The Miami Dolphins have been working through the political process, in hopes of securing public tax dollars to help renovate Sun Life Stadium.  We won’t bore you with the logistics of the operation, just know that the tax dollars would have been paid by tourists (in way of a hotel tax) and the Dolphins would have repaid what is essentially a loan, over a 30 year time period.  The Dolphins were hoping the state legislature would pass the necessary measures to open the tax up to the voting public.  On Friday, the legislature slammed the door on the Dolphins hopes.  The state legislature denied the Dolphins request, which means the Dolphins will need to pay for any renovations on their own.

Photo Courtesy of Dolphins.com

It seems as though the Dolphins are not willing to pay for any renovations, completely on their own.  Their goal in all of this is to bring more Super Bowls, NCAA football bowls, and international sporting events to South Florida.  Apparently, the powers that be did not see it as a worthwhile investment.  The Dolphins argued that the renovations were necessary to win future Super Bowls, which bring a large amount of economic boom to the South Florida community.  Again, the politicians saw things a little differently.  You can understand why, since the Marlins Park was recently paid for by taxpayers…..and we saw what happened there.  After 1 season of ‘going for it’, the Marlins dismantled their team and now operate with the 2nd lowest payroll in MLB.  After essentially getting burned, you can sort of understand the politicians position, even though the deal was structured MUCH differently with the Dolphins.

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