LoanDepot Park

Template:Infobox Baseball Stadium New Miami Marlins Stadium is a baseball stadium in Miami, Florida, a suburb of Downtown Miami. The stadium serves as host to the Florida Marlins

Pre-Construction

2005: Marlins stadium hopes die down

Soon after the end of the 2005 season, the Marlins reported that their proposal for a new stadium had died due to the rising costs of building a new stadium. Team president David Samson stated that the Marlins would explore relocation, and mentioned San Antonio, Las Vegas, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Portland, Charlotte, Monterrey, northern New Jersey, Norfolk, and San Juan as possible places where they could move.

• On December 6, 2005, Marlins officials met with San Antonio city leaders, including Bexar County Judge Nelson W. Wolff, Mayor Phil Hardberger, and various city councilmen, concerning relocating the franchise to San Antonio. Potential sites for a new stadium were toured, and San Antonio leaders discussed various proposals for funding and building a baseball only stadium. City leaders stated they were confident funding could be arranged using hotel/motel taxes to fund the city's portion of the stadium. Marlins officials stated at a press conference that they were serious about negotiations to relocate the franchise. At Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff's annual state of the county address in January of 2006, he reiterated his desire to bring Major League baseball to San Antonio.

2006: Discussing Relocation

• On January 9, 2006, Marlins officials met with Portland city leaders, including Mayor Tom Potter. Following the meeting, Mayor Potter announced that the city would not finance a baseball stadium, despite the Oregon Legislature's 2003 approval of a plan to finance a stadium. Whether this has put Portland entirely out of the running is unclear.

• On January 18, 2006, Terrie Suit (R-Virginia Beach) submitted a bill to the Virginia legislature at the request of William Somerindyke Jr., who last year headed a group called Norfolk Major League Baseball Co. and led an effort to bring the Montreal Expos to Norfolk (which had failed when the Expos moved to Washington, D.C. to become the Nationals). Somerindyke has been in contact with the Florida Marlins about moving to Norfolk. Rep. Suit’s bill would require the state government to forward state taxes generated at a major-league sports facility to the city to pay off the arena or stadium debt. That would include income, sales and corporate taxes. The legislation was open to any jurisdiction in the state able to attract a major sports team. However, Norfolk was considered the likely site because of the large population in the Hampton Roads area and its centrally located downtown. Land for the new stadium is already owned by the city, adjoins the current Harbor Park stadium (home to Baltimore Orioles AAA-affiliate Norfolk Tides) and is located on the route of a planned commuter rail line. Marlins officials also planned to meet with civic leaders in Charlotte about moving to that city; the Atlanta Braves are the closest team to that state, and many of its residents are Braves fans. Attorney Jerry Reese had proposed building a 38,000 seat baseball stadium downtown on the site of a current park that will include a retractable roof to use for large-scale events such as concerts and the Final Four; the stadium, if built, will be privately funded and will be the anchor for a redevelopment of the former African-American neighborhood of Brooklyn.

• According to a March 2, 2006 report by the Miami Herald, the Marlins were focused on relocation to San Antonio. According to the published report, there were ongoing serious discussions 3-4 times per week between San Antonio and Marlins officials, and relocation efforts at this point are focused on San Antonio, Texas. Marlins officials expect to visit San Antonio for a second time in the near future. Marlins President David Samson said the Marlins are "very encouraged" about how aggressively San Antonio was pursuing the Marlins and that the city was "under very serious consideration."

• According to a March 3, 2006 San Antonio Express News report, San Antonio officials will present the Marlins with a stadium financing plan in San Antonio, using a combination of public and private funding, similar to what was used to build the AT&T Center for the San Antonio Spurs.

• On March 9, 2006, Bexar County (the county where San Antonio is located) presented a stadium financing plan to the Florida Marlins in which Bexar county would pay $200 million towards an estimated $300 million stadium in San Antonio. The financing plan would be put to San Antonio voters in November 2006, if accepted by the Marlins.

• According to news reports, the Marlins and Major League Baseball were analyzing not only the stadium proposal from San Antonio, but also the San Antonio market viability to host a MLB franchise before continuing negitiations with San Antonio officials. If negotiations continued to progress, Marlins officials were set to make a second trip to San Antonio to discuss stadium locations and specifics of the stadium proposal.

In addition, a recent economic study and report completed by Austin Economist John Hockenyos showed that the San Antonio area could support not only a Major League Baseball franchise (most of its residents are Houston Astros fans), but an NFL franchise as well (having served as a temporary home of the New Orleans Saints in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and also as a site for many NFL exhibition games), in addition to the NBA San Antonio Spurs.

