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Stadium News - Sort of

By craig

If you write enough stuff on your blog that is incorrect, someone who actually knows something will kindly tell you what is going on.

Fortunately, Ron Cox, you remember him, his book is linked to in the Sponsors area, emailed me with what is really going on.

Dr. Cox had this to say:

  1.  An agreement between the city, county and the Marlins will be announced very soon--likely before the end of the month.  All the major issues have been resolved.
  2.  It is not true that the agreement hinges on the other parts of the global agreement going through.  The contract avoids any language to that effect, and Burgess has stated that the agreement will be stand-alone. The Marlins and MLB most assuredly would not sign off on any agreement that ties the project to the other aspects of the global agreement.
  3.  It is true that the agreement could be delayed by the Braman lawsuit pertaining to the use of bond money without public vote.  Hard to know how a court would rule on this, as I'm no expert on sports law.
However, if the stadium is delayed by a court ruling or a pending court ruling, the Marlins would have a legitimate legal case that the county was responsible for the delays.  That means the county would likely have to find a way to pony up the $50 million to replace the money originally designated from the bond issue.  This would be to avoid delays that could increase the county's cost by an even wider margin.
 

4.  The Marlins have put themselves in an excellent position here, due to wording in the contract that explicitly states that delays "caused" by the county will be paid for by the county, not the team. Mark my words:  this will end up costing the county a lot more than what is being advertised, as it has other counties and cities that have financed stadiums.

He also added this:

The bond issue is potentially a problem, but courts have generally given cities and counties wide latitude with these sorts of issues.  So we'll see.

This is very good news.  Now, if we can just get Braman to go away, the Marlins could be new stadium bound.  But a word of caution is appropriate here, with the stadium deal being contested, expect some delays.  Also, the county needs to win the court battle and the sooner the better for everyone concerned.

I want to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Ron Cox for bringing us up to speed on the stadium issue.  Not all baseball blogs are so fortunate to have such a knowledgeable reader and contributer.

Thanks Ron!

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