Sorry for the light posts but I just got married and I’m sure my wife would kill me if she knew I was blogging about baseball on my honeymoon (actually, I just sent her for some spa treatment so I think I’m in the clear).

Anyway, Spring Training is here and the ballpark just received the City’s approval. County is up next. One more vote, that’s it.

Update: It’s done! County approved the deal by a 9-3 vote. A few open issues, but we can now say that the Miami Marlins will have a ballpark in 2011.

Speaks for itself:

The Marlins, Miami-Dade County, the city of Miami and Major League Baseball reached agreement late Friday to finance a $515 million ballpark at the site of the Orange Bowl, according to a source.

The agreement was not released, but was expected to be distributed to county and city commissioners, who will need to approve it. The city has scheduled a special commission meeting to consider the deal at 9 a.m. Thursday; the county commission is to meet at 1 p.m. that day.

The deal calls for the county and city to contribute $360 million mainly in tourist taxes and a $50 million general obligation bond Miami-Dade voters approved in 2004 to renovate the Orange Bowl, but which will instead be moved to the ballpark project.The Marlins are to contribute $155 million.

We kid, of course.

Miami-Dade County is losing its cool over the constant delays in the ballpark negotiations. Honestly, this is becoming a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for both sides so they need to start compromising. The longer the wait, the easier it is for this thing to collapse.

Anyway, the County is giving the negotiations three more weeks. Then what? Who knows.

Miami Today tells us that the snag in the ballpark negotiations is all about parking.

A preliminary agreement in December gave Miami the responsibility to build a 6,000-space garage near the stadium at the Orange Bowl site and find 6,000 more spaces nearby. But city officials, including Manager Pete Hernandez, have maintained since last month they plan to provide only the 6,000 garage spots.

There is no doubt that infrastructure was one of the biggest issues surrounding the Orange Bowl location. The same thing happened with the DC ballpark and they ended up tabling the issue to get it done. If this is really the final hurdle then maybe MLB drops the issue to make it happen.

The weirdest comment had to be this:

Miami commission Chairman Joe Sanchez, whose district includes the Orange Bowl, said last month area residents depend on income from selling game-day lawn parking.

“I am OK with 6,000 (spaces),” he said. “Twelve thousand I may not be OK with.”

Yes, I think he’s saying that he doesn’t want to deny his constituents a chance to sell their front lawns for stadium parking. Welcome to Miami in the 21st century.

Looks like the ballpark is not on Tuesday’s Miami-Dade County Commission agenda.

Provided without comment: Miami Today: Start construction now — but not on global agreement jobs

The fine reporters at Miami Today lead off with a major updated on the ballpark project.

It looks like the Marlins are so confident that they deal will get done that they have retained HOK Sports and are already reviewing 3 different ballpark designs. The new $389.4 million ballpark will include a retractable roof, 37,000 seats, and 60 club suites. These details come from a preliminary agreement between Miami-Dade, Miami, and the Marlins.

Under the agreement, the Marlins would keep proceeds from the naming rights to the new ballpark, and construction materials used to build the stadium — totaling $525 million — would not be subject to sales taxes, pending state approval.

“The team has determined that the baseball stadium can be completed within the stadium project budget,” the agreement says. But the preliminary contract stipulates that the Marlins would be bound to pay costs “that exceed the stadium project budget” of $525 million.

As expected, the Marlins are assuming all cost overruns.

The budget allocates $389.4 million for construction, $4.2 million to furnish the stadium and $131 million for planning, design, infrastructure and demolition of the Orange Bowl and other costs.

The county, which would own the stadium, is to contribute $249 million, Miami $121 million and the Marlins $155 million. Although its costs could be greater, the team would be required to set aside $20 million for cost overruns and any claims that resulted from building the stadium.

The agreement also states that these cost assume that Orange Bowl will be razed by March 31, 2008 with the city bearing all those costs.

Some other interesting details include:

• The Marlins will get office space form the city or county within 2 miles of the stadium for use as a marketing office
• 10% of the planning, design and construction must come from small businesses
• The construction manager must be a Florida contractor and the choice is subject to a veto by the county
• The Marlins will provide monthly updates to the county on the schedule and costs
• The Marlins payment to the county is due upon three months notice
• The project will have three construction bank accounts with all interest earned directed towards covering additional costs or repaying bonds
• The city and county get 12 dates a year for community events but the Marlins can reject these events if they are risky to the playing field, conflict with baseball rules, or incompatible with sponsorships

Finally, the report adds that the team may be on the hook for another $6.1 million:

The team wants the state to exempt construction materials from its sales tax, which would save $4.4 million, and another $1.7 million in waivers from city and county impact fees.

The sales tax waiver would need an OK from the Legislature, which is looking to cut this year’s budget $1 billion.

Bottom line: It’s almost done. They’ve worked out the fine details and the Marlins have already hired a design firm.

Looks like February 5th will the day when Miami-Dade County will vote on the ballpark proposal. That means the sides haven’t finalized the definitive agreement.

The bottom line is very encouraging:

“From what I’ve been told, we are so close it’s incredible; it’s very minor differences,” [Commission Chairman Bruno ] Barreiro said Thursday. “Our attorneys have said we’ve never been closer.”

Remember how those clowns in Broward County decided to throw money at the Baltimore Orioles for their stupid spring training site instead of investing those resources in a Marlins ballpark? Well, the Orioles are about to flip Broward off on their way up to Vero Beach.

Two Fort Lauderdale city commissioners suspect the Baltimore Orioles may abandon plans to overhaul Fort Lauderdale Stadium in favor of moving to Dodgertown in Vero Beach.

A source told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Thursday the team has an option agreement with Indian River County to move to Dodgertown, once the Los Angeles Dodgers move to Arizona, expected in 2009 or 2010.

Now, I know $40 Million is not the same as $400 Million, but Broward’s weird decision to spend so much on 30 days of spring training made no sense when you consider that a 30-year 81-day partner was looking for a deal.

If you haven’t heard already, Miami-Dade County has delayed the vote on the stadium plan because they’re still negotiating the final deal.