NBC 6’s Julia Bagg has more on why Francis Suarez does not feel comfortable with the plan to reopen the stadium for Dolphins and UM games
Indoor dining could soon make a return to restaurants in the city of Miami if Mayor Francis Suarez has his way.
“You see Broward County, they have the indoor dining open and they have the curfew at 11 p.m. and they have a lower percent positive than Miami-Dade County,” Suarez said during a Tuesday event.
Suarez said he is in talks with the county’s mayor, Carlos Gimenez, about making the move happen with an announcement hopefully coming in the next two weeks.
“Obviously, the mask in public is working very well and we’re hoping to see some relaxation of the rules,” he said. “But certainly the mask in public is something that will be here for the foreseeable future.”
The mayor was not exactly on board with one location opening up in the area.
Suarez expressed concerns about the plan to reopen Hard Rock Stadium, allowing up to 13,000 fans inside for the home openers of both the Miami Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes.
“You’re talking about 13,000 people. 13,000 people is a lot of people. That’s a lot of people,” Suarez said.
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The stadium will have socially distanced seating, staggered gate entry along with no touch automatic sinks and other improvements with officials saying fans could be kept out if the number of positive cases goes back up.
“If the numbers get worse like they did in July, we won’t have any fans. So if we don’t think we can do it safely, we won’t do it,” said Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel during an event Monday.
Suarez will not be one of those fans inside the stadium for either game.
“I’ll watch it from home,” he said.
