Dolphins owner Stephen Ross spent a pile of his own money to refurbish the place his team plays. Now he wants a little more public help to build a new place for them to practice.
According to Douglas Hanks of the Miami Herald, the Dolphins want to build a training facility next to Hard Rock Stadium, and are looking for more subsidies from Miami Gardens and Dade County.
The team currently practices in Davie, in neighboring Broward County, and there’s a competing proposal to move the training facility to Miramar (and NFL owners are great at creating competition to spur investment from others in their projects).
So Dade County officials are set to vote on a package that would increase their subsidy to the team. The Dolphins currently get up to $5 million per year from hotel taxes, a deal cut when Ross (reluctantly) spent his own money to renovate his stadium, a project estimated to cost close to $500 million.
The new county deal would bump those payments up by $750,000 a year, and a separate deal with the city of Miami Gardens would refund $500,000 per year in property taxes.
“It’s the nature of the beast,” Miami Gardens mayor Oliver Gilbert said. “We’re hoping to get things in place that will help other things happen.”
The hope is that a training facility would spark development and bring more hotels and restaurants to the area, and could lead more players and coaches and staff moving south to Dade County, increasing the tax base for the area.
