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When one thinks of
cities that host the Super Bowl, Miami is one city
that is likely to come to mind. This is because the
city has hosted ten Super Bowls, five at Sun Life
Stadium and five at the Orange Bowl.
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 Miami Hurricanes (NCAA). In the late 1970s and early 1980s
after playing at the Orange Bowl for two 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. Construction
began in December 1985. Funding for stadium construction include luxury suite
and club seat sales, private funds and long term
agreements with season ticket holders. Completed in under two
years, the stadium was 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 January 2005, owner of the
Dolphins, Wayne Huizenga, announced that Pro Player
Stadium would be renamed Dolphin Stadium. Huizenga
also announced that the stadium would be renovated
and enlarged. The $300 million project, completed in
2010 included remodeling the club level and luxury
suites, new scoreboards and additional parking. In
May 2009, the stadium's naming rights were bought by
Land Shark Lager, a beer that Jimmy Buffett markets
in a deal with Anheuser-Busch. The stadium name
reverted back to Dolphin Stadium, briefly, after the
2010 FedEx Orange Bowl. Prior to Super Bowl XLIV,
the Dolphins and Sun Life Financial reached an
agreement to rename the stadium, Sun Life Stadium.
The five year deal is worth $7.5 million annually.
The stadium has been the host to two World Series in
1998 and 2003, and four Super Bowls in 1989, 1995,
1999 and 2010. In January 2013, Dolphins owner
Stephen Ross unveiled plans to renovate Sun Life
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. The estimated $400 million project would
include 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. Private
funds would cover the majority of construction costs
with an estimated completion date of 2015 if the
project is approved.
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