Wayne Huizenga, who has maintained majority ownership in the Miami Dolphins since 1994, has agreed to complete the sale of the Dolphins to businessman Stephen Ross. Last year Ross paid $550 million to gain a 49% share of the franchise and Dolphin Stadium. This afternoon, Ross and Huizenga are expected to finish the deal which would leave Huizenga a 5% owner of the team and give Ross 95% ownership.

The current economic situation has had an effect on this process, again proving no industry is immune to a recession. The deal for the Dolphins is expected to be worth roughly $1.1 billion in total and Ross has been searching for investors to help finalize the deal. However, Huizenga has been desperate to unload his majority ownership, so much so that he is allowing Ross to defer less than 1/3 of the payments in order to finalize the deal sooner.

The change in ownership isn’t expected, at the moment, to have many visible changes to the franchise. The biggest change revolves around Bill Parcells’ days in Miami. Parcells had a clause in his contract, signed by Huizenga, that if Huizenga were to sell the team Parcells would have 30 days to decide to stay with the team, or walk away with the remaining $12 million on his 4 year $16 million contract.

Parcells, along with coach Tony Sparano, is one of the main reasons for the Dolphins amazing turnaround in 2008. Parcells has long had a great eye for talent and it would be wonderful to see him remain with the team and see what magic he could churn up. Assuming the sale is finalized today, Parcells will have 30 days to decide to stay with the team or walk away with his cash. Huizenga believes Parcells will stay, but so far no comment has come from Parcells regarding the situation.