I'm not exactly sure what happened yesterday with the County Commissioners, one, since I didn't see it, and two, the minutes of the meeting aren't posted on their website yet.
What was suppose to be on the agenda was this:
Section 1. The matters contained in the foregoing recitals are incorporated in this resolution by reference.
Section 2. The Board hereby requests the Mayor or his designee to negotiate and finalize the terms of a Baseball Stadium Agreement by and among the County, the City, and the Marlins in accordance with the terms and provisions proposed in the draft attached to this resolution as Exhibit A and to present the final Baseball Stadium Agreement to this Board for its consideration and approval.
Section 3. This Board hereby reaffirms its commitment to pledge County funding support for the proposed Florida Marlins ballpark from projected available Convention Development Tax and the Professional Sports Franchise Facilities Tax receipts in amounts sufficient to fund project costs in an amount equal to $199,000,000.
Whether that was voted on or not, I can't say. If it wasn't apparently the vote on Tuesday was enough to allow George Burgess to enter into negotiations with the team and the city.
According to Fish@Bat the Marlins didn't want two votes to get the deal done but instead elected for only one.
If the county didn't vote on 11A9 yesterday and assuming they didn't need to for negotiation purposes, it is completely understandable since the Marlins haven't signed any binding document to date committing to the deal. And if I were dealing with Samson, I would want something on paper before I proceeded.
The county has apparently chosen to hammer out all of the details with the city and the team before casting another vote. The final agreement phase was going to happen anyway. As for as the Marlins wanting to do it this way, I guess they think their chances are better if they can keep public discussion to a minimum, which is probably right.
As for us the fans, we aren't going to get a stadium under our trees for Christmas, but so what. If the package doesn't arrive until January, it won't be a big deal since we have been waiting about 10 years for our present.
And if it does when it does (only positive thoughts here -- like that has worked in the past), I just hope it's the same as advertised in the catalogue.