Marlins president David Samson said the months of delay caused by a lawsuit challenging the ballpark's financing package might push the completion date to 2012.
"We're evaluating the significance of that delay. I hope we will have an announcement here within a week," Samson said.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri Beth Cohen issued formal, final orders ending a lawsuit filed by auto dealer Norman Braman against the proposal for several huge projects, including a 37,000-seat, retractable-roof stadium. Estimated to cost $515 million, the ballpark is to rise on the site of the now-demolished Orange Bowl in Little Havana.
The legal fight may yet continue, but Braman will have to persuade an appeals court that Cohen was wrong to rule against him on all counts.
"It's likely that he's going to pursue an appeal," said Braman's lawyer, Paul Huck Jr.
The stadium is a major piece of a $3 billion public works package that includes a tunnel for the Port of Miami, a museums park and a downtown trolley line.
Braman, a philanthropist, art collector and former owner of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, argued the project financing was an unconstitutional diversion of money intended to cure urban blight and should have been submitted to voters for approval.
The Marlins have played at Dolphin Stadium -- home of the NFL's Miami Dolphins -- since their inception in 1993 but have pushed for years for a baseball-only home, threatening at times to move to another city if one wasn't built. The Marlins regularly rank last in attendance among 30 major league teams, averaging 16,688 this year, but won World Series titles in 1997 and 2003.
Cohen in September ruled that the stadium served a "paramount public purpose" and that there were no legal grounds to overturn decisions by local government officials to use taxpayer dollars to pay for it. The judge previously rejected several other Braman lawsuit claims, including an allegation that the project was hatched in secret in violation of Florida's open meetings law.
"We always knew the facts and the law made it impossible for Norman Braman to prevail," Samson said.
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz said work on construction contracts and other agreements has continued, but he doubted the original target to open the ballpark in 2011 would be reached.
"I think we can have groundbreaking sometime in the second quarter of next year," Diaz said. "No one has completely ruled out 2011, but it's going to be tough."
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