The Marlins have been battling with their local municipality over a new park for months now. It's clear the Marlins need somewhere else to play -- Dolphins Stadium is not only a horrible place for a baseball game, its expanses of empty seats are downright depressing. So Jeffrey Loria, Marlins owner and notorious payroll tightwad, is battling for public funding for the stadium. On Tuesday, he got one step closer to that sweet, sweet taxpayer cash: Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Jeri Beth Cohen ruled that a new ballpark for the Marlins indeed would serve a "public purpose."Of course Loria's thrilled -- this decision makes him six-for-six in the lawsuit battle, and means he has but one final legal hurdle to clear before the deal is done. When he wins, Miami-Dade County taxpayers will foot the bill for a $515 million retractable-roof baseball stadium that they may or may not even want.
"This is a critical step in securing the long-term future of Major League Baseball in Miami," Loria said in his statement. "We will proceed immediately to finalize discussions with the County and the City to put in place all the long-awaited final agreements. "We look forward to the Marlins playing in the new ballpark for generations to come."
The fallacy that baseball parks spur economic boosts has long been debunked, most notably in Baseball Prospectus' Between The Numbers. Loria has countered such claims by saying that the three-year construction cycle will produce 2,000 jobs for the community, and though that's true, as Shysterball notes, those same 2,000 jobs would pop up if Loria built the stadium privately. The Marlins need a new baseball stadium, sure. Whether that new stadium will help anyone but Jeff Loria is highly doubtful.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-10-2008 @ 11:00PM
Jim said...
Wow, it's amazing how many things one tool can get factually wrong in just a few paragraphs. Not only are the taxpayers not paying for the stadium (we can thank all you northern tourist trash for littering South Beach for the last decade for that) but neither the Marlins or Loria have been "...battling with their local municipality over a new park for months now..." the three (Fish, City and County) have all been 100% on the same team for about a couple of years or more battling local no-goodnik and former NFL owner Norman Braman who is now something like seven for seven in losing court cases trying to stop the stadium from being built so he can save a few million of his own in increased property taxes on ghetto property he wants everyone to forget he owns.
It might be worth pointing out the good taxpayers of Miami-Dade already voted on and approved this almost eleven years ago when they decided to start collecting those tourist taxes y'all pay on those high-priced hotel rooms you rent when you're down here trying to impress god knows who, and frankly I'd like to thank every Mets and Phillies fan whose made the trek to South Florida every winter for building us this new stadium. It's not going to cost the good people of Miami a penny thanks to you. They don't call it the Professional Sports Franchise Facility Tax for nothing. Now that we just helped the Phillies bury themselves a little bit if we can just cost the Mets another playoff run come that series September this will wind up being a pretty good season for the Marlins.
Just keep hating on Loria and the Fish all you want but since you aren't going to let the truth stand in the way of a good bashing, just remember being wrong all the time isn't by accident, it's genetic.
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