Dog and Pony Show at the Marlin Ballyard

Sid Perkins is the construction boss at the new Marlin's Stadium. In another time he would have been been building dams on the Colorado River or some other massive public works project that put a mark on America. Now he builds stadiums. 

Tall, deep voice, mustache, a cigar in his right hand, and a modified hard hat that looks like a Stetson kind of sets Sid apart.   Sid has a disarming smile and Sid has a message: "We are 25-30% done on the project. We will open, we will play baseball April, 2112."

The roofed ballpark is in a skeletal state, lots of concrete and re-bar looming over the Little Havana neighborhood where the Orange Bowl once stood. About 350 workers scramble over the structure, there will be 800 on site as it progresses.

Sid and the Stadium construction coordinator Claude DeLorme had a message for the folks taking the media tour: "We are on time and on budget."  They did not produce any spread sheets or "the books," but several weeks ago baseball stadium booster and County Manager George Burgess had sent a memo to county officials detailing how the stadium was right on track and the construction project was not bleeding money.  No Fine Arts Center fiasco with the baseball stadium, so far.

Every fat cat baseball team owner tried to get a baseball-only stadium. Remember Wayne Huizenga, John Henry? Then came Jeffry Loria. Loria finally got it. Not without a fight and not without having to endure court hearings and getting bashed by politicians, citizen groups and even team fans.

But Loria pulled the rabbit out of the hat and he did it without enduring a vote of the people on whether or not to use public funds for a good portion of the project. Loria put up, we are told $155 million, Miami-Dade County ponied up $347 million, and the City of Miami tossed in $13 million. 

The total project could cost, at the end of the forty year financing scheme, $2.4 billion.  Pretty neat deal for the Marlins, but now it is time to make nice.

Job one for the Marlins is to get fans to feel good about the new ballyard. That it is on time and on budget is a good place to start. Even die-hard baseball fans had misgiving about all the public dough stacked up to make the stadium happen.

Claude DeLorme noted that the stadium has brought in plenty of jobs and that has spread good will in the community.

Look for more Marlin good deeds. Next will be an opening of a public facility on the stadium site. Season ticket holders will flock in to pick their new seats.  That will generate plenty of baseball buzz just as the new season opens.

For sure there will be more "dog and pony" tours as the stadium nears completion. There will be a topping off ceremony where politicians, even those who opposed the whole deal, will soak in the limelight. They will forget the Marlin's threats to move the team out of town if they did not get "their stadium."

Remember Las Vegas and San Antonio? 

So as the sun sets on Little Havana, all is well. The stadium super structure is reaching the sky and it is, amazingly, on budget.

 Hank Tester has been covering news and politics in South Florida since 1992.