Yeah let’s just tax the tourist to build a stadium. Like it makes it any better. Politicians building ball fields for wealth team owners. It is still corruption.
Further, I never said that I agreed with tax-funding (regardless of who is paying them) of any stadium. Sports owners should pay entirely for their own stadia. That isn't what happened here, but neither are your ignorant fantasies.
And, Miami-Dade county owns the venue, the stadium wasn't given away to the owners.
Then, there's your shot at the Marlins' "poor" attendance. Let's examine that.
The current ownership inherited the single worst stadium deal in all of ML sports. They play baseball in a cavernous football stadium. They get not one dime from parking. They get not one dime from concessions. They get not one dime from skyboxes or luxury suites because there aren't any. Their home games can be pre-empted by outside events like concerts. They are subject to the vagaries of Florida heat, humidity and rain.
Yet, the current ownership won a World Series in 2003 with a payroll of about $50 million, less than a third of the defeated Yankees' outlays.
They manage to put competitive teams on the field, year after year on a relative shoestring. And, in 2010 they attracted 1.53 million fans, despite the crummy venue and their severe financial limitations. That was more than Oakland and Toronto, both more established franchises.
The new stadium will give the Marlins control of their own destiny. They will control concessions and derive major revenue from them. They will have revenues from parking. There will be luxury suites and they will derive substantial revenues from them. They will not be pre-empted by outside events they didn't book, in fact they will control booking of outside events and derive revenue from them. They will no longer be subject to rain or the rest of the weather problems, every game will be played and will be played in pleasant conditions.
In short, they will be able to field a team with a league-average sort of payroll of around $80 million.
Premium ticket sales for 2012 (next season, not this season) are well ahead of expectations and it is likely that the joint will be completely sold out for the entire 2012 season, bringing paid attendance to about 3 million. That number will likely only be bested by 8 to 10 major-market teams.
After the "new stadium" effect wears off, I'll guess that attendance will settle in at about the MLB average of 30K because it's an organization that understands how to put a consistently good product on the field and will finally have more money to do so. But, they could easily sell-out for years, the stadium only holds about 37,000.
BTW, there is no other stadium like it on the planet. Beyond being a state-of-the-art and intimate venue for baseball, and one of the few stadiums with a retractable roof it will have an absolutely stunning, jaw-dropping view (from the stands towards left field) of the Miami skyline. No other stadium has anything like it.
So much for poor attendance. I've already covered the property tax aspects. Got anything else you want to pontificate on that you know nothing about?
