South Florida chairman bitter over Super Bowl defeat

Mike Garafolo | USA TODAY Sports

BOSTON – The press conference for the South Florida Super Bowl Committee that lost out to the Bay Area and Houston in the bids for Super Bowls L and LI on Tuesday was tremendous theater, almost like a losing postgame locker room.

Complete with the contention the best team didn't win.

"There's no doubt in talking to a couple of the chairmen, we had the better bid. I could just look at the body language of the NFL staff, we had the better bid," the committee's chairman Rodney Barreto said, suggesting the lack of public funding to renovate Sun Life Stadium was what swayed the owners in another direction.

Barreto added, "I think there are a couple of state reps down in Miami (Michael Bileca and Carlos Drujillo) where I live who are going to look in the mirror tonight and regret what they've done to Miami. This Super Bowl ain't coming back probably for another 10 years, in my opinion. We may have a baseball All-Star Game or a World Series before we get another Super Bowl, which is a shame."

That All-Star Game would be held in Marlins Park, which is alleged to be the reason the bill on the funding to renovate Sun Life Stadium was never brought to a vote by Florida House speaker Will Weatherford. The Marlins received $409 million in public funding for their ballpark and then stripped a talented roster this past offseason.

That disaster stood in the way of Dolphins owner Stephen Ross' attempts to get funding for his renovations. Weatherford made the decision not to hold the vote, but Barreto pointed the finger at Bileca and Drujillo, claiming they influenced Weatherford.

In actuality, the $409 million in funding will cost the community more than $2 billion in bonds over 40 years.

"The Marlins issue was a lightning rod issue for Miami-Dade County, and it should be," Barreto said. "And they ought to go further in Miami-Dade County. They should've gone in and investigated some people on why that deal was so one-sided and bad.

"It's easy to kind of turn the page and look back and say, "This is a terrible deal.' Why not go a little further and investigate why that was such a bad deal? I think they dropped the ball there."

Asked if he's done his own investigation on the issue, Barreto said, "No, I didn't do any of my own investigation, but I'm just saying for you to do a deal of that magnitude and not even look at the books ... my God, come on."

Ross said South Florida, which has hosted 10 Super Bowls and last hosted one in 2010, will keep trying. He also said he would keep trying to find funding for stadium renovations. Ross, whom Forbes estimated is worth $4.4 billion, isn't interested in dipping into his own pockets to update Sun Life Stadium, which opened in 1987.

"It should be a true public-private partnership," he said. "That's how all of these other cities got their stadiums, that's how new stadiums are being built in this country."

Ross also indicated he is not planning to move the team. He said he wants the team to remain in South Florida with a renovated facility.

"I've been saying for a while we need to do something to our stadium and the owners spoke, as I thought they might, though I was hoping against it," said Ross, who signed off on a big spending spree in free agency this offseason. "That was probably the major reason we didn't win. I think everybody in that room would rather be in Miami in February than anywhere else in the country. No one knows how to host a Super Bowl better than Miami. With that, I'm disappointed."

Both Super Bowls were awarded in the first round of voting Tuesday. In other words, it was a runaway in favor of the Bay Area and Houston.

"The problem is we're so fat and happy and we do it so well (in Miami) and everybody just expects it's going to come again," Barreto said. "And I've been saying all along, what other communities have figured out is what we knew all along -- Super Bowls are great for your community, they're great for business, they're great for hotels, they're great for restaurants, for cab fares, for airports.

"And everyone has figured out what we've known all along, which is why these cities that never competed for Super Bowls before are competing. It's all about business."

In Miami, it's bad business right now.

"I think we've tried everything. We thought we covered all our bases," said Ross, who claimed his background as a real-estate developer would've helped him keep renovation costs down. "The deal that I put on the table has never been offered by any owner or any sport or any stadium in the country. I thought that would get the job done.

"I really wanted to see it. I wanted that to be my legacy."