COUNTY COMMISHES GIVE OKAY TO MARLINS STADIUM

After three separate ownership groups had tried to gain approval for a new ballpark, the Florida Marlins appear to be on the way to getting a field of their own. Following a 3-2 Miami City Commission vote approving the Marlins’ proposed 37,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof, Miami-Dade County commissioners similarly gave a thumbs-up last Monday. The vote came after nearly ten hours of meetings.


Thousands of hours of negotiations have gone into the project, which will cost $625 million for the ballpark and a parking lot at the site of the former Orange Bowl football stadium. Officially, the county will own the new ballpark. The team, which will be renamed the Miami Marlins after moving into the stadium in 2012, is under a lease to play at Dolphins Stadium through the 2010 season.

MIAMI COMMISSIONERS APPROVE NEW MARLINS BALLPARK

City commissioners in Miami have approved the building of a $634 million ballpark for the Florida Marlins by a 3-2 vote taken Thursday. The new stadium would seat 37,000 fans and feature a retractable roof. Despite Thursday’s vote by Miami leaders, the stadium project isn’t out of the woods yet. County commissioners will vet the issue on Monday.

Prior to Thursday’s vote, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria pronounced confidence that the city would approve the ballpark: “To get this stadium built now is the perfect time…People need jobs, people need paychecks. The time to get it done is now.”

The stadium, whose original price tag of $515 million took a jump Thursday, would be built on the site of the now-demolished Orange Bowl in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood.