Although Marlins President David Samson and others had hoped for a vote today by the Miami-Dade County Commission on a “Baseball Stadium Agreement,” County Commission Chairman Bruno Barreiro has decided to delay the item until the commission’s Jan. 10 meeting.

Don’t read anything into the delay: it just means county, city of Miami and Marlins officials are continuing to negotiate the finer points of the agreement commonly referred to as a “BSA.” Those involved are more optimistic than ever that this will finally be the deal that makes a stadium happen. It’s hard for me to believe I just wrote that – after all, I’ve been covering this issue – and countless versions of ballpark plans – for more than eight years.

The basic framework on which the sides are negotiating is a $525 million, 37,000-seat retractable-roof ballpark at the site of the Orange Bowl stadium. The city and county would contribute $370 million from tourist and sports facilities taxes and a general obligation bond county voters approved in 2004 to renovate the Orange Bowl but which commissioners agreed Tuesday to put toward the ballpark project. The Marlins say they will contribute $155 million, which they will privately finance.

The deal will be for 30 years and will require the Marlins to cover cost overruns, except in the event that the city or county are responsible for delays. The team will not be able to move until the end of the agreement or whenever the bonds are paid off, whichever is later. If the team is sold during the life of the agreement, the city and county would receive a percentage of the increase in value of the team since the date of the agreement.

Yes, the plan is to build at the Orange Bowl because that's the only option available to the team right now. As for whether the team has the money to contribute to the plan, Samson says: “When we negotiate something we have to be able to stand by what we will negotiate. Obviously you can’t offer something that you don’t think you can do.”

If the BSA is approved by both the county and city commissions, then the next few months will be spent creating the final documents that spell out the financing, construction and other elements of the deal. That’s what Samson calls “turning a 50-page document into a 400-page document.”

The plan calls for construction to begin by November 2008 and the ballpark to open by April 2011. The team would be renamed the Miami Marlins by the 2011 season.

I know lots of people are upset by a possible name change. Why are you so concerned about it?