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Marlins Break Ground On Its Field Of Dreams

LITTLE HAVANA (CBS4) - After years of fighting over costs, threats from both sides, and countless hours negotiating, the Florida Marlins broke ground on their new 37,000 seat retractable-roof stadium on Saturday. Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig helped break ground with team and local officials at Saturday's ceremony.

For years, county and city leaders struggled with the idea of finding funding for the new stadium, so as not to overburden the local taxpayers. Deals came and went until in the last year, a deal agreeable to both sides was struck and passed by the city and county commissions.

Since Florida's first season in 1993, they have shared Dolphin Stadium with the Miami Dolphins. The team believes a retractable-roof facility will help draw more fans during South Florida's hot and rainy summers.

By Saturday morning, thousands had poured into the stadium to watch the groundbreaking celebration.

Monica Gonzalez brought her small dog.

"I'm really excited," she told CBS4's Gio Benitez.

The groundbreaking was officially given the green light a few weeks ago after a marathon meeting of Miami-Dade commissioners.

"Today we're not talking about a ballpark. We're not dreaming about a ballpark. We are building a ballpark," Mayor Carlos Alvarez told the crowd.

But before construction could begin -- a major issue had to be settled. It was the $306 million the county pledged in tourism taxes. Those taxes are the collateral needed to secure the bonds to help pay for $2.4 billion stadium construction. On Wall Street, the county found interest rates on some of those bonds were higher than expected.

So, the county could only secure $300 million in bond financing, not the originally planned $306 million. The Marlins ended the long impasse by promising to cover the $6 million dollar difference if it comes to that.

Workers have actually been clearing the ground for the new stadium for a few weeks, but Saturday's ceremony marks the official beginning of construction. The promise of some construction jobs with the stadium turned out so many unemployed workers a few weeks ago, that some were temporarily turned away.

Stadium construction could create five to six thousand jobs, according to a Marlins spokesman. Also, the team has committed to ensuring that 50 percent of the construction jobs involve Miami-Dade county residents. Trade unions in Miami are the most plugged in when it comes to the needs of subcontractors, and even they make relatively modest assumptions about how many jobs will available to their workers.

Saturday's celebration is the beginning of the end of a long process that should keep Major League Baseball, and the Marlins, in South Florida for years to come.