Furthermore, San Antonio officials had received and accepted an invitation to join Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria in the owners' suite at the season opener against the Houston Astros, to meet and discuss the relocation option to San Antonio. During the meeting, owner Jeffrey Loria stated that the Marlins were very serious about relocation talks with San Antonio. However, Major League Baseball was concerned with the TV deal the Marlins would receive in San Antonio, and San Antonio's market size. The Marlins would need the go ahead from MLB, before finalizing any deal with San Antonio.

Bexar County (San Antonio) Judge Nelson Wolff had stated there was a May 15, 2006 deadline for the Marlins to accept the proposal, that way a suitable stadium site can be found, a memorandum of understanding can be reached, and a campaign can begin before he submits the proposal to Bexar County taxpayers, by putting the item on the ballot by August 15, 2006. The Marlins have indicated their first choice would be to remain in south Florida.

Reports indicated that the San Antonio option ran out of steam. Soon after telling San Antonio officials that they were explore that option another time if a stadium deal in Maimi was not possible, the team instead looked at building a stadium in Hialeah, FL, a predominantly Cuban-populated city in Miami-Dade county.

• On May 4, 2006, Florida state senator from Hialeah Rudy Garcia and Miami senators Alex Villalobos and Alex Diaz de la Portilla quietly collected votes for their plan for a $60 million subsidy to build a new ballpark and tacked it onto a bill that guarantees the Orlando Magic basketball team the same type of tax break. City officials were also considering using property taxes from a proposed industrial park to finance construction of a stadium with a retractable roof. "Hialeah is a baseball town," Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina said. "Baseball is in our culture. Hialeah will support the Marlins." Governor Jeb Bush, who killed the first Marlins tax-break plan in 2000, supported the subsidy concept last year. And the Florida House of Representatives would have likely approved it as well, said Miami Rep. David Rivera. "Just as the House led the way to support the Marlins last year, I'm confident we'll do it again," Rivera said. "As for the Senate, better late than never." The Senate passed the proposal, 20-16, but at 11:45pm EDT on May 5, 2006, the last day of the Florida Legislature's regular session. The session closed before the House could vote on the measure. Marlins executives pledged that they would continue to work with Hialeah on a new stadium, and rumors of the issue of the state tax subsidy being revived should a special session be convened keep hopes of state support alive.

• On May 15, 2006, MLB President Bob DuPuy informed San Antonio in a letter that San Antonio's offer would be declined at this time, but left open the possibility of relocation in the future, if talks in south Florida did not lead to a stadium deal. Talks about locating a stadium in Hialeah began, even though a $100 million funding gap for the possible ballpark remains that neither the Marlins nor the Miami-Dade County government appear ready to close.

• On November 22, 2006, talks again centered around the City of Miami, when the city offered nine acres of public land for an urban ballpark. The site in question is between NW 3rd St. and NW 5th St., between the headquarters of Miami-Dade Police Department and the Miami Metrorail line. Use of the site would be contingent on moving the site of a proposed juvenile courthouse to a suitable alternate location. Another concern was that the site may not be of a suitable size for a ballpark.

2007: Staying in South Florida after all?

• On February 28, 2007, Miami-Dade County unveiled a plan for a retractable-roof stadium at the Metrorail site, with a total cost of $490 million. The county and team hope to have a deal finished in April. The deal remains contingent on locating an alternate site for the juvenile courthouse and securing state funding assistance. Officials state that it is the closest they have ever been to keeping the Marlins in Miami. As the deal was submitted to the Florida Legislature, however, rumors began to surface that the City may permit the University of Miami to leave the Miami Orange Bowl, which they have threatened to do by the end of April if a reconstruction plan is in place, and then tear down the Orange Bowl and replace it with the new stadium for the Marlins. The Hurricanes said on March 12 that they would move to Dolphin Stadium if they do not get renovations for the Orange Bowl. When some asked new Florida governor, Charlie Crist, who actually agrees that the Marlins ought have to a new stadium due to the revenue it can bring the city and the good it would do, said that the Marlins should keep trying despite the latest failed attempt.

• On April 26, 2007, the latest attempt for state funding, the final hurdle that killed the 2006 Stadium push, was approved, 86-24, in the Florida House of Representatives. The bill is HB 323. The Senate version of the $60-million tax subsidy, is SB 544.

