They are not only permitted to do so but obligated to do so, since Loria is in violation of the conditions for receiving that money. If he’s not spending it on the team, he should not be receiving it.

That may or may not influence his behavior very much, but why on Earth would they not do this? It’s their money he’s stealing too.

1. Loria pays himself $10 million in “Administrative Fees.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?! Baseball is a money-making business & unless you are a high multi-millionaire who cares only about winning (See, George Steinbrenner & his 90′s through mid 00′s Yanks)the majority of teams derive a profit at the end of each year. I don’t know how the Marlins are structured; whether they’re a public corporation who pays out to shareholders or whether they’re a Loria-owned corporation or LLC where he is the sole shareholder or controls all membership interests. If the Marlins are a public corporation where Loria is required to pay shareholders or to put derived profits back into the team accounts via a shareholder’s or membership interest agreement(s), then I can see him paying himself a reasonable salary for his official function as CEO, but even that salary should be commensurate & be based upon a percentage of the annual profits (i.e., 10% of the team’s annual net profits). Nevertheless, a $10 million annual salary is absurd. However, if he is the sole owner & shareholder, as I believe he is, it is borderline criminal for him to pay himself a salary. Loria already has the ability to pocket the corporate profits & this is nothing more than him giving himself an assurance that he will not collect anything less than $10 million per year regardless of the performance of the team, record-wise, and the overall corporation, revenue-wise. This means that even if the Marlins operate in the red for a year due to poor performance, poor attendance, and poor concession & memorabilia sales, causing him to lower payroll & raise ticket prices, Loria has guaranteed himself at least $10 million to take home. That is a slap in the face to every Miami & Florida resident whose tax dollars went to building that stationary spaceship they call a stadium. This is something the IRS should look into because of his shady practices, I’m sure he’s not honest with his taxes. 

2. Loria was forced to sign an agreement with MLB for violating Article XXIV(B)(5)(a) of the MLB-MLBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Let me start off by saying that parity has been GREAT for Major League Baseball & a huge reason, well the only reason, why there is parity in the only professional sport without a salary cap is because of the luxury tax & revenue sharing. Without revenue sharing & luxury taxing, teams such as the Yankees, Nats, Angels & Dodgers would win the World Series year after year. It hasn’t been since the Yankees won their last World Series that a team with a top 5 payroll has won the World Series. However, going into the last most serious round of CBA negotiations, owners were against revenue sharing amongst other owners & instituting a luxury tax. It wasn’t just the big market owners who were against it, but it was also mid-market owners who didn’t like it, despite the fact they’d be beneficiaries of it, because they were concerned that certain owners would pocket the proceeds they received from revenue sharing & luxury taxes & use it for their own personal benefit. In order to reach a compromise & institute this key, essential agreement, Article XXIV(B)(5)(a) has a provision which states that the proceeds a team receives from their share of the overall revenue & luxury tax MUST BE reinvested into the team for “baseball related” expenses. Loria taking that money for his own use was exactly what the owners were afraid of. As a result, owners are going to be less inclined to expand these provisions come the next CBA negotiatons & it could wind up hurting baseball as a whole down the line when this limited revenue sharing & luxury tax become not enough to guarantee parity. It takes time but the intelligent owners& GMs will find ways to bend the rules to put themselves one above the next team.

3. The ballpark built in Miami was funded almost wholly through public funds. This is the third example where a team has used at least some public financing (tax dollars) to build a brand new, state or the art stadium & has put a deplorable product out on the field (Pirates, my beloved Mets, Marlins). What makes this situation worse is that this stadium was completely financed with tax dollars, against the public wishes, and was not a public loan to Loria to build the stadium. In the case of the Mets, a large portion of the public money used to build Citi Field was given to them in a loan basis; in other words, public finances were used to build Citi Field, but a large portion of the public money must be repaid to NY City & NY State at a very owner-friendly interest rate, far below the statutory 16%, as proscribed in NY Banking Law § 14-a & NY General Obligations Law § 5-501(1). Making matters worse, Loria has made this team a complete embarrassment & has made it impossible for them to field an attractive product that would result in increased attendance, tourism, and tax revenue through sales tax proceeds. Loria has completely misued public funds & has turned his back on the City of Miami. While there are a good amount of new & relatively new stadiums in baseball, there are going to be teams that need either a new stadium or considerable upgrades to their current stadiums. Despite the fact that most owners are multi-millionaires, not many of them can fund a stadium alone & are forced to request public assistance to build & upgrade. As a result of Loria’s misuse of public funds building his ugly a$$ stadium & the subsequent election(s) that saw political proponents of the stadium lose their jobs, owners & teams are going to find local & state governments less willing to contribute or fund the building of new stadiums going forward. This could lead to one of two prospective situations. First, teams are going to be stuck with old, crappy, decrepit stadiums that no one is going to want to use. This could lead to fiscal problems for small cities & municipalities that rely on their stadiums to be used for attractions other than baseball games (concerts, graduations, etc.). Second, this could lead to teams leaving small cities & moving to large cities where they could either share facilities with another team or to a larger city who is willing, and has the ability to help them finance their building request. You could see more teams than already existing in cities such as NY, Chicago, Boston & LA. This is not something that will happen overnight, but it could be something we see in 20-30 years from now & this could be detrimental to baseball as a whole. Loria’s actions have ruined things for honest owners & fans of those teams.

