Marlins officials hope for a new standing-room area where "Homer" currently is locatedGETTY IMAGES
Marlins CEO Derek Jeter is "pitching a new plan" to relocate the $2.5M Marlins Park home run sculpture outside the ballpark, and the team views it as a "key element to a major refresh" of the venue, according to Douglas Hanks of the MIAMI HERALD. A new standing-room area where "Homer" stands now would "target a younger crowd with tickets priced below the current minimum cost of $12." Marlins President of Business Operations Chip Bowers described the sculpture's current home "being transformed into a three-tier structure, with the lowest floor reserved for large groups." Bowers said that the plan "can’t move forward" with the sculpture currently in place. The Marlins are "pitching the concept as a win for public art," but the Sculpture's creator, Red Grooms, "could veto the plan." Miami-Dade County owns the sculpture, and Mayor Carlos Gimenez has "told the Marlins to get Grooms to agree to any kind of relocation." But Grooms "continues to resist" moving his seven-story monument away from center field. He said, "I don’t want to take him out." Hanks noted without an artist endorsement, Miami-Dade "risks the piece being devalued if Grooms exercises his right to 'disavow' the work for being ripped from its original setting." Jeter is "personally trying to win over Grooms to a new home for the sculpture." Grooms said of talking with Jeter, “He was very nice. He was sensitive about everything. I very much liked him. I’m sorry we have opposing views of this situation” (MIAMI HERALD, 9/29).
