A Tampa Bay senator put forth his own proposal.
Under the plan, the state would subsidize $540 million over 30 years for improvements to Florida's nine professional sports franchises.
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To qualify for the subsidy, a stadium would need a promised $60 million match in local government or private funds, and it would have to show a minimum annual attendance of more than 300,000. The facilities also would have to be on government-owned land or be owned by municipalities.
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Sen. Mike Fasano, the sponsor of the multiple-stadium subsidy, said, "I did it this way because I didn't want it to be specific to the Marlins, unlike the other two bills."
This proposal can't be good for the Marlins. While the Marlins would easily qualify for the subsidy under the stated conditions, that is not the problem. The problem is: if this proposal makes it to the floor of the senate before the Marlins proposals, which is very likely, since the Marlins specific ones won't be pushed until the county and the city have their funding in place. Should this happen, I anticipate that the all professional sports proposal will run into a lot of resistance. The money figure is just too high.
If that is the case, it could sour legislators on voting for using any of the state public funds for any of the professional teams if the Marlins only proposals ever see the the light of day. And that, would be a problem.