Baseball Chief Says Florida Marlins Will Move Unless Team Gets New Stadium.

Publication: The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Miami Herald

Byline: Marika Lynch

Apr. 26--TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--Dramatically raising the stakes in the battle for a new stadium for the Florida Marlins, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said Wednesday that the sport will likely move the team out of South Florida -- or abolish it altogether -- if it doesn't get a new ballpark.

Though the possibility that Miami could lose the team was mentioned by Marlins owner John Henry in March, Selig's statement was the first confirmation from Major League Baseball that the national pastime is doomed in South Florida if the Legislature doesn't approve a giant sales tax rebate to fund construction of a new stadium.

"This current plan provides a final opportunity for the Marlins to remain in South Florida," Selig wrote in a letter to Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, the rebate's Senate sponsor. "Bluntly,...

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