With construction bonds sold and grading work started at the former site of the Orange Bowl, the Marlins officially announced their “ceremonial” ground-breaking with a release this afternoon. It’s at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 18 at 1501 NW 3rd St., Miami.

There will be all the usuals you’d expect: team, Miami, Miami-Dade County, state and Major League Baseball officials, Billy the Marlin, the Mermaids, the Manatees. Marlins broadcasters Dave Van Horne and Felo Ramirez will host. New renderings and a video will be shown.

The first 1,000 fans to show up at the free event will get a coupon for a “ballpark-style lunch” and a ground-breaking pin to commemorate the occasion. Original Marlins Charlie Hough and Benito Santiago are to conduct a ceremonial first pitch, in honor of their role as the “first ever ‘battery’ in franchise history.” All fans will be able to shovel dirt where home plate will be in the new ballpark.

But here’s my favorite part of the press release – a sports business sentence like I’ve never seen - ENJOY:

“The Badia Spices Groundbreaking Ceremony, built by the Florida Carpenters Regional Council, is presented by South Florida Ford Dealers, Preferred Care Partners and Baker Concrete Construction.”

Meanwhile, the team is holding a “groundbreaking” essay contest. The prize? Serving as honorary participant in the groundbreaking ceremony and getting a groundbreaking shovel, personalized Marlins jersey and four infield box seats to a 2009 regular season game at Land Shark Stadium.

The contest is open to kids ages 6 to 12, who must describe in 500 words or less – in English or Spanish - what a new Marlins ballpark in Miami means to them and why they want to play a role in the groundbreaking. Submissions will be accepted until 5 p.m. July 13 online at marlins.com or in person at the team’s offices at the stadium, 2267 Dan Marino Blvd., Miami Gardens.

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Project: Marlins new ballpark
Director: Jeffrey Loria
Dir. Of Photog: David Samson
Date: July 1, 2009
Scene: 1; Take 1 (aka 7 billion)

Work finally began at the site of the new Marlins ballpark in Little Havana today. Workers began moving the dirt, grading the site where the Orange Bowl once stood. Marlins President David Samson called it essentially flattening the ground. (See photo by the Marlins' Robert Vigon below).

Workers arrived at the site at 7 a.m., just hours after Miami-Dade County Commissioners took the final votes (9-3) needed to ensure the sale of the bonds to pay for construction so the project could move forward. That almost didn’t happen. The deal was almost derailed again late Tuesday, when County Manager George Burgess told commissioners the county had fallen about $6.2 million short in its effort to sell the bonds.

Neither the county nor the city would agree to put any more money into the deal to build a $515 million, retractable roof stadium. The Marlins said they’d cover the gap, but some commissioners worried about the county’s liability, changing the deal again and why, if the team was willing to give more in the final hour, the county hadn’t extracted more from the team in the deal.

Team and county officials worked into Wednesday morning to craft changes to the deal that would incorporate the team’s agreement to cover the gap and allow the county to sell some of the bonds at a higher interest rate than anticipated. The commission voted at 1:10 a.m. The changes are to go to the city of Miami or approval, but the county ensured the project could still go forward, even if the city rejects them.

"If last night had not worked out and there had been a termination, that would have been the end of baseball in South Florida,” Samson said. “What we decided as a team was that it was enough. It was time to start.”

Unless the bond sales do not close – something Samson doesn’t anticipate – the project is to move forward with an official, ceremonial ground-breaking scheduled on July 18. Samson said “There are no hurdles.”

Burgess said the bonds were sold Wednesday afternoon with a closing date later this month.

The Marlins have been trying for years to secure financing to build a new ballpark with a roof so they can protect fans from heat and rain and control their own revenue. At Land Shark Stadium, the team pays rent and receives only percentages of revenue from concessions, parking and advertising signage.

Burgess said he was feeling “very good” about the state of the project.

“Projects like this that are this large and complex, I don’t know that I’ve ever encountered one of these kinds of game changers that can have an impact and found it to be easy,” Burgess said. “The North Terminal [of the airport] has not been easy, but it has an enormously significant effect. In the long run it helps define a community … We’re going to look back and this [ballpark] is going to be a wonderful addition to this community.”

