04/19/24
August 25, 2010
Marlins Hid Profits to Land Public-Funded Stadium: The Florida Marlins turned a $37.8 million profit at the same time they were negotiating a sweetheart stadium deal with Miami and Miami-Dade County by claiming they were going broke, according to financial documents published by Deadspin. Taxpayers are paying almost $500 million of the stadium's $642 million cost, yet all revenue it generates will go to the team. "They took us for a ride," said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez.
Sounds like the Marlins ownership are related to Tony Montana.
posted by cixelsyd at 11:20 PM on August 25, 2010
What I don't understand- will NEVER understand- is why the government act like such pussies in these cases, especially in a city that doesn't seem to care too much anyway about the team- the voters aren't likely to penalize politicians who don't let sports teams rip them off. I don't suppose it's likely that Miami and Florida are so flush with cash that this sports stadium isn't coming at the expense of things like school funding, transportation and infrastructure improvements, etc.
Options on the table include but are not limited to:
- Clawback or other monetary penalties. A fraction of the $500 million will pay for some damn fine attorneys, so find something- anything- you can fuck them with
- Go nuclear: pursue criminal or civil action against the individuals themselves; put the effort into seeing these people in jail, somehow, some way. Hire on the city's dime investigators to follow them 24/7 and catch them doing something
- Go nuclear: shutter the doors and prevent the Marlins from playing, effective immediately. Have all of MLB over a barrel as they have to reshuffle to play the Marlins elsewhere. You'll probably lose the team, but hey- doesn't sound like you lose much given the weak fan support
- Simply stopping construction and telling them to go fuck themselves. The closed-book deal should never have been signed (no private entity would ever agree to give that much money to an organization without examining their books first!), but now that you know it was a scam, simply send everyone home.
- Hello, this is Miami... just sayin'... you can be creative. :)
posted by hincandenza at 04:48 PM on August 26, 2010
hincandenza: One could only dream of a politician with the confidence to play your kind of hardball. Too bad most don't or are constrained by fear of losing major contributors. After all, if a pol would play hardball with the Marlins one could expect them to do the same in other situations.
posted by billsaysthis at 07:11 PM on August 26, 2010
Jeffrey Loria screwing over the locals? Never.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 09:35 PM on August 30, 2010
Is it too late to move the Marlins to Vegas? That should have happened long ago. A team that wins two World Series and still can't draw any fans needs to leave.