Another community squeezed for a half-billion dollars, give or take, by the uber-rich.  I love baseball, but I sure do hate these deals.

I’m wondering how soon it will be before the Blue Jays, White Sox and O’s start complaining that their “ancient” parks need to be replaced.

So my question is, how definite does this make things? Didn’t Tampa recently approve a stadium too, and isn’t it on hold? Or am I wrong about that?

Agreed with the sentiments about the onus being on Marlins ownership to live up to the many promises they made in the course of the obtaining public—albeit non-local tax—monies to build the ballpark.

But as a Miamian who supported the stadium and has no illusions about the Loria MLB ownership track record - which is in my opinion:

Good - spent money from 2003 thru 2005 very effectively and established a baseball operation which has allowed them to have a .500 W/L record with minimum wage salaries for the past 3 years.

Bad - Montreal and minimum wage salaries for the past 3 years.

The answer to why someone who is aware of that would support the stadium is that I believe that the stadium ensures us of having a permanent [or at least 20 years?] MLB team in Miami. So even if the Marlins continue at the low-end of the pay scale and the record is bad and attendance does not materialize. Then the smart move is for MLB to push for a sale of the team, not to allow or encourage relocation. Especially in light of the international growth of the sport in the region. It would be, ‘the smart move.’