A newly released memorandum suggests Miami-Dade County lacks validation on assumptions made about the proposed plan to use tax dollars to build a professional baseball league stadium for the Florida Marlins Baseball Club.
The memo county manager Steve Shiver delivered today to the commission comes as stadium proponents maintain a heavy lobby on the Florida Legislature to appropriate sales tax rebates and parking surcharges for a stadium estimated to cost between $385 million to $521 million.
"It is critical that we begin validating all revenue assumptions, facility scope and cost assumptions, and have strong expertise to help us in refining all preliminary terms and conditions for this very large and complex public-private undertaking," according to Shiver's memo.
Over the next few weeks, county staff is expected to make recommendations on whether to hire a technical consultant to provide details on those assumptions. With the commission's approval, the staff could undertake an expedited public bidding process to hire that technical assistance.
"Firms sought will be those with the strongest national and regional experience in this very specialized area of expertise," according to the memo.
Areas of concern include:
--The business dynamics and realities of major league baseball to perform an assessment of team assumptions and projections to validate potential baseball stadium financing revenue streams, other ballpark development issues and the structure of other ballpark project agreements.
--Economic analysis and financial forecasting to validate tourist-related tax revenue, based on an analysis of tourist and visitor trends in the hospitality industry in South Florida, and other ballpark development-related revenue streams.
--Stadium design and construction to validate cost assumptions.
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