Scoop: Miami will celebrate New Year's without Big Orange sculpture

Driving the news: The Greater Miami Host Committee, which owns the sculpture, tells Axios that the Dec. 30 Orange Bowl football game makes hoisting the 2,000-pound sculpture above the InterContinental "almost impossible."

• Players from the University of Georgia and Florida State University are staying at the hotel around the same time that preparations typically take place to set up the Big Orange, a representative of the committee says.

What they're saying: Artist Steve "Mr. Neon" Carpenter, who designed and created the 35-foot-tall sculpture in the 1980s, tells Axios he was shocked to learn of the cancellation because he believed everything was ready to go.

• He says Mayor Francis Suarez gave him "the go ahead" to set up the Big Orange in a phone call.
• "I thought it was a go," Carpenter says. "I'm just shocked that they're not gonna do it."

What's next: Carpenter says it's too late to move the Big Orange to another building in time for New Year's, but he plans on relocating it next year.

In the meantime, a digital version of the Big Orange will be projected onto the hotel instead, as it has been since 2021.

• Carpenter says he plans to do a smaller Big Orange event at Bayfront Park using a 6-foot-tall model of the original.