Proposed Downtown Miami Baseball Stadium

As much as we like our own proposed stadium site which doesn't sacrifice public land allocated for a future Children's Courthouse and a College of Policing and law enforcement themed specialized high school--MVB's stadium sits on an existing elevated transit station and connects to the Miami Arena and a hotel/convention center in a combined public/private venture to save both money-- MVB is here to encourage any venture that will bring a baseball stadium to downtown Miami-- as long as funding doesn't rob from the poor which this new proposal can't be accused of doing.

According to the Miami Herald today, the retractable roof stadium will cost $450 million with $45 million coming up front from the Florida Marlins and another $162 million coming from bonds issued by the county to be repaid through gate receipts. Miami-Dade County will cough up $145 million from tourist taxes and the City of Miami will throw in $108 million from another tax on tourists. That still leaves a funding shortfall of $30 million which all parties hope to get from the state in the form of a $2 million annual tax break. Although our new governor Charlie Crist is for helping fund the project, the Florida legislature could nix it.

Perhaps the state and notable critics like Carl Hiaasen might be more inclined to back this project if the $70 million Children's Courthouse and College of Policing (cost unknown) could be combined with the stadium. With a little ingenuity (aka vision) the 24 to 28 courtrooms and unknown number of classrooms could be built under the rising stadium seating. This solution would save millions in construction costs and works because games would be scheduled after normal working hours which improves entrance and egress from the stadium for two different groups of people with entirely different agendas.

Photos are of Seoul Stadium designed by Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners. They can be found on the Sports Venue Technology site. Who knows, maybe the firm would cut us a deal to save us even more money by allowing us to photocopy the plans to reproduce the stadium in Miami. A few million here, a few million there, it all adds up.

"Grand Central Station of the American Pastime:" MVB's proposed site links to mass transportation.