The Miami Dolphins went on their WAHHH THE GOVERNMINTS WON'T GIVE OUR BILLIONAIRE OWNER ANY FREE MONEY 2013 Tour after they were denied public funds to renovate Sun Life Stadium by the House last week.
"At no point during the process were any promises made to hear the Dolphins Stadium bill on the House floor," Weatherford said in a statement. "It's no coincidence that we haven't heard about this so-called commitment until after the bill died."
The so-called commitment Weatherford is referencing is Dolphins CEO Mike Dee's claim that the Speaker promised him and Fins owner Stephen Ross that the bill would get a vote.
Had the House voted on the bill, it would have given Miami-Dade residents a chance to vote on May 14 via a referendum on whether hotel bed-tax revenues would help pay for Ross' $400 million stadium renovation project.
The Dolphins say without this renovation, their chances of hosting a Super Bowl is kaput.
Dee accused Weatherford of putting politics ahead of the people, because an unreasonable public tantrum is the go-to move for billionaires who don't get what they want.
#Dolphins CEO Mike Dee on Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford: "This abuse of power I believe will follow his career for a long time."
-- Ben Volin (@BenVolinPBP) May 5, 2013
Weatherford, a Republican from Wesley Chapel, argues that the bill simply did not have enough support to deserve a vote. This sort of thing happens to hundreds of bills all the time. But Ross, Dee and supporters of the bill cried "political games" because of butthurt reasons.
Dee's butthurtedness then had him making ooga-booga noises about the city possibly losing the Dolphins in the future because WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....
"The Dolphins are one of the only franchises in the NFL that don't have a long-term lease with their community," Dee said. "At some point somebody's going to buy the franchise from Steve, and clearly the stadium is the first thing they would need to address."
Never mind that Ross clearly has the dough to pay for the renovations himself.
Never mind that study after study show that publicly-financed stadiums pretty much always screws the city's tax payers, even with so-called hotel bed tax promises.
The Dolphins aren't going anywhere, with our without Ross.
As for Weatherford, dude did his job. The Dolphins making loud angry noises at him only make them look desperate and pathetic.
And Weatherford wants to make it clear that there was no secret political agenda when the bill didn't get a vote in the House. It was just a matter of it not getting enough support -- like so many other bills that never see the light of day.
"It's not the fault of the Florida Legislature that Dolphins' management failed to win legislative approval to force taxpayers to upgrade Sun Life Stadium after paying for a local referendum," he said. "Some would call that putting the cart before the horse."
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