Miami's Baseball Stadium Boondoggle Keeps Looking Worse

As Miami considers using taxes to fund yet another stadium project, analysis indicates the hundreds of millions in public subsidies used for the construction of the city's new baseball stadium will end up costing taxpayers more than $2 billion.

2 minute read

January 25, 2013, 12:00 PM PST

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


In order to fund a new $639 million ballpark and parking complex for the Miami Marlins, team owner Jeffrey Loria was able to pursuade Miami-Dade County to kick in 70 percent of the cost. Sounds like a sweet deal, right? For Loria, absolutely, but for taxpayers its looking increasingly bad, reports Douglas Hanks.

Because, as Barry Petchesky at Deadspin points out, construction on the stadium needed to start and be paid for immediately, the county was forced to sell bonds on Wall Street at terrible terms. How terrible you ask? As Mayor Carlos Gimenez mentioned recently, just one set of stadium bonds worth about $90 million will cost close to $1.2 billion to pay back by 2048.

"The high interest comes from the penalty Miami-Dade must pay in exchange for a repayment plan that lets the county delay by 15 years making it [sic] first debt-service payment to the Wall Street lenders who bought the bonds," says Hanks. "Because Miami-Dade couldn’t afford a straight-line paydown of the loan — like a home mortgage — the finance team had to be more creative in borrowing the money on Wall Street. Unlike most bonds, these can’t be repaid back early either."

"Remember," adds Petchesky, "this $1.2 billion is only on one set of bonds. The total payments for all of the $500 million borrowed by the county will eventually come in at a whopping $2.4 billion. Not only did Jeffrey Loria get taxpayers to buy him a stadium, but they bought him the most expensive stadium ever built."

Thursday, January 24, 2013 in The Miami Herald

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Redlining map of Oakland and Berkeley.

Rethinking Redlining

For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

May 15, 2025 - Alan Mallach

Interior of Place Versailles mall in Montreal, Canada.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units

Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

May 22, 2025 - CBC

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 21, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Flat modern glass office tower with "County of Santa Clara" sign.

Santa Clara County Dedicates Over $28M to Affordable Housing

The county is funding over 600 new affordable housing units via revenue from a 2016 bond measure.

May 23 - San Francisco Chronicle

Aerial view of dense urban center with lines indicating smart city concept.

Why a Failed ‘Smart City’ Is Still Relevant

A Google-backed proposal to turn an underused section of Toronto waterfront into a tech hub holds relevant lessons about privacy and data.

May 23 - Governing

Pale yellow Sears kit house with red tile roof in Sylva, North Carolina.

When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing

Kit homes sold in catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward made homeownership affordable for midcentury Americans.

May 23 - The Daily Yonder