Dolphins and Miami-Dade close to deal for stadium renovation

[TheWalrus]

Jerry Jones barely dipped into his own pocket to pay for the Cowboys stadium. I remember people going over his deal and the city plus NFL put up over 1 billion in financing towards the stadium.

Well perhaps you can find those analyses and post them because everything I've found indicates that the city of Arlington put up $325 million while the NFL offered a $150 million loan. Jones agreed to pay any cost overruns himself. The City of Arlington is actually doing great in the deal because the taxes they're able to collect on ticket sales and other fees are exceeding their loan payments by about a third, which means they expect to be able to cover their part of the cost in about half the time they expected.

Not to mention the whole reason that stadium ended up costing over 1 billion was due to the rapid rise in construction costs, which will be far greater here than they are there.

Not according to this. They chose to spend the extra money. I remember interviews with Jones to this effect, saying he had basically decided to go the extra mile on everything:

"That final figure increased as the Cowboys added more signs, furniture, ribbon boards and fixtures to the stadium throughout much of last year. The team also retrofitted its massive center-hung scoreboard to allow it to be lowered for certain events, such as basketball games and boxing matches.

“There’s been a lot of work in the past six months,” Daniels said. “There were a lot of little things we did throughout the summer and the fall.”"

http://stadiumblog.dallasnews.com/2010/04/the-cost-of-cowboys-stadium-ha.html

Face it, a similar stadium here will end up costing close to $2 billion. This isn't 2009 and we are in South Florida, not Texas.

It never fails that whenever you see "face it", you can count on whatever follows it to be bull****.

 

[Zounds]

It never fails that whenever you see "face it", you can count on whatever follows it to be bull****.

Well there' nothing like combating somebody's bull**** with a bunch of your own. At least he was right - you can't compare property in Arlington, Texas to waterfront property in Miami. And who gives a **** what Jerry Jones does with his team. He's not the measuring stick for our franchise.

 

[daniel3]

Well perhaps you can find those analyses and post them because everything I've found indicates that the city of Arlington put up $325 million while the NFL offered a $150 million loan. Jones agreed to pay any cost overruns himself. The City of Arlington is actually doing great in the deal because the taxes they're able to collect on ticket sales and other fees are exceeding their loan payments by about a third, which means they expect to be able to cover their part of the cost in about half the time they expected.

Yup, I was wrong. Some of the money I attributed to the city was money that Jones financed through the Cowboys organization itself and that the city helped the team raise in bond sales.

It never fails that whenever you see "face it", you can count on whatever follows it to be bull****.

I think bull is perpetuating this mythical discounted cost of a stadium down here when a you have a baseball stadium running into the billions. Maybe they should have your oversee the project and get it done, because obviously you see cost savings where others don't.

 

[Daytona Fin]

Miami-Dade County would pay the Miami Dolphins as much as $5 million a year for luring Super Bowls and other major events to a renovated Sun Life Stadium under a proposal Mayor Carlos Gimenez plans to send to commissioners as early as Tuesday.

The plan requires owner Stephen Ross to renovate Sun Life Stadium without county funds. In exchange, Miami-Dade would pay the team a maximum of $5 million a year in bonus payments for landing major events at the improved stadium.

While the details have not been made public, two sources close to the talks said a Super Bowl would bring a $4 million bonus, a World Cup or college football championship would qualify for $3 million, and a college football semi-final would bring the Dolphins $2 million. Some stadium events attracting large crowds would also qualify for $750,000 bonuses, but it’s not clear how those payments would be calculated.

The money would come from county hotel taxes, and Miami-Dade would not be obligated to pay the Dolphins if a tourism slowdown left the county without available dollars, the sources said.

The agreement also delays any payments until 2024 in order to give Miami-Dade more time to build up a hotel-tax reserve recently drained in the face of a larger budget crunch countywide. The Dolphins would still earn the bonus payments for qualifying events held after the renovation, but would not receive the money for 10 years.

While the deal isn’t final, several people close to the negotiations said Gimenez and the Dolphins are simply finalizing the paperwork and preparing it for circulation to commissioners and the media.

