|
For decades football has
been a part of the Miami landscape including being the home of the Dolphins (NFL),
Hurricanes (NCAA), nine Super Bowls and the annual Orange Bowl
game. In 1966 the Miami Dolphins joined the NFL as
an expansion franchise under the ownership of Joe Robbie. They
played at the Orange Bowl, a 72,000 seat stadium they shared with
the Hurricanes (NCAA). In the late 1970s and early 1980s
after playing at the Orange Bowl for several decades, Dolphins
owner, Joe Robbie, began lobbying for a new stadium for his team.
After voters continually rejected tax increases for a stadium to
be built, Robbie decided build the stadium himself. After finding
a site to build the stadium, construction began in December 1985.
Construction costs for the facility were paid for by the selling
of luxury suites, club seats, private funds and long term
agreements with season ticket holders. The stadium was completed
in under two years and originally named after Joe Robbie.
The Miami Dolphins played their first game at
Joe Robbie Stadium on August 16, 1987. Joe Robbie Stadium was a
major upgrade from the Orange Bowl. The state of the art facility
has 75,000 orange and teal seats that enclose the field. The
numerous circular ramps and escalators make accessibility to any seat
very
easy. Two high-definition video boards are located above the rim of the upper deck
of each end zone. In 1990, in an effort to bring MLB baseball to
Florida, Wayne Huizenga purchased 50% of Joe Robbie Stadium. In 1991, MLB awarded
Miami
a team, the Florida Marlins, who began playing in 1993. Joe Robbie
Stadium now became a multipurpose facility. When the stadium
was built for the Dolphins, Joe Robbie insisted on a rectangular
grandstand layout that was wider than needed for football,
believing that baseball would one day come to Miami. The seats in
the lower level on the north side of the stadium become
retractable, so the field can be configured for baseball. For 21
season the Marlins played at the stadium before
moving into their own ballpark in 2012. In 1996, Joe Robbie Stadium was renamed Pro
Player
Stadium, after Pro Player bought the naming rights
to the stadium.
In 2005 owner of the Dolphins, Wayne Huizenga,
announced that he would renovate and expand
the stadium. The $300 million project, completed in
2010 included remodeling the club level and luxury
suites, new scoreboards and additional parking. Over the past decade, the stadium has had
numerous names: Dolphin Stadium, Land Shark Stadium and currently
Hard Rock Stadium. The stadium has been the host to two World Series in
1998 and 2003, and five Super Bowls in 1989, 1995,
1999, 2007 and 2010. It is also the home of the
Miami Hurricanes (NCAA) football team.
In January 2013, Dolphins owner
Stephen Ross unveiled plans to renovate Hard Rock
Stadium in order to make the facility competitive to
host future Super Bowls, college football
championship games and as the home of the Miami
Dolphins. Originally, the Dolphins wanted the state
to pay half of the cost of the project. However,
financing was blocked and in June 2014 the Dolphins
announced they would fund the $350 million project
in an agreement with Miami-Dade County that it would
pay the team every time a major event was held at
Hard Rock Stadium. The renovation project is slated
to begin in Summer 2014 and be complete by the 2016
season. It includes reconfiguring the lower deck,
pushing the seating closer to the field, new HD
video/scoreboards in the stadium corners and an
open-air canopy, shielding fans from the elements
while keeping the playing field exposed.
The Orange Bowl is now part of six bowl
games that will host two semifinal college football
playoff games on a rotating basis, hosting a
semifinal game in 2016. Years that the bowl does not
host a semifinal playoff game, the Peach Bowl will
feature a team from the ACC and a team from the SEC
or Big Ten.
|
