San Antonio bid on hold

BY BARRY JACKSON AND MIKE PHILLIPS

bjackson@MiamiHerald.com

 

The Marlins informed San Antonio on Tuesday that it will be ''a few more weeks'' before the team and Major League Baseball decide whether to pursue more serious negotiations about moving the team there, Bexar County (San Antonio) Judge Nelson Wolff said Tuesday.

 

Wolff, the county's highest-ranking politician, said MLB and the Marlins want to analyze the ''stadium proposal, media market and economics of San Antonio'' before deciding whether to go forward.

 

''If it's a favorable conclusion, they will come down and talk to us [for a second time],'' Wolff said. ``It leaves me cautiously optimistic. They are taking it seriously.''

 

Bexar County has offered to ask voters to extend a hotel and car rental tax to cover $200 million of an open-air stadium that Wolff estimates will cost at least $300 million. The deadline for calling a November election would be early August. Before an election is called, Wolff would insist on negotiating a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Marlins.

 

Though MLB has given the Marlins permission to talk with San Antonio, it has not decided whether to allow the team to enter into an MOU with the county. BizJournal.com recently released a study expressing concerns about whether San Antonio, the nation's 38th-largest media market, could support a second professional team.

 

Wolff said if the issue is taken to voters, ''It would have to be done with the understanding'' the Marlins ''are coming.'' That could be tricky, because moving the team would take the approval of three-quarters of big-league owners.

 

''They're not going to negotiate this unless they really want to come here,'' Wolff said. ``That's why they're taking all this time.''

 

The Marlins have kept in contact with Hialeah officials, but no significant progress has been made toward building a retractable-roof stadium locally.

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/14100679.htm

Place it on hold and keep it on hold.

yeah...i see this as a good sign...that the marlins are like yeah...ummm...hold on a sec...we need to ask mommy if we can spend the night first

I find it a little odd that this news is released around the same time that DC officials annouce the stadium deal gets done up here and the plans are released to the public. Now all that remains is the team getting sold to whomever, which has been leaked that it will happen before opening day.

 

MLB is going to save baseball in S. Fla. You mark my words. They are just waiting to sell the Nats so they have the money to help us.

Maybe Loria will be the Nats and someone else buys the marlins[/dream]

is not on hold