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Sun Life Renovations Begin

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Ross is going to be ****ed when the NFL says no SB for you.
 
Those saying the roof will increase crowd noise, so would the extra 10k seats they're removing. I'd bet the stadium will be less loud on the occasion it does fill up.

Other than that, the renderings look great!
 
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Can't wait to be rid of that clown show on the exterior of the ramp.
 
Also interesting:

The Miami Dolphins plan to get $50 million from the National Football League's financing program for the $425 million renovation of Sun Life Stadium that recently got underway, according to government documents.

Under the NFL's "G-4" financing program, teams can borrow money for a stadium project, then pay it back using ticket revenue that would otherwise go back to the league. The $50 million figure described in a Miami-Dade bond application is a third of the $150 million in G-4 financing that a county consultant estimated the Dolphins could have qualified for in 2013.

At the time, the Dolphins were pursuing an increase in the county's hotel tax to provide about $115 million toward what was then estimated as a $350 million renovation. That plan failed when the Florida Legislature declined to lift a state cap on hotel-tax rates, prompting owner Stephen Ross and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to negotiate a new deal in 2014.

League rules require government assistance for a G-4 loan. The Dolphins are supplying the money for the renovation, which includes a partial canopy, new suites, and replacing existing seats with new ones. But under a deal struck with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez in June, the Dolphins will receive up to $5 million a year in hotel taxes for bringing Super Bowl, World Cup and other large sporting events to the renovated stadium.

In pursuing the deal, Dolphins executives said they weren't sure if the NFL would consider the arrangement as qualifying for the G-4 program. Owners later said Sun Life would qualify under the agreement. It's not known if the terms of the county deal impacted how much financing that fellow league owners were willing to give Ross for the renovation, which is expected to be done prior to the 2017 season. Team executives were not immediately available for comment.

The Dolphins are also pursuing $50 million in construction money from a state stadium program.

The $50 million figure is tucked into the agenda of an upcoming Finance Committee meeting of the Miami-Dade County Commission. The Dolphins want to use a government-financing program that lets for-profit companies sell bonds through a county-run board, then make the debt payments using private dollars.

Ross' organization would borrow $100 million through the county's Industrial Development Authority. The IDA would issue taxable bonds on Wall Street, and the Dolphins would pay back the debt using team dollars. County documents say Miami-Dade has no exposure to the debt if the Dolphins default. The Dolphins have used IDA for past stadium projects.
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http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nake...illion-sun-life-renovation.html#storylink=cpy
 
The renovations cost 450 million, for that much they should just dish out some more money and move it closer to Miami
 
It's encouraging that they are tearing out and reconfiguring the 100 level, instead of sloppily adding more rows closer to the field. Some early reports and renderings indicated just the opposite.

No doubt it will be an improvement. But at what cost? Decades. Fans in Dallas would have applauded the differences in a newly patched Texas Stadium in the late '90s, if Jerry Jones had been dense enough to follow through on his original plan.

The problem, as always, is that patches are hardly ideal. You don't receive a full 1-1 return on the dollar when you are forced to rely on the realities of an existing structure as opposed to starting from scratch, with every variable as good as you can make it. In this case an altered lower bowl will coexist with an upper deck design from the mid '80s.

There will be mistakes. That's another guarantee. No matter how carefully they plan they can't perfectly duplicate every normal condition, or anticipate unusual circumstance.

I already win the wager that the estimated cost would be too low. Combine this $425 million with the prior patchworks and now you're beyond what a new venue would have cost if Huizenga had been sharp enough to go that route.

The location is a disaster. Not merely for the Canes. For the community. Anybody who prioritizes a compromise venue as opposed to the heart of a vital city has no idea what they are doing. Access roads are the focus of fools. It's the same overmatched philosophy Paul Dee used when he bragged that he looked at alumni distribution specifics when deciding to relocate from the Orange Bowl to Sun Life.

When dullards are making the decisions, you end up with flawed patchwork like this. It's been the overriding problem with the Dolphins organization for two decades, and more recently with the Canes. Mediocre minds will be attracted to mediocre solutions, and hire mediocre coaches who hire mediocre assistants. And so forth. Stephen Ross for all his dollars has a patchwork mind when it comes to football, which is how we end up with Joe Philbin at coach and decisions like this one.

