Miami Marine Stadium resurrection?
A political shift on the Miami City Commission, and a new report that a restored stadium would be a profitable and in-demand venue, is breathing new life into the stalled effort to revive the 1963 landmark — which has now been closed longer than it was op
It’s been more than three years since the Miami City Commission approved a comprehensive plan to restore the historic yet long-closed Miami Marine Stadium. Eight years since the commission authorized $45 million in bonds, never issued, to fund its renovation.
Ten years since Jimmy Buffett headlined a fundraiser with Gloria and Emilio Estefan, fellow veterans of the stadium’s floating barge-turnedstage, to support a campaign to save the place. Buffett, who in 1985 gave one of the stadium’s definitive performances before jumping into the water, died last year without a chance for an encore.
And it’s been 14 years since then-newly elected Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado vowed to see the cherished city-owned stadium, widely regarded as a marvel of architecture and engineering, reopened before his time in office ended.
Yet today the assertively angular, raw-concrete stadium grandstand still visibly languishes on the edge of Virginia Key and the Rickenbacker Causeway, one foot on land and the other in the water — a uniquely situated design that likely could not be replicated today. Closed since 1992, fenced off and slathered in graffiti, the Commodore Ralph Middleton Munroe Miami Marine Stadium has been a victim, critics contend, of apathy and dysfunction by the city’s managers and commissioners.
But now a political shift on the five-member commission, and a new report that concludes a restored stadium would be a profitable and in-demand venue for concerts and performers, is breathing new life into the stalled effort to revive the 1963 landmark — which has now been dormant longer than it was operating.
So can it finally happen? Reformist commission newcomer Damian Pardo and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez believe so.
Armed with the report, Pardo, whose district includes Virginia Key, says he will push for the city to hire an operator, reapprove the expired bond authorization and prepare a
2025 referendum to win voters’ approval for the project. It’s long past time, Pardo said, to finally get moving on the renewal of what nearly everyone agrees is a quintessential slice of Miami.
“One-hundred million kazillion percent, I want to champion this project,” Pardo said in an interview. “If there is a project that has Miami written all over it, it’s this one. It’s iconic on a worldwide basis. And dere
lict. And that is exactly what needs to change in our city.”
The plan also has the full backing of Suarez, who has long supported the restoration and says he will now make it a priority as a legacy-defining project before his second and final term ends in 2025.
“We’ve done all the studying we need to do, and we’re bullish on it,” Suarez said in an interview. “It’s an iconic venue that can create an even more iconic view of our city around the world. And that’s what you want as the city continues to mature.”
Suarez’s active involvement could be critical, Pardo
and other supporters say. The mayor said he will lobby members of the commission individually. He also got the city administration to move forward with the consultant’s report after the contract for the study had been sitting without action for a prolonged period.
“He is fully invested now, I believe,” said Stuart Blumberg, the retired founding president of the Greater Miami & The Beaches Hotel Association, who had a hand in the creation of the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and other major projects.
Still influential at 87,
Blumberg has now spent two years persuading Suarez and the city to tackle the marine stadium.
“There wasn’t any great appetite from the city manager or anybody else to get this done,” he said. “It just gave me more impetus to move this forward. This is the last thing on my bucket list.”
Longtime supporters of the stadium’s renovation hope the changed dynamics mean the project can now win the necessary majority support on the commission that has been lacking in recent years.
“It’s drifted for years because we have not had a political and civic champion,” said preservationist Don Worth, who has been pushing for the stadium’s restoration since 2008. “These are complicated projects, and someone needs to take that on. I’m hoping it’s different now. This project is too good to give up.”
UPBEAT REPORT
The report that’s helping fuel the renewed effort was commissioned by the city from AMS Planning and Consulting, a national firm that specializes in analyzing finances for cultural groups and facilities. AMS has worked with the Arsht Center in Miami and other