Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gimenez hopeful stadium deal soon
DAVIE— Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is hopeful he will reach a deal with the Dolphins on a $400 million Sun Life Stadium renovation— financed by the team — by the end of theweek.
Themayor, however, through spokesman Michael Hernandez, cautioned “nothing is for certain. These are ongoing negotiations.”
If the Dolphins and Gimenez reach a deal, it could be presented to the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners by the end of the month. The commissioners meet every twoweeks.
“The Office of the Mayor would provide the agreement and any other necessary documentation to the Chairwoman of the County Commission, Rebeca Sosa, and the full Board,” Gimenez said through Hernandez.
“The chairwoman has the ability to assign it to a committee, or forward it to the full board. The agreement can be heard as soon as two weeks from now, but the more likely scenario is next month.”
Under terms of the proposed deal Dolphins owner Steve Ross would pay for the upgrades and continue to pay property taxes on the stadium. The county would pay “incentives” to the Dolphins for hosting events such as the Super Bowl and the College Football Championship at Sun Life
Stadium.
“The funds would come from tourist tax dollars and would only be paid out after the event has taken place,” Gimenez said in a statement on Friday.
The renovations would help upgrade the 27-year-old stadium’s lights, sound system, seats and other facilities so it could make strong bids a Super Bowl and other big events. It would also add a canopy over the seats at Sun Life Stadium, but not the field, to protect fans from the South Florida heat as well as the rain.
South Florida is tied with New Orleans for hosting the most Super Bowls with a total of 10. But South Florida hasn’t hosted a Super Bowl since 2010. The next Super Bowl available for bid is in 2019, and finalists are expected to be selected in October.
The trend in landing a Super Bowl seems pretty clear.
San Francisco/Santa Clara, which is building a new stadium for the 49ers, is hosting the Super Bowl in 2016. Houston, whichis renovating its stadium, is hosting the Super Bowl in 2017. And Minneapolis, which is building a new stadium for the Vikings, is hosting the Super Bowl in 2018.
Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel is the franchise’s point man on the latest renovation project. He wasn’t available for comment Monday.
Ross had a failed proposal in May 2013 that never madeit the floor of the Florida House of Representatives. Ross was hoping that plan, which called for him obtaining roughly $379 million in county and state funds to help finance the renovation would be approved in time for South Florida to land Super Bowl 50 in 2016. But that didn’t happen.
Then the Dolphins had a proposal that would have given ownership of the stadium to Miami-Dade County. The team would have then gotten an annual $4 million break on stadium taxes. But that wasn’t popular because it was determined the tax break would drain needed funds from Miami Gardens, where the stadium is located, aswell as the schools.
Even if the current plan is agreed to by Gimenez and the Dolphins, it could be required to be tweaked by the county commissioners.
“Whatever the Mayor presents to the Board of County Commissioners is what he believes is best for Miami-Dade County residents and taxpayers,” Gimenez said through Hernandez. “Given that, he is optimistic that it would be approved as is, although some ‘tweaking’ is possible.”