MIAMI (AP) Construction is now officially under way for a new, retractable-roof stadium for the Florida Marlins in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood.

Members of Marlins organization and local South Florida representatives officially broke ground on the team’s long-awaited ballpark at a ceremony July 18, which was also attended by baseball commissioner Bud Selig and approximately 5,000 Marlins fans.

Some work had already begun on the 37,000-seat facility being built on the site of the now-demolished Orange Bowl. The team hopes to open the park by the 2012 season.

Since Florida’s inaugural season in 1993, the team has shared a stadium with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. The team believes a retractable-roof facility will help draw more fans during South Florida’s hot, rainy summers.

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