MIAMI -- The battle over the funding of a new ballpark for the Florida Marlins continued Tuesday in a Miami courtroom, where auto magnate Norman Braman a day earlier called the city's $3 billion mega-plan "just a shell game to finance a baseball stadium."

Attorneys for Braman said the Miami mega-plan that includes funding for a new baseball stadium would improperly siphon funds from accounts created to address urban blight and develop impoverished areas of the city.

Braman's lawsuit claims that the plan should be put to a vote, but the county's finance director, Rachel Baum, tried to explain Tuesday the complicated details of the plan and why a referendum was not needed.

Under the plan, a 37,000-seat, $525 million stadium with a retractable roof and parking garage would be built on the downtown site formerly occupied by the now-demolished Orange Bowl. The team would also be renamed the Miami Marlins.

The plan also includes money for a tunnel to the Port of Miami, a new museum park in Bicentennial Park and to pay down debt at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Braman, the owner of Braman Motors and former owner of the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles, filed the lawsuit in January, shortly after approval of the plan late last year.

Attorneys for the city of Miami asked Judge Jeri Beth Cohen to dismiss their client as a defendant since voter approval is not required for the city to spend its money on the mega-plan.

"From the city's perspective, judge, we're out of here," attorney Tom Scott said.

Cohen is expected to make a ruling on that issue Wednesday morning.

The Marlins, who won the World Series in 1997 and 2003, had threatened to relocate to another city if a permanent ballpark is not built. They have shared a stadium with the NFL's Miami Dolphins since the franchise began play in 1993.

Team officials hope to begin play in the new stadium in 2011, but the lawsuit could upset that timetable because groundbreaking is currently scheduled for later this year. Whichever side loses could appeal, possibly leading to more delays.