January 10, 200422 yr i have some info that leads me to think this is about a battle between the city of miami and miami dade county. the city of miami has no $$$$. this came out a couple of weeks ago. the plan announced after the world series was based on the city giving the land (the old arena). The city said no go because there were significant additional costs ( moving train tracks and land condemnation.) A NEW SITE WILL BE BROUGHT TO THE MARLINS NEXT WEEK BY THE COUNTY WHICH IS OUT OF THE CITY OF MIAMI'S CONTROL. THIS SITE WOULD BE AWESOME EXCEPT FOR ACCESS. the bottom line here is the city of miami is trying to drive things without any money. remember the golden rule. btw, i wonder how stupid arriola thinks the public is? he consistantly says the marlins have no money. true but nobody ever thought the marlins would write a check. loria will be writing a check or borrowing the money personaly. i am sure arriola did not see loria's personal financial statement.
January 10, 200422 yr A NEW SITE WILL BE BROUGHT TO THE MARLINS NEXT WEEK BY THE COUNTY WHICH IS OUT OF THE CITY OF MIAMI'S CONTROL. THIS SITE WOULD BE AWESOME EXCEPT FOR ACCESS. how do you know?
January 10, 200422 yr I can not reveal how i know or much more details. Someone very high up at the county will bring a proposal to the team next week. ( as a side note you can see the city and county are bringing seperate plans to the team.) This site is awesome and has never been mentioned before in public. Access to the site is the biggest problem. The county plans on using the transportation bond money to bring metrorail right to the stadium.
January 10, 200422 yr for some reason, i am incredibly compelled to believe you. thank you for this info!! i know you can't divulge more, but i'm hoping the location is accessible by the broward folks, too.
January 10, 200422 yr What location could there be that we didn't mention? Pace Park? Miami River? Miami Arena? This site is awesome? Yeah alkezoid, I feel like believing him.
January 10, 200422 yr Access is the key to this site. If the site ever becomes public you and everyone else will be kicking themselves at how good a site it is even though nobody thought of it. The access issue may make it dead in the water. It is not any further from broward than the other sites recently mentioned but access is an issue.
January 10, 200422 yr What location could there be that we didn't mention? Pace Park? Miami River? Miami Arena? This site is awesome? Yeah alkezoid, I feel like believing him. The site won't be on the city of Miami
January 10, 200422 yr Access is the key to this site. If the site ever becomes public you and everyone else will be kicking themselves at how good a site it is even though nobody thought of it. The access issue may make it dead in the water. It is not any further from broward than the other sites recently mentioned but access is an issue. After listening to all the garbage from the city of Miami, I hope this is true!
January 10, 200422 yr Having some time on my hands the other day I was using the Miami-Dade property appraiser database to scan the county for sites north of the city of Miami. There's a huge park, just south of PPS and right off the Turnpike that I thought was promising. If I remember its around 183rd street. The point is if I could find this one just noodling around there has to be many more. I hope the county can come up with one that's better than the OB. I still favor the eastern most satellite lot at PPS, between Dan marino dr and the Florida Turnpike. With it's access to 95 and the Turnpike its a natural.
January 10, 200422 yr i initially thought it would be something out west b/c he mentioned access problems. but the "awesome" business had me thinking it has to be something next to the water. now that would be quite awesome.
January 10, 200422 yr The battle has just begun I hope the County comes up with the winning proposal. Too many problems with the OB site. The City doesn't have any money to renovate the OB, and are counting on the Marlins to push a plan through for them. It occurs to me that the City of Miami is only trying to find a way to capture the $73M in bed taxes from the County to help fund the OB restoration. Clearly they are not proposing a solution that meets the Marlins needs.
January 10, 200422 yr i initially thought it would be something out west b/c he mentioned access problems. but the "awesome" business had me thinking it has to be something next to the water. now that would be quite awesome. Exactly! He meant "awesome" and if you think the fairground or Hialeah or PPS parking lot is awesome, you're living in a Spider Hole!
