ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Florida Marlins have agreed to accept the Orange Bowl as a site for a new ballpark if a financial deal can be worked out, acceding to the wishes of county and city officials.

"In terms of the county and the city, that's the only site that's on the table right now," Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's chief operating officer, said Tuesday. "And while we believe that the downtown site had a lot of attractive features, including egress and access, given the exodus of the University of Miami from the Orange Bowl to Dolphin Stadium, the Orange Bowl site is the site that's under consideration at the moment."

The Marlins have been negotiating for years with the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County to finance a new stadium.

DuPuy said MLB officials wanted a vacant plot of land in plain view of the American Airlines Arena to be the Marlins' new home, but county and city officials have been persuading the team to consider the Orange Bowl site now that the University of Miami's football team is moving to Dolphin Stadium in 2008.

"We all hope the Orange Bowl site will be every bit as good as downtown, but there are concerns about it," DuPuy said. "The last thing you want to do is build a brand new ballpark down there and have the team fail, and everybody recognizes that the level of contribution that the team makes has to be commensurate with what they believe they are going to be able to generate from a new ballpark and be viable."

The reason the downtown site was chosen was because of its proximity to Interstate 95, a public transportation stop nearby and a railroad track that connects to Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and West Palm Beach.

Last May, the Marlins appeared close to reaching an agreement with San Antonio about moving the team there ever since they received permission to relocate from MLB officials in November 2005, but city leaders rescinded their offer to pledge $200 million toward the cost of building a new stadium there when MLB didn't meet a deadline to confirm the move.

Marlins officials have always said they are committed to staying in South Florida, but no progress has been made after two years. The Marlins have shared a stadium with the Dolphins since the franchise began play in 1993. Their lease ends in 2007, but the team could stay through the 2010 season using a series of one-year options -- yet team officials vow they won't play there any later than that.

Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, who originally owned the Marlins before selling the team in 1997, had offered land and money to the financially strapped team to build a new ballpark on the property next to Dolphin Stadium, but that offer no longer appears to be on the table.

In May, the Florida Legislature failed to approve a $60 million subsidy to help build a $490 million, retractable-roof stadium.

DuPuy said he hopes to get a deal done by the end of the year.

"Nothing has ever been in concrete," DuPuy said. "This has been a lava light in terms of trying to put the financing together. The commissioner refuses to give up. I refuse to give up. At some point, maybe someone will say, 'As hard as we've tried for as long as we've tried, it isn't going to happen.' But we're not ready to concede that yet."