Gimenez has said he wants the Dolphins deal done before the budget talks begin. On the heels of a 2011 property-tax cut he championed, and commissioners overriding his veto of higher pay for county workers, Gimenez faces an estimated $150 million gap between revenue and expenses for core government services once the fiscal year begins Oct. 1. He has warned of steep cuts in the county’s police and jail system, with layoffs and other reductions likely.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/10/4170175/miami-dade-would-pay-miami-dolphins.html#storylink=cpy

 

[TheWalrus]

I think bull is perpetuating this mythical discounted cost of a stadium down here when a you have a baseball stadium running into the billions. Maybe they should have your oversee the project and get it done, because obviously you see cost savings where others don't.

What mythical discount am I referencing? I merely added up the public money the Marlins -- who are not as popular as the Dolphins in SoFla -- got with the money Ross is already offering to do a patch to get $900 million and cited that as most of the way to the final cost of a stadium. Which it is. The final cost for the 49ers' stadium is expected to be about $1.3 billion when it's completed. Metlife -- where the Giants and Jets play -- cost about $1.6 billion when it opened ($1.7 billion today). By the way, Metlife was not only the most expensive football stadium ever built and the largest in the NFL by permanent capacity, it was funded entirely by private money.

The fact that two teams collaborated on the project and the many redundant features that entailed (such as four separate locker rooms), is why it's not a particularly good template for what it would cost to build a stadium in Miami. The 49ers example seems closer to the actual financials assuming we started today (they originally planned to only spend about $850 million on that stadium). By the way, in case anyone is thinking the value of real estate in Santa Clara is cheaper than it is in Miami, average home values there are comparable to what they are in, say, Coral Gables (by one metric they're more valuable, by another less).

 

[cuban_refugee]

What mythical discount am I referencing? I merely added up the public money the Marlins -- who are not as popular as the Dolphins in SoFla -- got with the money Ross is already offering to do a patch to get $900 million and cited that as most of the way to the final cost of a stadium. Which it is. The final cost for the 49ers' stadium is expected to be about $1.3 billion when it's completed. Metlife -- where the Giants and Jets play -- cost about $1.6 billion when it opened ($1.7 billion today). By the way, Metlife was not only the most expensive football stadium ever built and the largest in the NFL by permanent capacity, it was funded entirely by private money.

The fact that two teams collaborated on the project and the many redundant features that entailed (such as four separate locker rooms), is why it's not a particularly good template for what it would cost to build a stadium in Miami. The 49ers example seems closer to the actual financials assuming we started today (they originally planned to only spend about $850 million on that stadium). By the way, in case anyone is thinking the value of real estate in Santa Clara is cheaper than it is in Miami, average home values there are comparable to what they are in, say, Coral Gables (by one metric they're more valuable, by another less).

Just a side note...I've been to MetLife and it's nothing special. I prefer the whole feel of SunLife better....add the renovation and the stadium will feel new.

 

[Hayden Fox]

The state is getting a great deal here

 

[Nublar7]

The deal between the Dolphins and the mayor has been finalized and according to the Miami Herald it was delivered to the county commissioners yesterday. The final vote is on the schedule for next Tuesday. Only one more hurdle is left before we finally get our renovations.

 

[AL R]

Stadium renovations

Dolphins StadiumInside

Shaun BevanDigital Producer- South Florida Business JournalEmail

Miami-Dade County said it would pay the Miami Dolphins millions of dollars for hosting major sporting events in exchange for owner Stephen Ross delivering a $350 million renovation of Sun Life Stadium. County Mayor Carlos Gimenez sent the proposed deal to county commissioners Tuesday night for a vote early next week, hoping to put a close on Ross' five-year effort to win public help for a stadium upgrade.

Something else of interest if you want to see how the public feels..

Added Monday, June 9

Sun Life Stadium renovation

Background: The Miami-Dade County Commission is being asked to consider a new proposal for the renovation of Sun Life Stadium. Under the terms being proposed by the Miami Dolphins, they would privately finance all of the renovations to the stadium and in return the county would pay a fee for future high profile events held at the stadium, such as the Super Bowl, World Cup, major concerts and other big events being brought to South Florida.