January 10, 200422 yr Two guesses: 1. Right in the Carol City vicinity (perhaps it doesn't pass the "awesome" test) 2. North Miami Beach or somewhere just outside
January 10, 200422 yr The battle has just begun I hope the County comes up with the winning proposal. Too many problems with the OB site. The City doesn't have any money to renovate the OB, and are counting on the Marlins to push a plan through for them. It occurs to me that the City of Miami is only trying to find a way to capture the $73M in bed taxes from the County to help fund the OB restoration. Clearly they are not proposing a solution that meets the Marlins needs. Right on, screw the City of Miami "if we built it will you come" crew and find an alternate location outside the city. I was on board with the Dual stadium, but after reading what Ariola said on the Hank show, I have changed my mind.
January 10, 200422 yr I thought the three most illuminating things from the city manager's interview on QAM were: 1. Arriola pegged the cost of a retractable roof at $150 million. 2. A stationary roof at $50 million (which Hank seemed to fixate on for a minute). Of course neither mentioned that with a stationary roof you have use artificial turf. (ugh) 3. The city manager appeared (at least to me) to be going through the motions with Hank. I have doubts about how serious they are about this project or they already know it won't fly with the Fish. He admitted he had shown it to the Marlins and the impression I got from his tone that they were less than receptive.
January 10, 200422 yr There is the idea of an umbrella type of roof. An open aired stadium with a top that is like an umbrella/curtain. No air conditioning. I am not sure how feasable it is, but the cost would be less than $150 million.
January 10, 200422 yr Arriola also was somewhat defensive when one caller challenged him stating not having a retractable roof was a deal breaker. Arriola contended that in his discussions with the Marlins the roof was not a roadblock. Who's to say? I would tend to agree with Arriola on this point, as I have a tough time seeing how the benefit of the retractable roof would justify the $150M investment. While a retractable roof would be great, the payback has got to be marginal, and thus couldn't be a deal breaker. Arriola did not support the fixed roof idea, because "that is not the direction MLB is going"....which could imply the need to stay away from artificial turf....at least that's what I read into it. But the bottom line is that the City of Miami would love it if they could get the Marlins $137M and the County's $73M to fund the OB restoration, and the only skin in the game for them is the land they already own, and $16M.
January 10, 200422 yr There is the idea of an umbrella type of roof. An open aired stadium with a top that is like an umbrella/curtain. No air conditioning. I am not sure how feasable it is, but the cost would be less than $150 million. Well, at one time the Colosseum in Rome had a similar retractable roof to protect the crowds. Basically, it was a serious of masts jutting out towards the center of the arena which hosted sails to cover over the grandstands. In fact, sailors were employed whenever festivals were held at the collosseum to hoist these 'sails' over the crowds. It would be very interesting if such an idea was revisted, but more modern and covering the whole field to prevent delays. I feel that the OB idea is just a start and will give us some negotiating leverage or at least open up competition. I think we are going to start seeing all kinds of things pop up.
January 10, 200422 yr I feel that the OB idea is just a start and will give us some negotiating leverage or at least open up competition. I think we are going to start seeing all kinds of things pop up. I hope for the Marlin's sake that you are correct. We need a few better options.
January 10, 200422 yr There is the idea of an umbrella type of roof. An open aired stadium with a top that is like an umbrella/curtain. No air conditioning. I am not sure how feasable it is, but the cost would be less than $150 million. Well, at one time the Colosseum in Rome had a similar retractable roof to protect the crowds. Basically, it was a serious of masts jutting out towards the center of the arena which hosted sails to cover over the grandstands. In fact, sailors were employed whenever festivals were held at the collosseum to hoist these 'sails' over the crowds. It would be very interesting if such an idea was revisted, but more modern and covering the whole field to prevent delays. I feel that the OB idea is just a start and will give us some negotiating leverage or at least open up competition. I think we are going to start seeing all kinds of things pop up. I remember that program. Wasn't it part of the PBS series on trying to recreate ancient engineering technologies? Fascinating stuff.
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