The Marlins’ moment of truth

Miami-Dade officials have set the vote — and released the final renderings and sketches and stuff — for the Marlins’ new stadium:

Miami and Miami-Dade leaders are poised to cast rapid-fire, historic votes that could end the decade-long search for a permanent home for the two-time World Series champion Florida Marlins.

If approved Feb. 13, the partially glass-encased, 37,000-seat facility with a retractable roof would rise to face the downtown skyline from the Little Havana grounds where the revered Orange Bowl once stood.

The votes, required for five contracts that must be approved before ground can be broken, could be vindication for team owner Jeffrey Loria, who, like the two owners before him, suffered through a series of broken last-minute deals at the hands of government.

You all know how I feel about publicly-funded stadiums, so for philosophical reasons I’m hoping this doesn’t pass. And in an ideal world, the vote’s failure would result in Jeff Loria throwing up his hands and selling the team to someone who would build a stadium themselves and make Miami the amazing baseball town it certainly could be.

But we also know that won’t happen. If this fails, there will be more political junk, followed by even greater cuts to the Marlins baseball operations (if that’s even possible), followed by an eventual move to a town with more pliant politicians. So I suppose this is a lose-lose proposition. Which was probably inevitable the moment Loria took control of the team.