Why is a free stadium not viable?
Owner of the old Miami Arena, Glenn Straub is offering to build a privately funded ballpark downtown but local politicians like Mayor Manny Diaz say this is not viable. He says the infrastructure is not there.
Say what? Upgrading the infrastructure will be a hell of a lot cheaper than handing millions of dollars to the Marlins owners. The downtown arena site will also eliminate the need to pay $94 million for a parking garage.
Why is Mayor Diaz against this?
Major League Baseball says there is not enough time for this switch. I find this to be a bunch of bull.
Say what? Upgrading the infrastructure will be a hell of a lot cheaper than handing millions of dollars to the Marlins owners. The downtown arena site will also eliminate the need to pay $94 million for a parking garage.
Why is Mayor Diaz against this?
Major League Baseball says there is not enough time for this switch. I find this to be a bunch of bull.
posted by Tom Falco at 6:18 PM
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11 Comments:
The Straub family are good people too, i would trust them to get to make it work. Too bad politics will get in the way.
All good except for the part he wants a land swap. So that he can build on the orange bowl site.... what would he build there ,, condos?.. i dont think thats what the area needs.
Best part of this, I am sure UM is laughing it up watching the city and Marlins crash land after pushing them out. Will be interesting what happends when new dolphin owner asks UM to allow Marlins to continue for another year or more at Dolphin Stadium...
The "no infrastructure" comment is interesting since there is a metrorail stop across the street, bus lines run through the area AND it's near 95, which is better equipped to deal with the traffic than 836. The old OB spot has bus lines and the 836.
Plus, the area around the Miami Arena is commercial which could get an economic boost. The area around the old OB spot is all residential and the only boost is untaxed yard parking...
i don't see what's wrong with a land swap. he'll probably sit on it for a few years like he has the miami arena and develop it when the market is ready. i don't think anyone is dumb enough to start building more condos right now in this market (lol at least i hope not).
Diaz is against it because he wont get paid on a privately funded stadium. He, like 99% of politicians in Miami, is a scumbag crook who looks out for his best interest, not the public's.
MLB has little business having a say in how our tax dollars are spent. Since that article was written, they did not meet the aspiring number of 1,500,000 fans in attendance on the year. They finished with yearly attendance at a laughable 1,335,075 or less than half of the league average attendance of 2,755,082. In the years where they won the World Series, South Florida showed them love with an average game attendance of 29,910 in 1997 (not too bad) and a whopping 16,290 in 2003. The last 3 years attendance per game have not exceeded 17,000.
While MLB lists a few reasons why the Miami Arena area might be problematic to build on, none are insurmountable to me. Hats off to you, Glenn Straub. Your efforts to keep baseball in Miami in an area that could handle the traffic, provide alternative transportation, cater to the public with food and entertainment, and free up our tax dollars to be used for other areas that are suffering in Miami are greatly appreciated.
Its unfortunate that offers like this will be turned away because of politics.
that "untaxed yard parking" means votes for mayoral candidate Sanchez
This is old news. Michael Putney did a report on this offer last July, before the Miami Arena was imploded. What I didn't get was why more people didn't pay attention. Maybe we would have a stadium deal that the people could support without paying for it. And, if one more person says we're not paying for it, let me remind you whom our commissioners are collecting tourist tax dollars for. We elected them. It's our money. They are deciding how to spend it. This whole deal smells worse than a dead marlin washed up on the beach.
Tom, Please take it easy on the City, we all know and they know it too that they are scum bag crooks. I believe the City of Miami is crushing businesses in the Grove with violations and fines as a retaliation for exposing them and having a very deep rooted Americana independence. I suggest a more subversive strategy to get them to respect the public. unfortunately this is how politics works in Miami. As a suggestion I urge the Grove residents to endorse any candidate who supports the death penalty for any elected official who is convicted of corruption or graft.
The Miami Arena site is far superior to the Orange Bowl site. The Marlins spent years trying to move north of downtown. In addition to saving the City of Miami $94 million to $150 million by not having to pay for parking whatever parking is in the area can be shared by the American Airlines Arena and Bicentennial Park and by the visitors to the new Marlins Stadium. Then when you add in the benefit of having the Miami Arena site remain on the tax rolls how could any politiciam be opposed?
The Miami Arena site is adjacent to the FEC Corridor train tracks. That means baseball fans from Palm Beach and Broward Counties could hop on a train to get to Miami. Or they could drive to NE 163rd Street or NE 79th Street and park-and-ride. Definitely a win-win for the Marlins who have by far the worst attendence of any of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball.
I believe that any commissioner City or County who votes for this deal does not have the resident of Dade County best interest at heart. There is no money coming back to the County or City if the team is Flipped 18% only.
The local bed tax has dropped by 16% this quarter. Which is understandable with this economy. We need to start all over, As things change so should our plans if not we will fail for sure. Find better ways to use these tax dollars, something that will create or bring jobs to S.Fla and hire local labor and not just 10% like in the Marlins agreement. And just to be clear i want the Marlins stadium to be built but not like this.
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