Tourism revenues striking out for stadium

The recent decision to delay a vote on the planned new baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins is backed up by projected shortfalls in hotel bed tax revenue. That money remains a vital pillar of financing for the $639 million stadium, and tourism needs to increase rapidly in order to reach the tax revenue needed to pay for the stadium. The plan will still succeed, provided there’s a recovery by 2012, but lodging analyst Scott Berman says there’s no more than nine months of forward visibility in such an uncertain market.