Comments on: Marlins Park to eventually cost Miami taxpayers $1.2 billion

By: jrbdmb

jrbdmb — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:10:30 +0000

“The difference is at some point banks will stop lending to a city or the rates get too expensive.”

The politicos in Miami have already shown that no loan is too expensive for them. I have to add that they should be horsewhipped daily for signing off on a loan that’s going to put such a burden on their own children.

By: badintent

badintent — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 07:52:34 +0000

When Pau Allen was worth around$$$ 35 Billion give or take a billion , he got Seattle to cough up $400 million for his new football digs, he put in $300 million of his money, CHUMP CHANGE FOR HIM.hE told Seattle take it or leave it , he was gonna move the team. I will never go to his Jimi Hendrix museum and pay $25 , even though I love Hendrix,. screw Allen,

By: mazblast

mazblast — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:09:02 +0000

Well, SOMEBODY has to be the worst at anything. Unfortunately for the baseball fans of Montreal and Miami, they got baseball’s version.

By: mazblast

mazblast — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:06:53 +0000

Somewhat unrelated, but perhaps you can answer this question, jm91rs–

Back c. 1999, the Powers That Be And Who Are Not To Be Questioned in Hamilton County, Ohio decided to build the new baseball stadium on that undersized piece of property known as The Wedge (for outsiders, that was the land immediately to the east of Riverfront Stadium). Opponents of that site proposed building the stadium on a larger piece of property known as Broadway Commons, two blocks east and eight blocks north of there. The Powers That Be And Who Are Not To Be Questioned said the Broadway Commons site was too close to the county jail and adjacent low-income areas, and that fans would be in danger. The Powers That Be And Who Are Not To Be Questioned won out, the ballpark was built on The Wedge, and due to the configuration of the site, faces the wrong freaking way.

Cut to a decade later. Limited casino gambling is approved in Ohio, with one casino to be built in Cincinnati. Where do the Powers That Be And Who Are Not To Be Questioned decide it should be located? Yep, Broadway Commons, the same site on which it was too risky to build a baseball stadium before. Still by the County Jail, still adjacent to low-income, high-crime areas. Just what you want nearby when people will be walking around with lots of cash in their pockets.

Moral of the story–lies and blatant self-interest are all you should ever expect from politicians when it comes to public facilities (and anything else, for that matter). It’s not just a Miami thing, Gator, although Macondo takes it to a far greater level.

By: ishwishfish

ishwishfish — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:31:03 +0000

You beat me to it!

By: badintent

badintent — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:44:08 +0000

Not to worry, Al Gore and Hollywood willl create a new global warming super Hurricane that will send a 200 foot tidal wave over the stadium walls , filling it with more …..Fish !! Plus sharks , rays, jelly fish, baraccudas, etc.OSHA and EPA will put it in a SuperFund Toxic site file and soon……………… a new staudim built with Fed $$$. Thank you Washington for your support

By: badintent

badintent — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:54:07 +0000

REeal funny. How much is Kimmel paying you to write his jokes ??

By: badintent

badintent — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:49:58 +0000

Funny but true ! Coral Gables has always had to pay for Miami ‘s corrupt and broke government with high property taxes. I worked at Blockbuster in the office next to Wanye’s world conference room. Talk about Marino running for cover after only 3 weeks on the job for the Fish. I know his pain.
As for a $400 million reno job at Joe Robbie,that comes about because of Commiss Tag bitching about the washrooms not “being up to his standard” the last time the SB was held there. Pathetic waste of tax payer $$$ so he can whip his rearl arse with a tile floor.
What the city needs is another Hurricane Andrew. then another $100 bilion dollars comes in and they get a new everything. Broward County got a migration of 50,000 Dade county ex-residents waving new FEMA checks to buy a new condo out by the old Hollywood Area. Miss that tin shack !

By: badintent

badintent — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 07:59:32 +0000

@Old Gator
When I was in Bal Harbour, the word on the street was Joe Robbie never paid a vendor, supplier or contractor for Joe Robbie Field. He died with hundreds of lawsuits pending. And was heard laughing in Hell.
The one and only time Me and the good old boys went to a Fish game at Orange Bowl, we paid $20 to park our car in a private home and were happy to do so, after hearing about stolen cars and busted windows in the stadium parking lots.Little Havana may be little but big in crime.
This spending mess is like Glendale , Zona, they build some many stadiums and areas, and with no financial statements to back them up.
I remember when the Miam cubanoes flew some half ass plane “freedom” formation in the early 90s towards Cuba.Cuba had told them not to get within 2 miles of their borders. MIGs shot down the lead plane.Then the usual downtown demostrations for the media. No one in Broward country gave a hoot.These rich clowns should have a Bay of Horse(shit). I stopped going to South Beach, got disgusted with all the used tampx floating in the water, they used the beach as a public washroom.It’s like some macho passage of publity for these vermin.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 16:36:02 +0000

That’s utter horse shit, squirming with intestinal parasites. Drive by any park playground or diamond, any little league field in the spring, any of the universities down here with an athletic program, or stop in any sports bar during the baseball season.

Baseball is much loved here, and before the fan base was vitiated by the rotten planning of MLB in its choice of venues, the rotten treatment of the fans by a succession of rotten owenerships, and the crowning accomplishment of the Macondo Banana Massacre Field ripoff, the various minor league, spring training and college stadiums down here were always packed with fans.

Baseball the game is still loved. The Feesh under current ownership are detested, and with many good reasons.

