Race-Based Construction Deal For New Marlins Ballpark Canceled

Marlins Had Pledged Black-Owned Businesses Would Get 15% Of Work On Ballpark

The Marlins' "pledge to steer millions of dollars in construction contracts for their proposed ballpark to black-owned businesses is dead," according to Dolan & Rabin of the MIAMI HERALD. Just four days after the team and local black leaders signed the deal, "hailing it as a historic breakthrough in county race relations, they agreed to kill it because Miami-Dade County Attorney Robert Cuevas said the pact would violate court rulings prohibiting governments from awarding contracts based on race." The Marlins had pledged that black-owned businesses would get 15% of the work from the team's $120M contribution to the ballpark's construction and also "promised 15[%] of the operations budget to black-owned businesses once the stadium opens." But Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami are "funding the rest" of the $639M cost for the stadium, parking, and public-works project. Cuevas said that that "means the rules that apply to public projects apply to the stadium deal." Miami-Dade Commissioner Carlos Gimenez -- "a stadium critic -- accused the Marlins of knowing the compact was doomed, but going ahead with it to court support in the black community." Gimenez said that the county attorney's office "warned the Marlins weeks ago that the proposed compact would violate the law and put the future of the stadium in jeopardy." Gimenez said the Marlins "knew very well what they were getting into." He added Marlins President David Samson is "either disingenuous or incompetent." But Samson yesterday said that the team has been "working on the compact with" Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce President Bill Diggs for the "past nine months and that nobody from the county attorney's office warned them that it should not be signed." Samson: "Absolutely not. If Carlos Gimenez is intimating something was said, the answer is no." Dolan & Rabin note though the contracts for black-owned businesses are "no longer guaranteed, the companies will still be able to compete for the work if the stadium is approved" (MIAMI HERALD, 3/18).