Rogue sprinklers aren’t the only thing wrong with Sun Life Stadium, apparently.
On Sunday, the sprinklers decided to turn on during the middle of the Seahawks-Dolphins matchup, but it’s not just the players that are getting all wet. Despite the fact that it last hosted a Super Bowl in 2010, Sun Life Stadium is apparently obsolete in terms of its viability to host similarly major events in the future, according to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Well, Miami would definitely like to continue hosting games such as the BCS championship which is scheduled to be played in about six weeks. The problem is, the Dolphins are still in debt from their last round of stadium renovations — a figure of about $230 million, to be exact.
So, the obvious answer is that the stadium upgrade may again be on the backs of the taxpayers, which is going to be a tricky proposition in Miami. In 2012, Marlins Stadium opened to relatively little fanfare and much criticism about the amount of public funds used to pay for the ballpark. Then, Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria broke up his high-priced team, a situation that hasn’t exactly created goodwill with the citizens of Miami and publicly funding stadiums.
Nonetheless, some politicians are already taking the necessity of the renovations as a given, and seem poised to move ahead with figuring out how to procure public funds to make them happen, as pointed out by Deadspin. Just for the record, a further renovation to Sun Life Stadium would cost another $220 million and feature a canopy to protect the stadium from the elements.
