Marlins Stadium Update No. 304,305 (Mark your calendar)
The Marlins said they hoped to get their ballpark issue resolved before March 12 –- the date Miami City Commissioners chose to continue last Friday’s meeting – the one that lasted more than seven hours.
The city and Miami-Dade County are trying to oblige. The city has scheduled to continue its meeting at 9 a.m. March 4, when presumably Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, who is on maternity leave, will be able to attend.
The county commission, meanwhile, will consider the stadium deal at a meeting at 9:30 a.m. on March 5. The team wanted to avoid what happened Friday – dozens of people waiting for the county meeting, which was scheduled to start at 1 p.m., while proceedings dragged on without resolution at the city commission meeting.
With Spence-Jones absent, the four commissioners in attendance twice deadlocked 2-2 in votes on the stadium deal. City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff made three demands: the team help pay cost overruns on the parking lots; turn over naming rights proceeds to the city and county; and hand over profits to the city and county, if the team is sold within 10 years.
The team agreed to cap the parking lots at $94 million, but would not agree to the other demands. Marlins President David Samson told the commission he would be willing to renegotiate additional provisions, but only if the entire ballpark agreement is reopened for discussion.
CRAIG DAVIS In more than 33 years at the Sun Sentinel, Craig Davis has written about a wide variety of sports topics from baseball to yachting, fishing to triathlons, and also worked as a copy editor and page designer. Recently he reported on local sports, including running, swimming, cycling, equestrian and beach volleyball. He enjoys sports as a participant as well as a spectator, is active in the South Florida running scene plays in the curling club at Saveology Iceplex. This blog offers a glimpse at the business side of sports in the interest of enhancing enjoyment of the games and sporting options as a spectator as well as a participant.
