March 10, 2010
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Please Stop Hitting The Hot Buttonby John BrattainApril 28, 2006 Oh the pain. It burns, it burns. I hardly know where to begin. If your wife said she’d been happily married two years—that’s a good thing. If she says that on your 13th anniversary—not so good. Suppose you went to your local paper and said that you’d been to a pizza parlor 13 times and had two terrific pizzas, two decent pizzas, and nine that tasted like they got the toppings out of a litter box, a dumpster outside a proctologist’s office, and the coroner’s office at the local leper colony. You then declared that the local municipality should build the pizza joint the biggest, most opulent restaurant with a state of the art kitchen, solid gold utensils, vintage wine cellar, and best china because of those two terrific pizzas. For that matter suppose you went to your local paper and said that you knew a man whose wife claimed two happy years of marriage over the course of a 13 year abusive relationship and for that he deserves a huge mansion on a large spread with a swimming pool, tennis court, bowling alley, and guest house built at public expense. Would you expect the paper to not only print your suggestion but also to be supportive of it? Of course not. The very idea is so retarded even a lobotomized Irish Setter wouldn’t sniff it yet alone support it. Believe it or not, somebody did. Ouch. I double checked the date of the column praying that it was April 1. Nope. This was a serious column. OK, let’s analyze what’s being said here: "Don't blame owner Jeffrey Loria. He's kept that 2003 juggernaut together for the most part the last two seasons. The New York art dealer who's lost millions and millions finally decided that without a baseball stadium he couldn't continue. Yes, the Lorias of the world can go bankrupt, too." As you know the Marlins were purchased by Jeffrey Loria for about $150 million in 2002. Over the first five years after purchase an owner can amortize 50% of that. In other words, the Marlins can make a book entry in the loss column in years 1-5 of ownership for $15 million. They've owned the Marlins for four full seasons—ergo $60 million of their purported "loss" are from that. Furthermore, the value of the franchise has increased over that same span almost $70 million. Loria and David Samson’s salary is also included as an expense—hence in the “loss” column. So while they're paying themselves money they can also claim they lost that very same money. In other words he could pay himself a $1 million salary and say the Marlins (that he owns) lost $1 million. “I think the baseball fans and politicians of South Florida should be ashamed. They've been treated to two World Series champions, and, frankly, they probably don't deserve them.” Let’s review (again):
South Florida fans have nothing to be ashamed of—unless of course refusing to be used as MLB's personal urinals is a bad thing. They're acting like any consumer would when a business treats them like that smelly stuff stuck under your shoe (not to be confused with David Samson). Now politicians may have a lot to be ashamed of but this isn’t one of those things. Economist Robert Baade commented that a modern stadium can't pay its own way. He was of the opinion that when you factor in cost, debt service, taxes, maintenance, utilities, and amortization that a new stadium doesn't generate sufficient revenues to cover that and a competitive major league payroll. Of course what Loria and Samson are asking for is a new stadium plus the revenues the stadium generates leaving the cost of the building, plus the amortization, debt service, taxes, maintenance and utilities to the region—in short leaving South Florida without the revenues that would help offset these costs. What Bodley is saying here is that South Florida politicians should be ashamed that they refuse to take money—to the tune of several hundred million dollars—that could be applied to schools, health care, libraries, infrastructure etc. and give it to Jeffrey Loria and David Samson as a reward for winning a sporting event three years ago. He’s saying that all the sleaze that has surrounded the Marlins which includes two fire sales, threats of relocation, the taking away of the All-Star Game, pocketing revenue sharing money that should be spent on the team, the outright lies, and the insults to the city deserves a reward of what would be close to a half a billion dollars. I’d like to take this moment to remind everyone of how major league baseball views its host cities. This was a brief presented to the Minnesota Supreme Court during the contraction fiasco on behalf of Selig and Major League Baseball: “The Minnesota Twins are a private business; they are not owned by the people of Minnesota ... they are not a `community asset' but a business ...” MLB teams are, in the opinion of MLB, a "private business," and that the people in team's host cities have no claim to it—in fact, they’re not even a community asset! Why should a private business that is not a "community asset" be allowed to have several hundred million dollars of the community's money? What makes the whole situation laughable is that Selig thinks that all South Florida needs to revive the market is a publicly financed baseball stadium. In other words he feels a successful extortion of the taxpayers of South Florida will bring the fans back in droves after all the bad faith when a World Series champion failed to do so. That kind of reasoning makes me think that the bar in the commissioner's office includes a well used bong. The reason the fans were leery after 2003 is the direct result of what happened after 1997. Kick somebody in the teeth once and you can bet when you come around again your victim will be somewhat reticent to welcome you with open arms. South Florida simply doesn't trust MLB or the Marlins . Trust is earned, and the fans have been treated to one bad faith betrayal after another. "Build it and they will come" with regards to trust will go a lot further to building enthusiasm for the Marlins as a blackmailed corporate wel-park. Of course one requires effort and why expend effort when you can hold your breath, stamp your feet until you turn blue? Even if Bodley's worst-case scenario were to come true and Jeffrey Loria did go bankrupt, well it's like this: when you factor in the money you get from revenue sharing, merchandising, MLB.com, national television, local television, radio, even before you sell a single ticket or hot dog and you've got a friggin' monopoly on your product plus the mega tax breaks that come with owning a major league sports team and you still go belly-up—then chances are you're too bloody stupid to be in business anyway. Consider it a form of natural selection. It's not South Florida's job to subsidize idiot businessmen who can't make a go of it under the sweetest circumstances available—especially not to the tune of close to a half billion dollars. Bodley is right about this much: South Florida doesn’t deserve Loria and Samson. They deserve a baseball team—not America’s biggest corporate welfare queens. References and Resources Update: The Wall Street Journal reports that the Florida Marlins will receive $31 million in revenue sharing this year making their payroll less than half of their subsidy. Any guesses what they'll do with a government subsidy? Our good friend, and THT stalwart, John Brattain passed away on March 24, 2009. John was a prolific writer, whose work can also be read at Sympatico/MSN Sports and Baseball Digest Daily. John's work was also featured at USA Today, MLBtalk, ESPN Insider, Baseball Prospectus, The Baseball Analysts and The Baseball Journals. Never afraid to express himself in any medium, he was also a frequent radio speaker. Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. Do you have a general question or comment for one of THT's writers? Send it in to our weekly mailbag We also welcome unsolicited op-ed pieces of approximately 500 words for consideration. We reserve the right to edit for length, clarity and consistency of style. 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