Huizenga Kills Hopes for New Marlins Stadium

Although his motives may not have been pure, Wayne Huizenga's recent statements - both in public and apparently in private - seem to have put obtaining the remaining funding necessary for the Marlins new ballpark in jeopardy:

"This has all been pursued on the predicate that we're going to lose baseball in southeast Florida if we don't find a home for the Marlins," Senate President Tom Lee said of the tax subsidy. "[Huizenga] told me he has absolutely no intention of kicking the Marlins out after 2010. If they want a home, they will have a home ... I just want to make sure we're not stuck in a box canyon here when there might be more options."

If nothing else, Tom Lee is usually good for a quote. Here he's not calling anyone a terrorist, but I'll probably need some help in understanding what a box canyon is.

At least this recent development helps to shed more light onto the stadium financing situation. Apparently the state's interest in the project is not driven by the alleged economic benefits of building the ballpark, but instead the interest comes from a desire to see the team remain in the state. That's not necessarily a better reason to throw somewhere between $60 and $420 million at the project, but it's at least a little reassuring to see that they're not being wooed by the implausible financials that have been bandied about.

We'll see where this goes from here, but it seems that the Marlins could be playing in Dolphins Stadium for some time to come.