Question: Do you support or oppose privately funded renovations to Sun Life Stadium in exchange for the county paying a fee for major events being brought to South Florida? Related story →

All

Support-
46%

Oppose
46%

Don't know/No answer
8%

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/projects/2014/june-2014-poll/#storylink=cpy

 

[Nublar7]

Stadium renovations

Dolphins StadiumInside

Shaun BevanDigital Producer- South Florida Business JournalEmail

Miami-Dade County said it would pay the Miami Dolphins millions of dollars for hosting major sporting events in exchange for owner Stephen Ross delivering a $350 million renovation of Sun Life Stadium. County Mayor Carlos Gimenez sent the proposed deal to county commissioners Tuesday night for a vote early next week, hoping to put a close on Ross' five-year effort to win public help for a stadium upgrade.

Something else of interest if you want to see how the public feels..

Added Monday, June 9

Sun Life Stadium renovation

Background: The Miami-Dade County Commission is being asked to consider a new proposal for the renovation of Sun Life Stadium. Under the terms being proposed by the Miami Dolphins, they would privately finance all of the renovations to the stadium and in return the county would pay a fee for future high profile events held at the stadium, such as the Super Bowl, World Cup, major concerts and other big events being brought to South Florida.

Question: Do you support or oppose privately funded renovations to Sun Life Stadium in exchange for the county paying a fee for major events being brought to South Florida? Related story →

All

Support-
46%

Oppose
46%

Don't know/No answer
8%

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/projects/2014/june-2014-poll/#storylink=cpy

That is interesting, but take a look at the other two stadium proposals on that voting page. 43% supported the Soccer stadium and 38% supported the American Airlines proposal. The Dolphins 46% of support is actually the highest of all three.

I think people just don't like the idea of new stadiums or renovations after the Marlins disaster. Even though they are getting a great deal with the Sun Life Stadium proposal.

 

[dlockz]

Stadium renovations

Dolphins StadiumInside

Shaun BevanDigital Producer- South Florida Business JournalEmail

Miami-Dade County said it would pay the Miami Dolphins millions of dollars for hosting major sporting events in exchange for owner Stephen Ross delivering a $350 million renovation of Sun Life Stadium. County Mayor Carlos Gimenez sent the proposed deal to county commissioners Tuesday night for a vote early next week, hoping to put a close on Ross' five-year effort to win public help for a stadium upgrade.

Something else of interest if you want to see how the public feels..

Added Monday, June 9

Sun Life Stadium renovation

Background: The Miami-Dade County Commission is being asked to consider a new proposal for the renovation of Sun Life Stadium. Under the terms being proposed by the Miami Dolphins, they would privately finance all of the renovations to the stadium and in return the county would pay a fee for future high profile events held at the stadium, such as the Super Bowl, World Cup, major concerts and other big events being brought to South Florida.

Question: Do you support or oppose privately funded renovations to Sun Life Stadium in exchange for the county paying a fee for major events being brought to South Florida? Related story →

All

Support-
46%

Oppose
46%

Don't know/No answer
8%

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/projects/2014/june-2014-poll/#storylink=cpy

sounds about right esp since full details have not been given out. Kind of funny how so many called foul when the vote didn't happen last time but it would have been soundly rejected.
I actually like the new idea but definitely wouldn't vote yes until I see the actual numbers they are talking. The average person doesn't see the benefit of a new stadium esp when the city has enough issues paying for things.
Sports does not benefit the cities as much as the NFL would have them believe. In reality its more of a quality of life issue for sports fans. Taxpayers feel its not their responsibility to subsidize one of the most profitable ventures going. I would tend to agree, I don't think its a great deal, but I think its a fair deal. Its beyond idiotic for many of these cities to just put themselves in debt for a damn football team.

 

[AL R]

That is interesting, but take a look at the other two stadium proposals on that voting page. 43% supported the Soccer stadium and 38% supported the American Airlines proposal. The Dolphins 46% of support is actually the highest of all three.

I think people just don't like the idea of new stadiums or renovations after the Marlins disaster. Even though they are getting a great deal with the Sun Life Stadium proposal.

Agreed and I don't think it will just be the public that is split, the commissioners will probably not all be on board either IMO. I will predict it will just pass but who knows.

 

[Austin Tatious]

I wonder if their is resistance to just the "county" paying when other counties or the state are out of it if the effect is more regional and not just county-wide?