Dolphins’ stadium plans halted after bill sidelined

The Miami Dolphins halted plans to renovate Sun Life Stadium after Florida lawmakers failed to take up a bill that would finance part of the renovation with public subsidies, the franchise’s chief executive Mike Dee told a Miami CBS affiliate Sunday.

Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was hoping to win legislative approval for $289 million over 30 years from an increase in mainland Miami-Dade’s hotel tax rate and $90 million over the same period in sales-tax subsidies, the Miami Herald reported.

“I don’t think Steve or any of us knew the condition of the facility was as desperate as it was when he bought the team,” Dee said in a live interview on “Facing South Florida with Jim Defede.”

After a heated debate over whether to invest public funds into a professional sports facility, Florida’s House of Representatives ended the annual lawmaking session without taking up the team-backed bill, the Herald said.

The Dolphins had argued a public-private partnership was needed to make crucial repairs to the Sun Life Stadium if the team hoped to compete in a bid to host the 2016 Super Bowl.

“I wouldn’t want to prognosticate what the future holds but it’s clearly bleak,” Dee said. [WFOR-CBS4] –Emily Schmall