What was once home to world-class speedboat races, sold-out rock concerts and boxing matches now sits abandoned behind a fenced-off section of Virginia Key.
MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) -— Miami Marine Stadium is a shell of its former self.
What was once home to world-class speedboat races, sold-out rock concerts and boxing matches now sits abandoned behind a fenced-off section of Virginia Key, a slice of land south of downtown Miami.
More than a quarter-century after the modernist concrete structure was condemned due to hurricane damage, trespassers have replaced patrons. Security guards are the new ushers. Heaping piles of illegally dumped trash and rubble now cover a ground once carpeted by ticket stubs.
The City of Miami has committed $42 million to restore the stadium and create a mixed-use park around it.
“We want this to be a signature space,” the municipality’s chief of urban design, David Snow, said at a recent town hall meeting organized to solicit public opinion.
Previous attempts by past administrations and outside groups all failed amid budget concerns and fruitless political negotiations. But now the city has the political wherewithal to get it done, and in fact has already hired a design team, Snow said, noting, “We’ve been waiting for this since 1992.”
Built in 1963, Miami Marine Stadium was the brainchild of a young and ambitious Cuban architect named Hilario Candela.
For decades, it was home to hundreds of spectacles. In 1972, Sammy Davis Jr. warmly embraced President Richard Nixon at the stadium during a rally to support his re-election bid. Queen performed there in 1975, when tickets cost a mere $3 apiece. And other musicians, from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Whitney Houston and Jimmy Buffet, entertained crowds from the stadium’s floating stage.