I really feel that something needs to be done here so that other owners know that this type of behavior cannot & will not be tolerated. The federal government & the Florida State Attorney’s Office should take a close look at Loria’s business practice because when it smells like crap, there’s normally a steaming dump somewhere close. If there is nothing criminal found, MLB & Bud Selig should step in & force Loria to sell the team. I am sure the other owners aren’t too happy with him & wouldn’t be opposed to it. Due to this stadium being new & funded through public funds, there will be a professional baseball team in Miami for the foreseeable future. However, someone needs to come in there & put a respectable product out on the field to reward the people of that city who ultimately built that stadium. I can tell you that this would not fly in NY. People up here a livid at the team the Mets have put on the field recent years; so much so that a majority of fans want to see the Wilpons sell the team. The difference is that Wilpon has failed not because of a lack of trying or wanting to put a winner on the field whereas Loria doesn’t care whether his team wins, he just wants to maximize his profits. The man must go & he better that that little twerp Samson with him.

22. Jeff “Scrooge” McLoria – Totally manhandling the city of Miami and its new team and just not given a mothaf@ck about anyone but himself.
23. The Marlins Front Office – See #22 and realize he isn’t the only douchenozzle in the douchenozzle pod.

Players are already taking more league revenue than the owners. That’s wrong, because the owners are the ones who take the financial risk. The players take the physical one, but they’re paid hansomely to do so, are provided with free medical care to fix whatever injuries they obtain to play the sport they love, and are financially responsible for just themselves. Owners still have a staff to maintain, still have to pay for the advertising, still have to pay for that free medical care, still have to pay the insurance rates for players and staff….I’m sorry, but the players are already making the money their play generates.

Not all owners are like Loria. If they were, the league would be out of business.

Until Loria puts the team up for sale, all hands are tied.

What I’d like to see is the folks in the Miami-Dade government office pay a visit to Loria and ask him why he’s acting like such a dink and killing an opportunity for surrounding businesses to make money.

This sucks for everyone except Loria, who will make his $10 million this year and feel okay with himself.

Don’t watch their games on TV. Ditch their sponsors. Don’t buy tickets. Don’t buy hats, shirts, or anything with that hideous logo on it. Hurt him where it counts. Let’s get THAT movement started.

Loria is scum.

While the Royals/Pirates/Mets/Indians/Orioles have traded assets when they are not contending, they do not do it in the same manner. The Royals deal a Zach Grienke because he’s the best player on their team and the rest are garbage and they don’t think they can resign him. Same thing with Cleveland and Sabathi, etc. The list is long in that regard. In the Marlins case, Reyes is locked up long term, Johnson only had a year left and I believe Buherle has 2-3 years left. This wasn’t moving a guy that you were going to lose. This was cutting payroll now that you have a new stadium to attract people.

Loria should be banned from baseball; I can’t say the same for the others mentioned

But the Montreal discussion is mostly spin from understandably distraught Expos fans. The Expos were always a marginal franchise financially. No business person ever stepped forward with the means and desire to own a major league baseball team in Montreal. That’s how they got stuck with Loria in the first place.

Loria’s bad faith behavior may have hastened the death of the Expos in Montreal, but let’s not pretend that this was a healthy, successful franchise until Loria came along and destroyed it.

If Selig forces out Loria then he needs to also force out Wilpon (Mets), Nutting (Pirates), Dolan (Indians), Glass (Royals) and up until this past season a case could be made for Angelos (Orioles) as well. Should Loria be forced out? Absolutely but I dont see it happening.

Marlins fans: I know it’s tough, but it’s worth it. Abandon ship before the Kraken takes you down!

Bud Selig and the owners either need to implement a salary cap or require each team to have a minimum payroll of at least 50 or 60 million. The disparity in payrolls is an absolute joke. You’ve got the Yankees buying their way into the playoffs with a 200M payroll every year and at the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got teams with a 20 and 30 million dollar payroll like the Royals. This can’t happen. No other sport lets this happen. In football, every team has a an equal chance of winning. That should be the model to look to, but baseball has long ago sold out to the Steinbrenner’s of the world.

As far as the cash goes, i’m officially calling off all handouts until I see what they do with the tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year. No one gets a nickel, i’m going half way to Mr. Pink until then.