The Miami Dolphins do not plan on paying for renovations of aging Sun Life Stadium without the aid of public money. When the Florida legislature refused to vote on a bill that would provide that public money any plans for renovations died along with the bill.
Dolphins CEO Mike Dee was irate over the way things shook out in the Florida legislature. According to the Miami Herald, Dee contends that House Speaker Will Weatherford promised that the bill would at least receive a floor vote. Weatherford denied making any such promise on his Twitter and the bill was never voted upon before the close of the session.
"In no fewer than four occasions we were told that directly from Speaker Weatherford: 'Your bill deserves a chance to be heard,'" Dee said. "One guy at the end of the day wrote the eulogy for this process.
In order to hold a May 14 voter referendum on the bill, a referendum that was to be paid for by the Dolphins, legislative approval was needed. Without the passing of the bill the election has been canceled. In the referendum the Dolphins would be asking for $289 million from an increase in hotel taxes and an additional $90 million from sales tax subsidies over a 30 year period, according to the Miami Herald.
It's unclear how the referendum would have done with Miami voters who are still furious about the funding Jeffrey Loria coerced out of the city to fund the new Marlins stadium. According to Sports Illustrated, when all of the payments are settled and the interest added in the Marlins will end up paying for $160 million of the stadium's cost compared to Dade County's $1.1 billion.
"Miami has a history of bad deals, but I would rank this number one," city of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado said of the Marlins ballpark deal. "The residents of Miami were raped, completely." Regalado is one of many politicians in the Miami area who won their seat almost entirely due to opposing the horrific deal struck with the Marlins.
Without being about to renovate their aging stadium Dolphins officials argue that Miami will no longer be in the running to host upcoming Super Bowl XLVIII, or any future Super Bowls for that matter. Without public support of stadium renovations, it becomes possible that the Dolphins, one of the most iconic franchises in the NFL, could look to move.
"The Dolphins are one of the only franchises in the NFL that doesn't have long-term lease with their community," Dee told The Palm Beach Post. "At some point, somebody's going to buy the franchise from Steve Ross and clearly the stadium is the first thing they would need to address."
For now Dee and Dolphins owner Steve Ross appear to be placing all of the blame on the head of Weatherford.
"He put politics before the people and the 4,000 jobs this project would have created for Miami-Dade, and that's just wrong," Ross said.
"This abuse of power, I believe, will follow his career for a long time," Dee said of Weatherford.
While Dolphins fans are probably disappointed by not having their stadium renovated and a bit worried about the stability of their franchise they can take some solace in knowing that more of them can attend games for less money without the renovation. According to The Miami Herald, part of the renovation plans called for removing 9,000 of the cheapest seats in order to create 3,000 expensive ones.
