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Plan OK'd For New Marlins Stadium

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The Associated Press

Published: February 22, 2008

MIAMI - The Florida Marlins finally have an agreement for the baseball-only ballpark they have coveted for nearly a decade.

Still, their long fight for a new home is far from done.

After lengthy and often-contentious debate, Miami-Dade County commissioners - some doing so grudgingly - voted 9-3 Thursday night to approve a basic plan for a $515 million, retractable-roof stadium that would open in time for the 2011 season.

City commissioners approved the Baseball Stadium Agreement by a 4-1 vote several hours earlier.

The 37,000-seat facility would be at the site of the Orange Bowl, which is to be demolished in the coming months.

But several issues, including the particularly thorny matter of deciding if city or county police and fire departments will be patrolling the new facility, remain unresolved. An agreement on the police-fire staffing front must be struck within 30 days, or the plan - and maybe the Marlins franchise - would likely be doomed.

The county would pay $347 million in stadium construction costs, mostly from tourism taxes. The Marlins would pay $155 million, some through a $2.3 million annual rent bill, plus agree to buy 5,750 parking spots from the city for 35 seasons - essentially paying off the garage-building cost.

Phils' Howard Wins $10M In Arbitration

CLEARWATER - Ryan Howard won his salary arbitration case against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday when he was awarded $10 million, the highest figure awarded a victorious player.

The 2006 NL MVP, who had been offered $7 million by the Phillies, became the first player to win in six arbitration cases this season.

Howard tied the record for the highest salary awarded in arbitration, received by Alfonso Soriano in his losing case against the Washington Nationals in 2006. Soriano had sought $12 million.

JAPAN SERIES: Tickets for baseball's season-opening series between the Red Sox and Athletics at the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome on March 25-26 have sold out.

LEGAL: Slugger Barry Bonds has submitted court papers complaining his chances for a fair trial could be hurt by typographical errors in a government filing wrongly accusing him of flunking a drug test in 2001. ... Lenny Dykstra has been sued by the accounting firm of DDK & Co. LLP of Manhattan that says the former All-Star owes at least $111,000 for accounting and tax work.

TIGERS: Gary Sheffield stirred things up Thursday morning by calling Scott Boras, his former agent, a "bad person" in part for going after money the All-Star says he doesn't deserve. The dispute stems from the $39 million, three-year contract Sheffield signed in 2003 with the Yankees.

Sheffield declined to comment on the specifics of the grievance.

WHITE SOX: The team will wear Northern Illinois University baseball caps in its opening spring training game next week to honor the school and the victims of a shooting rampage earlier this month.

YANKEES: Alex Rodriguez says he was exaggerating Wednesday when he claimed he was given nine or 10 drug tests last year. "I know it was more than one," Rodriguez said Thursday. "It's a few."

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