Hello Miami!
December 18, 2007
The time is here. The time is now!
The Board of County Commissioners along with the City of Miami council has finally given the Marlins the support that they needed to finalize the dream of many Marlins fans nationwide.
With a 9-4 vote (Joe Martinez, Natascha Seijas, Rebeca Sosa and Javier Souto as the “No” votes) on Tuesday afternoon at the County Commission meeting along with a 4-1 vote (Tomas Regalado as the lone “No” vote) last Thursday at the City of Miami Council meeting, the wheels are now turning in order to finalize a new Marlins ballpark in the area that is now the Orange Bowl in Little Havana.
Although those four county commissioners voted “No,” They didn’t vote know twords the Marlins portion of the multi-billion dollar project that they voted upon on Tuesday afternoon. Martinez and Seijas voted “No,” to not having enough time to review the upcoming plans, and as for Sosa and Souto they both opposed the new Port tunnel that is part of the plan.
Now, while many people are not happy with the location and wanted downtown, that was never going to happen (in my opinion). We need to be happy, rejoice and go out and celebrate that we at least will have our team here in MIAMI where they belong, not in Las Vegas or San Antonio.
So (in my best public address announcer voice) LADIES AND GENTLEMAN WELCOME TO THE FIELD YOUR MIAMI MARLINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Because yes as part of this deal, after 2010 there will no longer be the Florida Marlins (start picking up the collectibles) but they will be Miami Marlins, the way it should have always been (once again in my opinion).
By 2011, we will have our own place to call HOME. It is a dream that has come true for the many fans that didn’t think this would happen with all the times these items have been shot down.
So you ask, “What is next?” Well the next step is to finalize the funding (which is nearly done) and get the Marlins to hand over a check to the county/city. I can see groundbreaking happening in November 2008 and us opening the new ballpark in 2011.
Now while the vote today doesn’t close out the deal, it is by far the closest that the team and us fans has ever been to a new stadium deal. The team still needs to prove that it can acquire over 150 million dollars in financing (which they say they have) and the city and county need to finalize negotiations with the team and Major League Baseball.
So Marlins fans, I ask you this, STAND UP and show your allegiance for the Fish.
If you have time, I ask that you please e-mail or call your county commissioners and/or city leaders and thank them for getting this done. It has been a long ordeal over eight years and six tries in the making, but it is finally here.
List of e-mails for the County Commission
Barbara Jordan - District1@miamidade.gov
Dorrin D. Rolle - BMORRIS2@miamidade.gov
Audrey M. Edmonson - District3@miamidade.gov
Sally A. Heyman - District4@miamidade.gov
Bruno Barreiro (chairman) - district5@miamidade.gov
Rebeca Sosa - District6@miamidade.gov
Carlos A. Gimenez - District7@miamidade.gov
Katy Sorenson - District8@miamidade.gov
Dennis C. Moss - District9@miamidade.gov
Javier Souto - District10@miamidade.gov
Joe Martinez – district11@miamidade.gov
Jose “ Pepe” Diaz - District12@miamidade.gov
Natacha Seijas – No e-mail address (305-375-4831)
List of e-mails for the City of Miami
Angel Gonzalez – agonzalez@ci.miami.fl.us
Marc Sarnoff – msarnoff@miamigov.com
Joe M. Sanchez – jsanchez@ci.miami.fl.us
Tomas P. Regalado – tregalado@ci.miami.fl.us
Michelle Specne-Jones – mspence@ci.miami.fl.us
Pedro G. Hernandez – pgh@miamigov.com
Loading ...