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Miami-Dade County fell short by $6.2 million in its effort to sell bonds for a new Marlins ballpark Tuesday, but site preparation work is expected to begin Wednesday morning at the former location of the Orange Bowl.

Although the shortfall in the bond sale threw the ballpark deal into disarray for several hours Tuesday night and into early Wednesday, the deal appeared to be back on track, after the Marlins agreed to fill the gap should the dollars be needed to complete the 37,000-seat retractable roof ballpark.

The commission debated from about 7 to 9 p.m. and then what was meant to be a 45-minute break stretched on for three and a half hours. The commission finally returned at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday and voted 9-3 for changes that will allow the deal to move forward. Commissioners approved three items, including agreeing to a higher interest rate on the some of the bonds and adjusting the county's commitment to the project to $341 million down from $347 million.

Earlier in the evening, County Manager George Burgess told commissioners the county had planned to sell $306 million in bonds, but fell short by about $6.2 million and a portion of the bonds were set at a higher interest rate than the county had expected. That means the county’s commitment to payments will remain the same, but the gap needed filling. Neither the county, nor city were willing to step up, Burgess said.

“At end of the day, we’re extraordinarily close,” Burgess told commissioners. “We’ve had conversations with the team. My ask of them was, ‘If we’re short, are you prepared to be able to cover the difference’?”

Marlins President David Samson insisted the team would -- and the public would not be asked to put more into the deal.

“We made a commitment in March," Samson said. "That commitment was there would be a certain amount of money the public would be committing and not one dollar more.”

Worried construction workers would not be able to begin working, Samson said the team would cover any additional costs.

“If this building costs $515 million, the team will put in what’s required,” Samson said. “If it costs $512 million that is what the team will do.”

You can see equipment on the site via the team’s ballpark webcam. A formal ground-breaking is scheduled on July 18.

Not to get too technical here, but while the bonds backed by the professional sports franchise facilities tax portion of the hotel tax were sold at a lower interest rate than anticipated, those backed by the Convention Development portion of the hotel tax were set at a higher rate. The “blended rate” of the two taxes fell within the county’s 7.5 percent cap, but the commission needed to sign off on the higher cap of 8.2 percent for the CDT-backed bonds.

Some commissioners worried about encumbering more taxpayer dollars, tapping into the county’s general fund if hotel dollars fall short during the life of the deal, and continuing to adjust a deal that has dogged them for years, but may finally result in a ground-breaking in a few weeks.

Commissioner Sally Heyman wanted Samson to agree to cover the $6 million shortfall rather than agreeing to cover any additional costs. Commissioner Katy Sorenson worried the county didn’t bargain hard enough while the deal was being negotiated.

“We can see clearly the Marlins have more to give and clearly have had more to give all along and it’s an example of why we can see this isn’t such a great deal for our constituents,” Sorenson said.

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Got your attention, right? That’s the idea.

If he can negotiate the price of ESPN talent’s lunch in an ad for ESPN’s SportsCenter (see ad below), then why can’t super NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus help out the Panthers fan with his or her ticket prices?

OK, to be clear: he has not really been hired by fans to negotiate ticket prices – who, after all, is going to pay for that? -- but he is being used as part of the Panthers’ plans to market the team for the 2009-10 season.

He tweeted about it - in all seriousness - earlier today.

“As a longtime Panthers fan and a person who believes in giving sports fans the value and the atmosphere they deserve, I am absolutely thrilled to represent the Cats faithful at the bargaining table,” Rosenhaus says in a press release issued as part of the campaign. “That said, this a unique situation for me to represent the fans as opposed to professional athletes. But as a passionate Cats follower, I’ve got my finger on the pulse of the BankAtlantic Center faithful.”

Panthers President Michael Yormark said he's gotten just the kind of response he'd hoped: attention and national media calling to talk about the "negotiations."

"We wanted to create an out of the box, unique and different type of ticket marketing campaign," Yormark said late this afternoon. “It’s getting us top of mind, we haven’t even launched our campaign yet."

Rather than just send out a press release with new ticket pricing that might languish in emailboxes, the Panthers wanted to create a buzz. And figured, why not have Rosenhaus, a well-known South Floridian, help start it?

"What we’re trying to do is raise awareness for this announcement of our new pricing. We don’t expect Drew Rosenhaus to sell tickets for us, what we do expect is Drew Rosenhaus is going to help us introduce new pricing," Yormark said. "He opens up doors for us, we might not have been able to open ... You want people thinking about your product, thinking about the Panthers."

