Apparently, Marlin’s owner Jeffrey Loria still isn’t isn’t pleased with the Orange Bowl site, and is threatening to reduce his funding contribution for a stadium to be built on that site. From the Herald:
Hernandez said the club is looking to cut its contribution out of concern that building a new stadium on the site of the Orange Bowl — a plan that has gathered support recently among city and county leaders — would not be as profitable as the downtown site that the team prefers.
Some people (including myself) feel that Loria has been stingy with his proposed funding contributions, but in this case he’s right to be concerned about the shortcomings of the Orange Bowl site.
To further complicate matters, construction costs are steadily rising due to the increasingly small window available to finish construction for the new stadium by 2011, when the Marlins hope to be moved in. If all this isn’t enough, it is now being estimated that “road improvements” slated for the area surrounding the Orange Bowl could cost as much as $12 million.
As commissioners lose patience with the stadium deal, Vice Chairman Sanchez sponsored a resolution Thursday calling for an updated stadium plan by a December 13th deadline. He even wants the team to go public before then to announce their commitment to the Orange Bowl site. This ought to be very interesting (as if most political/capital decisions in Miami aren’t).
Photo courtesy of the Miami Herald
haha
I hope the 12 million for road improvements includes fixing and reopening the 7th Ave, 12th Ave and 17th Ave bridges.
I feel like I’m practically landlocked on the south side of the River.
I’ve said it before but they need a light rail that would connect to downtown or the civic center and going through little havana.
Have them play at Florida International University instead, there’s already a baseball stadium there and an under construction football stadium!
What’s wrong with simply refurbishing the Orange Bowl? Yankee Stadium is in the Bronx and they seem to get people to go to games. The OB couldn’t be more central. Who wants to go to downtown Miami with no parking and questionable neighborhood safety issues. Spend the remainder of the $50MM on a decent parking garage and easy street access from/to the stadium. Hell, put a ramp off 836 right to it! It’s only four frickin blocks! Do that and inside of 1-2 years the Hurricanes will be begging to get back in. As a UM alumni I can say without hesitation that Shalala is a moron for abandoning the OB!
The Orange bowl has insufficient parking as well, especially when you consider the lack of a transit connection to it. Its funny that the previous posted mentioned neighborhood safety issues since every time I have gone to the Orange Bowl for a game, I have had my car broken into while on Orange Bowl property. This has never happened when I parked downtown.
If UM were to put money into upgrading the stadium instead of sitting around complaining about how the City of Miami didn’t, then they would probibally still be playing in the stadium and there would have been no need to move to Dolphin Stadium.
Baseball is very much an Urban sport, just as Basketball is. We have seen large crowds for Heat games simply because it is not too big of a hassle to get to the games in spite of them being in downtown where there is no parking.