What should we do with Marine Stadium?
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as you may have heard, the City of Miami Commission recently approved a renovation plan put together by the folks over at Friends of Miami Marine Stadium - hooray! If you're unfamiliar, Marine Stadium is a huge, sharply ruffled, retro-futuristic concrete structure with seats facing the water. It's the type of venue that a lot of cities would kill for. We all know the history - the Stadium hosted events like speed boat races and concerts for almost thirty years and, since Hurricane Andrew, has been an abandoned graffiti haven for over twenty.
Now it's finally being renovated. What should we do with it, more boat races? Obviously, yes. But the twenty years it's spent as a canvas are a huge part of its history. There's a whole generation of Miamians that only know Marine Stadium as an ancient Miami relic, our own little Caribbean coliseum covered in vines and tags.
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Concerts.
Marine Stadium has hosted concerts by Sammy Davis Jr., Jimmy Buffett, and entire orchestras on a floating barge. As legend has it, Biggie played a show there before signing with Bad Boy (totally not true). Which artists wouldn't want to perform on the water with Miami's skyline in the background? We can even show up on the boat and watch from the water.
Boxing.
We don't like to condone violence, but boxing matches and MMA fights on the water would probably sell like crazy - and we'd be pretty down to check it out.
Parties.
Let's just use a floating barge as a party platform. Live entertainment like a DJ or a band can play from the stadium, facing out towards the water. We'll have a bunch of fun floaties out there and rope off large area around barge to protect from boats.
Art shows.
In 2011, an architecture collective in Copenhagen called Pink Cloud put together a wild concept design for Marine Stadium. While the giant, helium inflated disk may not be attainable, a floating art gallery seems like a great idea. A temporary gallery on a barge attached to the stadium would be the headline attraction of Art Basel.In a nod to the Stadium's graffiti past, artists can do live paintings on walls or certain sections of the stadium as temporary art pieces. Their exhibit stays up for a few months throughout several events, then they're painted over to make way for new works. We can also make Marine Stadium itself an art display, just take a look at The Bay Lights installation in San Francisco.
Sports.
Miami sports fans may have seen this proposed design for a new soccer field at Marine Stadium. If that's too big, how about a basketball game? The Carrier Classic in New York is an outdoor basketball game on an aircraft carrier. We can host a college game like that, and maybe LeBron, Wade and the Heat will want play a preseason game or two on it.
Theater.
Or theatre, whichever you prefer. We have a serious lack of local theater in Miami, Marine Stadium can be an advocate for site-specific pieces of Miami theater in a uniquely Miami environment. Art and theater on the water may soon become a reality in Miami, thanks to the Stiltsville Trust and their desire for an artist in residence program on Biscayne Bay. If Stiltsville becomes an aquatic artist colony, Marine Stadium would be the ideal place to exhibit their work.
Movies.
Everyone loves movies. We're excited that a drive-in theater is coming to Wynwood, but we want more, more we want more. Set up a projection screen in front of Marine Stadium and we can show all the Miami classics. You know, stuff like Ace Ventura, Scarface, There's Something About Mary, From Justin to Kelly, The Birdcage, Bad Boys, Wild Things, Any Given Sunday and Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach.
And plenty more. Including an underwater circus.
How can we all help make Marine Stadium the venue it's always had the potential to be? The group that's in charge of fixing Marine Stadium is, logically, Friends of Miami Marine Stadium. Get involved with them, sign up for their newsletter, send them messages. Create a dialogue in the community. If we all connect and voice our ideas, we can make this thing great together. What else would you like to see happen at Marine Stadium? We're sure we forgot something, let us know! @miaminicemag on Twitter.
By @jorgeazze
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top image via WLRN all other images via friends of miami marine stadium