The Florida Marlins failed to get passage of the agreements necessary to begin construction of their $515 million bond-finance ballpark last week.
Miami city commissioners met for hours discussing the agreements, which were then to be considered by the Miami-Dade County Commission in a separate meeting.
But city officials, who were one commissioner short, deadlocked and postponed their meeting until March when the missing commissioner would be present. County commissioners, unable to act without city-approved agreements, canceled their meeting.
The agreements provide for the planning, design, and construction of a 37,000-seat baseball stadium on the former Orange Bowl site, owned by the city of Miami.
The ballpark would be funded with $347 million from the county, $155 million from the team, and $13 million from the city. Miami-Dade would issue the bulk of the debt and repay its share from professional sports franchise facility, tourist development, and convention development taxes. The county also would issue $50 million of general obligation bonds for the project. The city, which is donating the land, plans to issue less than $100 million of debt backed by a convention development tax to build a parking garage. The Marlins would oversee construction and pay for cost overruns.
