The Miami Dolphins and Daytona International Speedway, both unsuccessful in getting money out of Florida lawmakers in recent years, were the first to sign up for the state's new stadium-funding process.
The deadline to apply for the new annual funding process was Saturday.
The process was created by lawmakers this spring in an attempt to reduce lobbying for stadium subsidies by setting up a business incentive program.
The new law (HB 7095) requires the Department of Economic Opportunity to evaluate each application within 60 days and by Feb. 1 provide the Legislature with a list that ranks the applications based upon economic viability.
The Legislature agreed to set aside up to $13 million a year for stadium work.
The law allows projects that cost more than $200 million to apply for up to $3 million a year in funding. Projects worth between $100 million and $200 million could apply for up to $2 million a year, and those between $30 million and $100 million would be eligible for up to $1 million a year. Each funding allocation would be for 30 years.
Both the Dolphins and Daytona International Speedway are seeking $90 million in state sales-tax dollars that would be paid out over three decades.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross announced in June he would self-fund most of a $350 million project to modernize the Dolphin's 27-year-old Sun Life Stadium. The announcement helped him win support from the Miami-Dade Commission on a deal in which the local government agreed to pay the Dolphins tourist development money when a major sporting event, such as a Super Bowl or international soccer match, is held at the stadium.
The local deal, which requires Ross to keep paying property taxes on the stadium, caps the event payments at $5 million a year.
