http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/...ve/12638105.htm

 

MARLINS STADIUM

 

Prospects dim for Marlins stadium deal

 

Miami-Dade Manager George Burgess said financing for a new Marlins stadium has stalled the deal. But a sales tax hike or building over the Orange Bowl could solve the problem, he said.

 

BY LESLEY CLARK AND CHARLES RABIN

lclark@herald.com

 

 

The prospects for a Florida Marlins baseball stadium next to the Orange Bowl appear bleak, according to an assessment by County Manager George Burgess.

 

Although he stopped short of putting the brakes on the proposal to build a retractable roof stadium, Burgess on Tuesday said the price tag has risen, the county can't cough up more money and the team seems uninterested in playing ball.

 

Acknowledging the county has ''exerted an enormous amount of effort,'' Burgess told commissioners he is "not optimistic regarding the future of the ballpark project at the Orange Bowl.''

 

The team does ''not seem willing to continue to work to find a way to resolve the issues and are reluctant to further expend money and resources on the project,'' Burgess wrote in a five-page memo.

 

Marlins officials declined comment on the memo. Burgess said he will continue to work with the team -- even as some commissioners began to call for an end to the talks.

 

''Sometimes at the point where it looks like you've exhausted all your options, the lights turn on,'' Burgess said.

 

One possible alternative: Asking voters to contribute through a sales-tax hike, a possibility Burgess acknowledged carries a ``clearly inherent risk.''

 

The hurdles are considerable. Since the team failed to secure a sales tax subsidy from the Legislature last spring, Burgess said, an ''already complex project'' has only become "more challenging and more expensive.''

 

The Marlins' planned 2008 opening for a new ballpark is impossible, he said, and the funding gap has ballooned from at least $30 million to as much as $100 million -- based on the Marlins' projected hike in construction costs and land purchases.

 

DIGGING DEEP

 

All is not lost, suggests Burgess. Among the options: Asking voters to pony up a half- or full-cent increase in the sales tax for one year.

 

But polls suggest voters are overwhelmingly opposed to giving public money to team owners and some politicians have been reluctant to ask voters to tax themselves.

 

Stadium booster Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who spent weeks in Tallahassee lobbying legislators for state money, said he backs putting the question to voters.

 

''It lets the public decide,'' said Diaz, who posed the referendum to the city commission two years ago.

 

But it would be up to the county commission to set a special election -- and pay for it. Commission Chair Joe Martinez said he would oppose calling for a special election that could cost the county an estimated $3 million. Without a special election, the measure could not appear before voters until November 2006.

 

''This just doesn't paint it very hopeful,'' Martinez said.

 

Other alternatives include razing the Orange Bowl and building a baseball stadium on the footprint the historic stadium now occupies. That would lower the cost because less land would be required, but city officials and the University of Miami Hurricanes -- who now play at the stadium -- have already balked at the suggestion.

 

''Over my dead body,'' said Miami City Commissioner Johnny Winton.

 

UP TO MARLINS

 

Diaz and Miami City Manager Joe Arriola, who said the entire project is on ''life support '' suggested it's up to the Marlins to make the next move: put up more money or scrap the retractable roof -- which Burgess said is a large part of the construction cost.

 

''The last five stadiums built don't have roofs,'' Diaz said. "Eleven of the last 15 don't have roofs. If a husband and wife can't afford a Mercedes, then they buy a Lexus or a Chevy.''

 

But Burgess said the Marlins remain wedded to the roof, which Major League Baseball has said is a necessity for play in rain-prone South Florida. But Burgess all but scolded the team's inflexibility on the issue, noting that it has consistently rejected a proposal to build a roof-ready park and add a roof at a later date.

 

ROOF OR BUST

 

He has also talked with the team about whittling down the gap through a new financing strategy and keeping the team at Dolphins Stadium -- the retrofitted football stadium where it now plays and where the team has won two World Series titles since 1997. That alternative, Burgess said, appears unlikely.

 

County Commissioner Katy Sorenson said it's time to pull the plug on the project.

 

"I think we've bent over backwards more than I want. And they don't want to give their share. So let's call it a day.''

 

 

Somebody has to make a move. If MLB wants this market so bad, Bud has to intervene on behalf of the team and get new investors or boot Loria/Samson out of the area, as it now appears that they don't have the scratch to make the difference.

this isn't good.

Unfortunately the Marlins are in a hatchet fght without a hatchet right now.

 

They can't comment, from a PR standpoint they are being pressured from every direction but until this thing plays itself out, they have to be silent. It must be frustrating as h*ll.

Is the hatchet money?

 

I heard the "life support" statement more than 100 times during this process. I'm turning a bit pesimistic on this, hope I'm wrong

 

The Marlins are playing with fire, and I think they already got the State and City going as far as they can and politically can go. So it is on the Marlins court now

You know, this shows a willingness by the area to keep the Marlins here in trying to secure this stadium, but ownership themselves don't seem to be too willing to give up more. MLB has to look at this and realize that the area is willing to contribute to getting a new stadium done and step into to see what else the Marlins can give in order to move the process along.

It's time for Loria to sell the team to the richer guy.

In America, the land of huge corporations, how the heck can we not find one to donate TONS of money just so we can name the stadium after them?

It's time for Loria to sell the team to the richer guy.

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I agree.

In America, the land of huge corporations, how the heck can we not find one to donate TONS of money just so we can name the stadium after them?

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Donate?

 

So another enterprise can make more money? :plain

The memo I saw on this issue was very interesting. Dade County holds the bonds on Dolphins Stadium and now both the Marlins and Dolphins must deal with Dade County before taking on loans with Bank of America. Burgess just dropped a huge bomb on the Dolphins.

 

Marlins Baseball at a renovated, baseball-friendly Dolphins Stadium with a fair lease may be in the future.

The memo I saw on this issue was very interesting. Dade County holds the bonds on Dolphins Stadium and now both the Marlins and Dolphins must deal with Dade County before taking on loans with Bank of America. Burgess just dropped a huge bomb on the Dolphins.

 

Marlins Baseball at a renovated, baseball-friendly Dolphins Stadium with a fair lease may be in the future.

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I don't like the idea

I personally don't like the idea of Loria selling to a "richer guy". If there's one thing we know about Loria is that he'll do whatever he possibly can to win. There's been teams with tons of money that have sucked. See New York Mets. Also the naming right to the stadium are already figured into the financial projections for the project. So don't count on additional funds there. It's a crappy situation all the way around and I hate Sorenson. Loria is committing more ownership funds than almost any owner ever has for a stadium (almost $200 Million). It's going to stretch his resources and it's a gamble whether or not people will support the team once he gets the stadium. And if the build it without the roof a lot of the reason for building it in the first place will be gone. Although further away, I think people will come from greater distances to a domed stadium because they will be certain that the game will be played instead of looking outsider and saying "it looks like it might rain." I guess they could build without the roof and add it later but I think Loria believes later will never come. Bottom line is the governor and the state senate screwed the pooch on this one. The fish were asking for a sales tax rebate and the fish won't generate any sales tax for Florida if they are in Nevada.

Loria is committing more ownership funds than almost any owner ever has for a stadium (almost $200 Million).

 

Yeah, but very little of it or none of it is upfront. That is the problem. The 200 million is being paid from revenues from the ballpark over 40 years.