Rudderless Miami Marine Stadium adrift without a skipper

One person has been right all along about restoring Miami Marine Stadium: Commissioner Joe Carollo has insisted that the city have a game plan that begins with what the decaying stadium would be used for and how to ensure it wouldn’t become a cost drain.

When he led a city commission charge last week to defund restoration until the city has studied not just how to rebuild the stadium at how much cost but the revenue side of the equation, he won the grudging agreement of even some avid stadium proponents.

Little is more romantic than restoring a unique architectural structure in a splendid Virginia Key location to entertain residents and visitors. In a vacuum, who could oppose the notion?
Unfortunately, for about two decades that is what it has been: a notion.

Although conceptually we support a restored stadium welcoming the public, for years we have been asking for concrete details about not just restoration of an architectural gem but who would use it for what and how the business plan would produce a profit center rather than a money pit, which the stadium was before Hurricane Andrew damage shut it down more than 30 years ago.

So in 2021, when the city commission called for a plan for exactly how a restored marine stadium could function financially we cheered – far too soon, because the city never did the study.

The city has officially been trying to reopen the stadium since Tomás Regalado made it a priority before his 2009 election as mayor. Everything focused on the history of concerts by famed performers and boat races, without noting that races had ceased in the 1980s because they lost money, costing the city more than $1 million a year.

As we have noted before, save-the-stadium aims are like grabbing a handful of Jello, with lots of ideas but nothing to come to grips with. One proposal offered more than 50 potential uses as concepts and nothing beyond that.

We spelled it out this way six years ago: “Restoration must follow a solid business plan that outlines not only the principal uses but who would operate the stadium and under what payment terms, who would ensure finances to maintain and keep it open, what nearby city properties would be included under the stadium’s umbrella, and how the city would ensure a Good Neighbor Policy with Key Biscayne.”

Since then, we would add another caveat: a thorough vetting of the operator not just on ability to book events and run venues but to be certain that the city did not pick a firm that might soon implode. Think of cryptocurrency trader FTX and the county’s basketball arena.

Without an operator and specific uses, restoration is a no-go. If you don’t know the purpose, all you can restore is a shell.

In February 2022, facing a marine stadium bond funding vote the commission deferred it and asked the city manager for the long-awaited feasibility study.

That’s where the matter sat until administrators returned last week to seek bond authorization for the stadium. Mr. Carollo balked, asking again for a study that had been ordered more than a year and a half earlier. As usual, no study was ready. Blame whoever you like, the result was logical – kill all restoration funding until a plan is agreed upon.

Mr. Carollo has been consistent in seeking that, as have we. Good intentions are one thing; a solid business plan is another.

In a 2018 commission meeting, Mr. Carollo asked for a firm plan for use and both construction and operating budgets. “My concern is that we’re creating another white elephant,” he said.

He no doubt remembers when the city built another waterfront marvel designed by globally famed sculptor Isamu Noguchi, the glorious white Mildred and Claude Pepper Fountain in Bayfront Park shooting 36 jets of water skyward in five computerized water shows. But the city hadn’t planned for any operating cost or fund source, so it shut down the fountain and ripped out the mechanism. The dry fountain later became the base of a carnival sky balloon ride. Noguchi’s marvel was gone.

Almost everyone would welcome a restored Miami Marine Stadium. We would more than welcome someone to lead the charge to get it done, whether it’s stepping up with funding or merely prodding the city to finally get its act together.

Without leadership, commissioners are properly going to keep asking for facts, they are going to keep getting none, the cycle of futility will regrettably continue, and the marine stadium will decay beyond hope of restoration.