Field of Denial

Marlins baseball stadium faces more hurdles

By Cynthia Archbold

Artist’s rendering of the 38,000-seat Marlins Stadium

There was plenty of opposition during public hearings on the Marlins stadium last Thursday, but the arguments against the half-billion-dollar-plus project fell on deaf ears as the Miami and Miami-Dade County Commissions approved the plan pitched by their mayors, Major League Baseball officials and Marlins team management.

Commissioners traded childhood recollections of attending their first professional baseball games, warm and fuzzy tales of family outings and male-bonding between fathers and sons, before approving the stadium deal in two special meetings Thursday.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz said “this was probably the hardest deal I’ve ever worked on in my life,” then traveled down memory lane, describing the “joy” of taking his father and son to the 1997 World Series and watching the Marlins defeat the Cleveland Indians in Pro Player Stadium — the first of the Marlins’ two World Series triumphs.

“Miami is the Ellis Island of this [region]. Little Havana is the door that opens into America, into freedom,” the mayor said, pleading with commissioners to build both the stadium and the 6,000-car garage for a total $619 million, which doesn’t include millions of dollars in infrastructure costs at the Orange Bowl site in Little Havana.

Marlins CEO David Samson said approving the deal was urgent. “All we’re trying to do here is keep baseball in South Florida,” he said. “We are making memories. What we do is for the entire community.” The team’s contract with Pro Player Stadium ends in 2010, and the Marlins want to open the new stadium in time for the following season in April 2011.

Norman Braman’s lawyer Harley Tropin pleaded with commissioners to delay the vote until after a judge hears the auto dealer’s lawsuit against the stadium and the $3 billion mega-deal. “Why isn’t the public allowed to vote on this?” he asked.

“Before you put public money into a private enterprise, you should allow the people who put you in these chairs to vote on it,” Tropin said. He stated that Braman “would drop his lawsuit in a heartbeat” if the government would hold a referendum to allow voters to decide if they want to pay for a half-billion-dollar stadium.

“Defer your vote until after this lawsuit is resolved,” Tropin urged. “The case will be heard in the next 80 days,” he said, warning that the city could waste hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for consultants, engineers and architects.

Neither the city nor the county gave appropriate notice for last week’s hearings, Tropin said, and both violated state Sunshine Laws when brokering the behind-the-scenes $3 billion global agreement in December to build the stadium, a Port of Miami tunnel and other downtown projects. Braman’s latest amended lawsuit, filed two weeks ago, says the complicated financing is an “illegal diversion” of tax funds, involving an “improper” swap between city and county tax money.

“The only way this money gets used [to finance the stadium] is from the back of the Omni district,” Tropin told commissioners, referring to the city’s community redevelopment funds, which, according to state law, are supposed to pay for affordable housing and small business incentives in poor neighborhoods.

Now, under the global agreement, which Tropin calls a “shell game,” the CRA funds would be used to pay off millions of dollars of the county’s construction debt for the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. This city-county trade of tax dollars, with the city assuming the county’s debt for the Arsht Center, frees up the county’s tourism tax dollars — funds which can only be used for construction — to fund the stadium, port tunnel and other projects.

The Marlins promises of family baseball outings, jobs and neighborhood revitalization and threats of permanently ending professional baseball in South Florida prevailed as the Miami City Commission passed the stadium deal 4-1, with Tomas Regalado the lone dissenter.

An hour later, county commissioners heard the same nostalgic boyhood stories from Diaz, and from county Mayor Carlos Alvarez.

“We’re not building this stadium for the Marlins, but for the community of Miami,” Alvarez said, adding that the project would generate construction jobs.

But the deal is a financial boon for the Marlins. County and city taxpayers will pay for two-thirds of the stadium, while the Marlins pay only one-third.

Yet, the new contract allows the ball club to keep all the profits from games as well as a percentage of ticket fees and concessions.

County commissioners debated the deal for eight hours. District 7 Commissioner Carlos Gimenez repeatedly questioned County Manager George Burgess on the legality of the financing, and whether the stadium plan would fall apart if Braman wins his lawsuit.

“If the courts overturn the global agreement, does that affect our ability to finance the stadium?” the commissioner asked.

“I don’t believe so; no it doesn’t,” Burgess said.

“You don’t believe so or it doesn’t?” Gimenez asked. Then Burgess admitted, “We wouldn’t be recommending this to you if we didn’t have concessions from the city,” referring to the city’s Omni CRA funds.

Gimenez pursued it further. “If you didn’t have this global agreement would you be recommending this park?” Gimenez said.

Burgess paused, and then said hesitantly, “Yeeeessss. My recommendation would be …,”  the county manager’s voice trailed off. “It’s a difficult question.”

“Let’s assume we lose,” Gimenez pushed. “Would you be recommending the deal at this time?” Burgess remained silent for several moments.

“I think your silence means a lot,” Gimenez said.

The commissioner also objected to the fact that the county and city would be paying most of the stadium costs and the Marlins would keep all the profits, even if the owners decide to sell the team down the road.

“I don’t think it’s appealing to pay $347 million for a baseball stadium and have the team walk away and make a couple of million dollars and the county not getting anything,” he said.

Before voting against the deal, Gimenez said, “I don’t know what the rush is. I can’t vote for it the way it is today.”

County Commissioner Javier Souto tore up his copy of the proposal in protest, then voted against it and the premise of “rich people coming to us for a business deal.”

“I was at the initial signing of the Marlins some 20 years ago in Tallahassee,” Souto said. “I support baseball and the construction of the stadium, but not in the form it is today — too much voodoo economics, fuzzy math; too many things stretched to the limit. This is déjà vu all over again; it’s the performing arts center all over again.”

Souto said the stadium should be up to voters. “There was an election Jan. 29. Why weren’t the people consulted? This is a disgrace to the democratic process.”

District 4 Commissioner Sally Heyman cast the third vote against it, saying there are too many unanswered questions, and she’s concerned about the financing and lack of a written statement “that you won’t touch general revenue funds,” to complete the stadium.

District 8 Commissioner Katy Sorenson also opposes the stadium, but she was absent from the hearing due to illness.

Finally, as day turned into night, Major League Baseball President Bob DuPuy said, “The failure to move forward is the death knell for baseball. It is already very, very late.”

The argument convinced commissioners, who voted 9-3 to approve the deal.

Yet, another dispute could derail the stadium pact: County and city police have 30 days to work out an agreement about which department’s officers get to work off-duty at the stadium. City officers patrol the American Airlines Arena and the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. County police don’t want to be left out of the agreement.

Meanwhile, Judge Pedro Echarte is scheduled to hear Braman’s lawsuit May 28 and 29. “I am grateful to the public officials who voted against this massive giveaway of public tax dollars,” Braman said. “What occurred yesterday was not unexpected. I fully intend to continue my efforts to prevent this unprecedented breach of responsibility to the citizens of our community. Today will mark the beginning of our legal challenge, which I am convinced will be successful.”

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