Rosenhaus will be appearing in TV, print and radio ads on behalf of the Panthers set to break next week. That's when we'll learn about the new ticket prices, too.

Apparently Rosenhaus is a Panthers fan, so does it make sense to have one of the region’s most recognizable figures in sports promote the Panthers? What do you think?

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The new business developments keep coming from the Dolphins and Land Shark Stadium. OK, this one isn’t about a celebrity (Jimmy Buffett, Gloria and Emilio Estefan) or added technology (Kangaroo TV handhelds for premium seat holders).

It’s a multi-year marketing partnership with Premiere Global Sports to provide travel packages to Dolphins home and away games and special events. The company is designing packages for Dolphins away games that start at $245 and include two-night hotel stays, game tickets and a game-day souvenir. The packages for fans from out of South Florida for home games start at $345 and include two nights at the Courtyard Fort Lauderdale Beach, game tickets and a souvenir.

For more information and to book packages, visit sportstravel.com/dolphins.

The company has worked with a number of teams, including arranging trips for New York Rangers fans to Prague for the team’s opening series last year and is arranging trips for St. Louis Blues fans wanting to attend the opening series against the Detroit Red Wings in Stockholm in October.

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When I wrote a story in March about how sports fans and teams were using Twitter to do everything from play-by-play to sharing promotion and ticket discounts, I included a reference to a friendly wager.

This was before Twitter essentially exploded – teams were just getting their feet wet using the social messaging system and fans were clamoring for them to keep up. Plantation marketing executive and Panthers fan John Sternal had put the Panthers logo on the line in a bet with a couple of Chicago Blackhawks fans. When the Panthers lost the matchup between the two teams, Sternal had to put the Blackhawks logo on his account the following day.

Avid tweeters, Sternal and Toby Srebnik, a sports fan from North Lauderdale and public relations executive, have now significantly upped the ante. Sternal, a Marlins fan, and Srebnik, a Tampa Bay Rays fan, have been betting the Marlins-Rays series this season. Of the two three-game series, the fan of the team that loses each series must post the rival team’s mascot on his Twitter page for the following workweek. The Rays won the first series in May, so Sternal had to post a photo of the Rays’ mascot Raymond as his avatar.

They’ve even named their bet #billyrayavatar – in Twitter parlance – after Billy the Marlin and Raymond.

They each began sporting their team’s mascot this week. And Srebnik is already ahead again with the Rays beating the Marlins 7-3 in St. Pete last night. They’ve been trash-talking much of the past few days. Follow their adventures at #billyrayavatar. Sternal is @SternalPR; Srebnik is @fsutoby.

And don’t forget to follow me @sarahtalalay

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The introduction of Gloria and Emilio Estefan as minority investors in the Dolphins on Thursday had a festive air: an Estefan greatest hits soundtrack, a Cuban coffee station, plenty of Latin entertainment and lifestyle media – and even a journalist from an Italian style magazine.

Among the media, Dolphins and stadium officials were Related Group CEO Jorge Perez, who is Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross’ business partner and the guy who introduced Ross to the Estefans, and luxury shoe designer Donald J. Pliner.

Pliner made a beeline for Ross after the press conference. He offered to make slip-on street shoes for the Dolphins. The two pairs he’s considering for the team are his T Rex (photo left) and Uwait (photo below).

Pliner makes shoes for former Heat center Shaquille O’Neal and retired Heat center Alonzo Mourning. He works with the Heat and Los Angeles Lakers. Perez wears Pliner’s shoes. So does criminal attorney Roy Black. The Estefans are his neighbors on Star Island.

The shoes Pliner has picked out for the Dolphins are made of breathable micro-fiber. “It’s more expensive than leather, but it stimulates the blood vessels, stops your feet from getting tired, keeps the blood flowing it has memory,” Pliner said. “They’re water resistant, it looks like leather.”

He added: “The point is if your feet are uncomfortable so is the body and so is the mind.”

So what was Ross’ reaction?

“He gave me his size and which size to send him first,” Pliner said.

For the record, Ross wears a size 13B. “That’s narrow, which is difficult,” Pliner said. “We’ll fit him.”

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