Given my age in my 50s, this move likely encompasses the remainder of my lifespan. I can take it. I've prepared for it, even though it's somewhat difficult to believe. In my youth the Dolphins were run by sharp guys like Joe Thomas then Shula and Bobby Beathard. In one sentence they stood out as special. We had that trump card Orange Bowl for surreal home field advantage, especially useful when the teams themselves were terrific. I was so smug prior to those home games. Go ahead visitor, give it your best shot. Lots of luck.

It was inconceivable that we could brainstorm to give it away. Notice that Belichick understands the necessity to steal a vital few percent whenever available. He chooses to defer every time he wins the coin toss. That has proven to align with a small edge. He uses nothing but lefty punters to force the return teams to deal with different spin and angles than they otherwise see. The local Miami teams have no trouble sacrificing the critical few percent because they don't know it exists. What could go wrong if we play in a glorified home neutral site, even if it's dozens of miles from campus?

These Dolphins don't seem like the real Dolphins anyway. I lost hope for them long ago. The real Dolphins had ultra sharp guys like **** Anderson patrolling the secondary. Number 13 for the Miami Dolphins is Jake Scott. The current version is like frauds wearing somewhat similar cloth, and a motion sickness logo. I feel worst for guys about a decade younger than myself. They never knew the early '70s teams. That generation grew up believing the Dan Marino years were actually something to cherish. Cupcake passing team. Scary.

I had considerably more hope for the Canes. Heck, even a year ago there was brief hope of escape to the venue proposed by David Beckham, who doesn't embrace dullard patchwork in irrelevant locations.
 
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Again, complainers and *****es. Originally the Dolphins seeked county and state funds and everyone was up in arms over it. Never mind the fact that every new stadium that has been built over the 15 years has received as such.

Philbin could've wiped his hands with all this and said **** it. Move the team or leave the 30 yr old stadium as is, in a detoriated condition.

So Philbin decides to spend $350MM of his money to fix all the issues fans and the NFL wants but that's not good enough. Now people want a new stadium. Really. And where are those funds coming from? County and State? Of course. Everyone will agree to that. Let's spend $1.2B for a new stadium...

Some of you...
 
561Cane said:
Again, complainers and *****es. Originally the Dolphins seeked county and state funds and everyone was up in arms over it. Never mind the fact that every new stadium that has been built over the 15 years has received as such.

Philbin could've wiped his hands with all this and said **** it. Move the team or leave the 30 yr old stadium as is, in a detoriated condition.

So Philbin decides to spend $350MM of his money to fix all the issues fans and the NFL wants but that's not good enough. Now people want a new stadium. Really. And where are those funds coming from? County and State? Of course. Everyone will agree to that. Let's spend $1.2B for a new stadium...

Some of you...
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Ross is the one spending all of the money on the renovations. Philbin will be lucky to still be employed after next season.
 
A couple upgrades I'd love to see. Upgrade the tunnels to account for the teams entrance on the field. The helmet jumpin around is a staple. But somehow encorperate it into the tunnel so the players dot have to run 15 yards on the **** field before reaching the tunnel. And step up the smoke game! Lots of other schools have taken it to the next level, time for us to catch up!
 
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Port Knox said:
A couple upgrades I'd love to see. Upgrade the tunnels to account for the teams entrance on the field. The helmet jumpin around is a staple. But somehow encorperate it into the tunnel so the players dot have to run 15 yards on the **** field before reaching the tunnel. And step up the smoke game! Lots of other schools have taken it to the next level, time for us to catch up!
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I think this team has a little bit more to worry about than a tunnel walk and smoke.
 
Port Knox said:
A couple upgrades I'd love to see. Upgrade the tunnels to account for the teams entrance on the field. The helmet jumpin around is a staple. But somehow encorperate it into the tunnel so the players dot have to run 15 yards on the **** field before reaching the tunnel. And step up the smoke game! Lots of other schools have taken it to the next level, time for us to catch up!
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The tunnels are relocating to the corners to make room for more seats in the middle.
 
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