Miami Marine Stadium

About this property

The Miami Marine Stadium is a marine stadium on Virginia Key, Miami, Florida, United States. The facility, completed in 1963 on land donated to the City of Miami from the Matheson family, is the first stadium purpose-built for powerboat racing in the United States. The stadium was abandoned in 1992 when officials declared it unsafe following Hurricane Andrew. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. The 6,566-seat stadium was built in 1963 by the Millman Construction Company of Miami Beach. The structure was built on land donated for water sports, and designed by architect Hilario Candela, then a 28-year-old recent immigrant from Cuba. It was dedicated as the Ralph Munroe Marine Stadium and cost $2 million (equivalent to $21,033,000 in 2025). A speed boat racer, James Tapp, was killed on opening day. The venue, located just southeast of Downtown Miami, was revered for its scenic views of Downtown and Miami Beach, hosting motorboat events, music concerts including Jimmy Buffett, and events featuring the likes of Mitch Miller, Sammy Davis Jr., and U.S. President Richard Nixon (whose seasonal winter residence, dubbed "the Florida White House", was on nearby Key Biscayne). In 1979, Miami Rowing Club relocated to an empty lot between the stadium and MAST Academy (then known as Planet Ocean museum). The Miami International Regatta has been hosted by Miami Rowing Club since 1973, the basin provides a 1,500 meter 7 lane course for practice, training and racing. From its opening for nearly 30 years, the stadium was used for its intended water sports as well as concerts, sporting events such as boxing (which began in 1972), and even figured prominently in the 1967 Elvis Presley film Clambake, serving as the scene of Elvis' climactic speedboat race. In the wake of Hurricane Andrew, it was declared an unsafe building under Miami-Dade County building code on September 18, 1992. In 2004, $3 million was pledged in a municipal bonds by county residents for the restoration and renovation of the facilities. In 2009, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Commodore Ralph Middleton Munroe Marine Stadium to its list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The National Trust designated the stadium as a National Treasure in March 2012. On April 18, 2012, the Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Architects placed the stadium on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places as the Ralph Middleton Munroe Miami Marine Stadium. A group, Friends of Miami Marine Stadium, was formed in 2008 with the purpose of restoring the Marine Stadium and returning it to operation. Performer Gloria Estefan, through her charity group, is a major contributor to Friends of Miami Marine Stadium. The City of Miami granted control of the stadium property to the group in 2013, and the group returned in late 2014 with a revitalization proposal and supposed funds. This project brought the Miami International Boat Show to the Miami Marine Stadium on February 11–15, 2016. The Miami International Boat Show used the Marine Stadium as a venue from 2016 until 2021.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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