rebate must wait until March when the session is back in. My local representative expects to be there in March, but is not able to go for the special session coming up for health reasons. In fact, many won't be able to make it up for the session.

 

So March is the earliest and we have until the close of business in July to get this done.

 

The city/county deal has to be signed however. Then the state will follow. The State Legislature has changed tremendously since one year ago and they are much more receptive to the Marlins and Magic looking for tax rebate-based incentives to build better facilities.

 

Here are the major sports projects for Florida:

1) Marlins ballpark

2) Magic arena

3) Orange Bowl renovation

4) Citrus Bowl renovation

 

Everyone in the state has interests in getting it done, the leverage of this balance of needs will give us an advatage in SoFla we NEVER had before.

i just hope the stadium deal gets done asap

I get impatient sometimes, then I think of the people negotiating this deal on the Dade County side. This is the difference between them keeping their jobs or not. If this is not done, they will get fired....this is their pet project.

 

That is EXTRA motivation. Same goes for State Legislators who have it in their power to make a reasonable rebate available for 2 teams that have been successful and in need of new facilities for a while now.

 

We all need to be patient and keep dreaming of the greatness that could be. WE CAN DO THIS!

BTW, this is just a coincidence...but the County Manager's office has a Zito cousin (that's right, she is married to Barry Zito's cousin) in the e-government side.

should we expect delay in March when the state government starts its session?

should we expect delay in March when the state government starts its session?

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Bill gets introduced in March at earliest....I would put May as the time to look for a serious bill vote...it could always be rushed....but they are slow in Tallytown.

 

Miami....Eastern Time

Tallahassee....Central Time

Both parties seem to have most of their members looking to support this bill.

As we get closer to March, I hope to start a massive campaign to email congressmen and list everyone here along with their intended vote.

 

We shall start soon enough...but before Tally comes Miami.