[freedomtowernight_edited.jpg] 26th Parallel: Marlins Ballpark Groundbreaking Tomorrow!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Marlins Ballpark Groundbreaking Tomorrow!


Tomorrow at 10 AM, the Florida Marlins will conduct the "official" groundbreaking for the new ballpark at the Orange Bowl site.

Ballpark opponents, irked that the stadium plans are rushing forward, are apparently grasping at air to find anything...anything to make the decision to build the stadium look foolish. The latest attempt is a link to the recent cuts imposed by Miami-Dade government.

Random Pixels has the dirty details here , discovered at the NBC Miami site that has become little more than a gossip/opinion rag (BTW, nice bananas, Carlos. Next time, tell us how you really feel about Miami).

All I can say is, nice try guys.

While I've pointed out here several times that it's perfectly legitimate to criticize the principle behind this deal between the Marlins, Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami, making tenuous connections or even connections that don't exist don't help advance the argument. The county is using hotel "bed" tax revenue to fund their part of the deal. If Miami-Dade County (and every other county, city and federal entity) misspent their windfall 3-4 years ago and now sees a need to cut across the board, it has little to nothing to do with the stadium deal based on the way the deal was structured and the fact that bed tax revenue can't be used to help offset losses in other areas. If bed tax revenues end up being less than forecast in the coming years, then we have a real, legitimate beef.

Are Random Pixels and Carlos Miller clairvoyants? There's a slight chance, but based on their arguments, I wouldn't bet on it.

Florida Marlins: Congratulations. May you dig deep and often.

5 Comments:

Blogger Rick said...

While I don't share your opinion about the stadium I definitely agree with you 100% on what the NBCMiami website has turned into.

.

5:36 PM, July 17, 2009  
Blogger Robert said...

My issue with the post isn't whether it's right or not to build a baseball stadium with county funds (or a performing arts center for that matter), but the connect the dots approach used by Random Pixels that totally misses the mark.

It's embarrassing how awfully bad the NBC6 site has become. Too bad, because I like most of their on-air talent.

5:59 PM, July 17, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

its very nice post thanks ,,
thanks

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2:04 AM, July 18, 2009  
Blogger Bill said...

First of all, I too agree that the NBC6 site is a corporate cookie cutter mess. (By the way, the "connect the dots" line was somthing NBC6 wrote.) I never said connect the dots.

But you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that we're getting screwed.

To answer your question, no I'm not clairvoyant.

But one only need look back at other events in this town to see that this is a bad deal.

Remember the half panny transit tax that was going to be used for improving the transit system and then ended being used for day-to-day transit operations?

The bottom line is this town does not support baseball and a new stadium is not going to change that.

Let the handful of people who use the stadium pay for it and leave the rest of us alone.

1:17 PM, July 18, 2009  
Blogger Robert said...

(By the way, the "connect the dots" line was somthing NBC6 wrote.) I never said connect the dots.

Fair enough.

I understand the skepticism, but I think in this case the skepticism needs to be tempered a little. The half-penny tax is a straight tax imposed on everyone via the sales tax, and I agree with you wholeheartedly that it has been a disaster. Bed taxes, whether you think they're fair or unfair, are a different animal. They are set aside for things such as stadiums and performing arts centers, and can't explicitly be used for any other purpose. We'll see what transpires over the next few years.

1:54 PM, July 18, 2009  

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