Miami Dolphins stadium renovation bill rejected [NO Taxpayer $ for Billionaire NFL Owner]

Reuters ^ | 5/3/13 | Kevin Gray

[SoFloFreeper]

A proposal by the Miami Dolphins to use taxpayer money to help finance an upgrade of the NFL team's stadium failed on Friday to win broad support among Florida state lawmakers, dealing a potential blow to Miami's bid to host the 2016 Super Bowl.

The Dolphins, owned by real estate tycoon Stephen Ross, lobbied the state legislature for months to back a bill to increase hotel taxes in Miami-Dade County to finance nearly half of a proposed $350 million renovation of the Sun Life Stadium, which is privately owned.

[BluH2o]

So ... when are they moving the the Dolphins to LA? Went thru this with the Bengals when I lived in Cincinnati. Mike Brown (team owner) made it clear to Hamilton County if they didn't build a new stadium for the Bengals he was gone ... a huge ad campaign touted all the advantages of building a new stadium, many exaggerated others completely bogus ... and the local Cincinnati paper the Enquirer endorsed it as well. Bottom line they had the ‘stadium vote’ and it passed. Within a year editorials in the Enquirer were ruing the day they endorsed the stadium deal ... cost over runs being one of the reasons.

[Popman]

I dunno. One could make a VERY good case for a new Tampa stadium based on it's "looks" alone.

Raymond James is a great football stadium...how many stadiums have their own pirate ship in the stands that blow off cannon shots when the Bucs score...

[junta]

Sports is more social engineering than sport. And Limbaugh wonders why the sports media eunuchs are so PC.

[llevrok]

My mistake and apologies. I was thinking if the baseball “stadium” in St Pete. Your football stadium is a gem (went there with my nephew once) !

[KarlInOhio]

Not having a team in LA is probably the most profitable thing to ever happen to the NFL. How many cities have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from their taxpayers to keep their teams from moving to LA? That threat just would not be effective if the option was to move to Portland, Oregon which is the next largest metro area without an NFL team within an easy drive.

[dfwgator]

Who wants to pay for another stadium that's going to be mostly empty like the Marlins stadium....Miami is the worst sports town in the country, the ultimate fair weather fans....and believe me, once LeBron leaves, nobody will go to Heat games.

[BfloGuy]

Good for them!

Sports stadiums are economic black holes for an area's economy. The "billions" spent there are dollars that would have been spent in restaurants, malls, cinemas, etc..

And, as far as spurring development, what person in his right mind would invest in a business because the neighboring stadium is used about 8 or maybe 10 days a year. These things make no money for anyone save the team owner.

[montag813]

Why can’t he take out a loan or sell bonds?

[Popman]

Tropicana field is a dump and basically take your life in your hand going there...it needs to be blown up and put to rest...

I would support (not pay for) building a new stadium in the right place as long as both counties in the bay area support it with some tax dollars...

[montag813]

They should move to OKC. Great football country.

[dfwgator]

They should move to OKC. Great football country.

Jerrah would never let that happen.

[freeangel]

God bless the state legislators on this one. They didn’t surrender to the god of football like atlanta did. All it took was the threat of leaving if they falcons didn’t get their way and everyone bent over.

[Uncle Chip]

So then where are they going to threaten to move to now???

When the Rams leave St Louis they can move there.

The St Louis Dolphins??? or maybe a name change to the St Louis Catfish.

[catfish1957]

MLB and the Astros held the town hostage about 15 years, and the town blinked. Now look at what we got that masqurades itself as an MLB team.

I hope this is a long term trend to tell professional sports owners that they won't get away with this anymore.

[castlegreyskull]

They built it ironically at the old Orange Bowl site. Not quite little Havana but extremely close. Anything I hate more is corporate welfare. For a guy like me there is nothing wrong with stadium. There is nothing wrong with the Georgia Dome, but they want to replace these. These team owners get all the rewards of these places.

[castlegreyskull]

The Dolphins are the best sports franchise in Miami. He would have no problem making a lot if he developed the team, which generally sucked since Marino retired. He seems to have started to do with drafting the first 1st round QB since Marino last season.
His timing of this stadium improvement bill seems ill advise since his team wad terrible last season and the what the Marlins pulled. At least he was paying for most of it. One good thing about that stadium, it hosts a lot of trade shows. Even though it is privately funded. So it has done a great job generating business in South Florida.

The NFL threaten about the Superbowl because it poured during Colts /Bears Superbowl and during the Prince halftime show. However, they give a Superbowl to NY/NJ meadowlands outdoor stadium in early Feb 2014. The weather has a better chance of being terrible.