Marlins brass and Miami-Dade County officials worked long into the night and early hours of the morning to reach an agreement and it looks like the team is going to pick up the $6 million difference after the sale of bonds to fund the new baseball stadium fell short.
The county was hoping to raise $306 million through bonds, and came oh so close with just under $300 million after fluctuations in the bond market jacked up the interest rates. The county commission had voted 9-3 in favor of the bond sale.
That's when the Marlins agreed to pony up the extra $6.2 million.
"This whole process has been extremely challenging from day one. I've been at this for over 5 years," said Marlins President David Samson."The fact is that some of the bonds that we were trying to sell we couldn't sell at the interest rate that we wanted to."
Samson assured commission members that the additional costs to the team won't alter any of the construction elements and that the stadium will feature all the elements as planned.
Construction began this morning on the new $500+ million stadium which will sit at the site of the demolished Orange Bowl in Little Havana. Crews rolled into the area at 7 a.m. to begin grading the land.
It took over 10 years to get the city and county to approve the new 37,000-seat stadium, which will feature a retractable roof and is scheduled to be ready for opening day 2012.