By: miketreedy

miketreedy — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 01:09:19 +0000

Jimbo – you are right on. Most of the fools in here obviously don’t get it based on on the 22 thumb downs I got. I guess they can’t figure out numbers beyond baseball stats. These are the people that obviously need the government to think for them because they can’t do it themselves.

I moved to Texas for that very reason. I will be able to pay for my kids college just on the money I will save from not paying the state income tax I was paying when living in IL or NY.

By: jimbo75025

jimbo75025 — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:41:06 +0000

Great deal of that came about also due to the expanding popularity of the NFL. 48K seating is great for baseball, but the demand for football makes that capacity not work so much. Personally, my experiences with the donut stadiums for baseball were far more preferable than their single use replacements-especially from a ticket price standpoint

By: jayquintana

jayquintana — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:51:10 +0000

And to top it off, they don’t really LIKE baseball in Miami!

By: tripleg3

tripleg3 — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:44:42 +0000

Bottom line loria is worst owner in baseball

By: brewcrewfan54

brewcrewfan54 — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:36:54 +0000

Yay! A silver lining!

By: zzalapski

zzalapski — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:27:31 +0000

At first, I misread “Guts” as “Nuts”.

That would work too, actually.

By: lawyersportsfan

lawyersportsfan — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:00:10 +0000

Here’s another way to consider it: If Miami-Dade paid it straightline annually over 40 years, it’d be a 33.333% interest rate on the nose. Usury is the word that comes to mind.

By: cackalackyank

cackalackyank — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:47:36 +0000

One word- Politics

By: nategearhart

nategearhart — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:47:21 +0000

Numerous studies have already demonstrated that “what a sports stadium does for the local economy” is practically nil.

By: kiwicricket

kiwicricket — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:42:20 +0000

Ask the rest of the EU that same question…

By: lanflfan

lanflfan — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:36:45 +0000

Dual purpose stadiums are ugly, cement cereal bowls that are built for multiple purposes and are horrible for all of them. While I understand the economy of scale they represent, the reality is the 1970′s vintage cereal bowls utterly failed as baseball stadiums, and were not much better for football. Both sports use very different fields, and round, bowl-like stadium fit neither well for both sight lines and access to the field of play. I, for one, am glad they are largely gone.

By: lanflfan

lanflfan — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:32:47 +0000

I agree with Chris, owners and cities should be splitting the costs. Team owners should foot around 75% of the bill for a new stadium, but the city certainly has a financial incentive to have a pro sports team. How many NFL cities bid on the Super Bowl every year? Why? The side benefit of one game can pour millions into your local economy, from hotels and restaurants to all sorts of other shops and stores, most of which have nothing to do with the game itself, but in servicing us humans who needs to eat, sleep and shop before and after the game.

No city should EVER finance even half a stadium, let alone the entire park. But to say the city, country and state governments should not kick in something, say around 25%, is ignoring the economic reality of what a sports stadium does for the local economy.

By: cackalackyank

cackalackyank — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:27:22 +0000

Starting in the 1990′s the Dual Purpose Donuts became viewed as disasters. To a certain extent they were. In Baseball the arguements focused on the sight lines caused by the different dimensions of an NFL and MLB field, there were also scheduling issues in the late summer/ early fall and also astro turf and its successors were viewed as an almost necessity in those places. On the other side of the coin there is a long list of promising NFL careers that ended on carpet seams in those places. When Macondo Banana Massacre Field opened it left the Oakland A’s and the Toronto Blue Jays (When the Bills make a visit) as the only two MLB teams sharing a “Dual Purpose” Stadium with an NFL franchise. Again this was fueled, and made poosible by the expanding economics of the 1990′s, where an owner could threaten local pols with a move to city x or y and be taken seriously. Now that it not the case, and maybe the current economic reality may tip things back toward a single multi use building however the only place that might happen for about 20+ years would be in Oakland.

By: nategearhart

nategearhart — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:19:12 +0000

Why shouldn’t the owner of a business take on the risk associated with owning the business? Gee I dunno…America?

By: jimbo75025

jimbo75025 — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:08:20 +0000

@miketreedy-Exactly ! Paying an income tax simply leaves more money to be spent by the government which usually ends up badly. In the end, the sales taxes in states with no income tax are high anyway, the difference of course being that those prudent enough to save money instead of living paycheck to payheck are not punished.

By: sdbolt

sdbolt — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:58:22 +0000

Yiiiiiikes. How the hell did that get approved? Good luck citizens of Miami.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:51:07 +0000

Jerry Jones paid for around $900 million of the $1.2 billion that the stadium eventually cost. But the thing about Dallas is that they have a fan base. The Dolphins could, and should, move to LA if the local municipality doesn’t chip something in to keep the team around. Why should the owners take all the risk of building a stadium without the city kicking in some cash, especially when they get the benefit of having the local football team and all the extra revenue that comes along with it? It’s just crazy to me that people jump on this “no public funding for stadium” nonsense without thinking about it from the other side.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:50:47 +0000

Whoops, I take it back. A bunch of them voted to instruct the Mayor to “begin negotiating” with the Dolphins.

Time to get the recall petitions out again. Where are my Dr. Scholl’s gel pads?

By: cur68

cur68 — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:50:16 +0000

Yep. That’s why it stinks of feesh.

By: dcfan4life

dcfan4life — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:48:34 +0000

Can anyone tell me why the city of Miami hasn’t sued Jeff Loria yet? If its going to cost them billions in tax dollars for a stadium to a team that was just blown up, i swear there are grounds there for a lawsuit.