• On August 21, 2007, the Miami Hurricanes officially announced that they were abandoning the Miami Orange Bowl for Dolphin Stadium, and immediately went into negotiations to end their lease after the 2007 football season.

The club released this statement on the day the Hurricanes made the decision: ``The Marlins remain focused on building a retractable-roof, baseball-only facility in South Florida. We will continue to work diligently with both the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County. The urgency of the situation has been further crystallized by today's decision by the University of Miami.

With the Miami Hurricanes moving to the Dolphin stadium in 2008, the city is left with the $88 million that the city and Miami-Dade County had identified as money for renovating the Orange Bowl to keep the Hurricanes there. This would almost certainly go toward closing a $30 million gap in a $490 million plan to build a retractable-roof ballpark for the Marlins in place of the storied football stadium instead of turning to the state government which has denied Marlins countless times before.

The Orange Bowl is only a mile and a half west of downtown Miami, the preferred site of the Marlins and MLB. Building a baseball stadium at the 40-acre Orange Bowl site would likely require demolition of the current stadium, mainly because of the lack of the space in the surrounding area. One of the criticisms of the current Orange Bowl stadium has been the lack of parking, where many fans must resort to paying homeowners to park on nearby lawns. Parking would also be another top priority, but one of the things said in the past when the Marlins tried to push for a new stadium next door to the Orange Bowl was a parking garage which could come up. If it ever does happen, the Marlins would be one of the first MLB teams to have a parking garage for its fans. The San Diego Padres, with the 2004 completion of Petco Park in downtown San Diego, have built multiple parking structures to accommodate their fans.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz said he hoped a Marlins stadium -- and the 81 annual home games it would bring -- would lead to improved retail and restaurant offerings in the surrounding Little Havana area. The redeveloped stadium site could also include public green space, he said.

The latest revelation in the Marlins pursue in having a new stadium in south Florida had Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and MLB president Bob DuPuy come to South Florida to try to push ahead the plans for a new Marlins ballpark, preferably in the downtown Miami site. This would marked Bud Selig's first trip to South Florida in trying to resolve the Marlins' stadium conflict.

• On December 11, 2007, months after Selig's visit to South Florida, Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess offered the Florida Marlins a revised plan for the Orange Bowl site. This shifts a large out-of-pocket cash burden to the ball club, yet costs the county more in the long term. The Marlins would have to come up with $155 million on the front end, more than triple the $45 million previously discussed. Yet the team would end up paying less in the long haul for the facility, now budgeted at $525 million. Before, the team's overall burden over many years would total $207 million. Now, it stops at $155 million. When complete -- the goal is to open the gates by April 2010 -- the 37,000-seat stadium would feature 60 private luxury suites, a retractable roof and natural grass. The Marlins would be responsible for cost overruns, and the city of Miami would be on the hook for building a 6,000-car garage. The county would own the stadium. The team would be required to enter into a non-relocation agreement. [1]

• On December 13, 2007, two days after the new Marlins stadium plan was unveiled, Miami commissioners approved a historic public works package that would build a new Florida Marlins stadium. The 4-1 vote, adopted after hours of debate, embraced Mayor Manny Diaz's vision of a new Miami glittered with billions of dollars' worth of projects. The package included money for a $914 million tunnel to the Port of Miami, a Museum Park downtown and a $525 million baseball stadium on the site where the Orange Bowl now sits -- all tied together in one basket through a plan to expand city Community Redevelopment Agency districts. [2]

• On December 18, 2007, Miami-Dade commissioners on Tuesday approved a multibillion-dollar deal to build a future Marlins baseball stadium, soccer stadium for a future MLS team, downtown streetcar, museum campus and an underwater tunnel to the Port of Miami on a 9-4 vote. Along with the deal, team President David Samson has said the Marlins will change their name from the Florida Marlins to "Miami Marlins". Tuesday's vote moved the Marlins closer than ever before to landing their own stadium.

[3], [4]

Relevant facts

• Seating
  • Baseball - 37,500
  • Maximum - 40,000
• Baseball Press - TBA
• Gates - TBA
• Ramps - TBA
• Escalators - TBA
• Elevators - TBA
• Parking
  • TBA
• Overall Size - TBA
• Field Surface - TBA
• Turf Area - TBA
• Concessions - TBA
• Restrooms - TBA
• Locker Rooms - TBA
• Scoreboards - TBA
  • Right field - TBA
  • 3rd Base -
  • Baseball Scoreboard - TBA
  • Fascia Display - TBA

Relative location

TBA

External links

www.floridamarlins.com