Posted on 03/08/2012 8:08:58 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
Marlins president David Samson has a long history of rubbing people the wrong way with his unvarnished, bottom-line style —from jettisoning fan favorites to his hardball dealings over the city’s new stadium.
He appeared to step on another PR landmine Wednesday...
“It was David was being David,” Lowell told The Miami Herald. “He said voters in Miami are not the smartest people in the world.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at m.pbpost.com ...
By the way, local media are covering for the Marlin chief, saying he just needs to "clarify" his statements. This same media continues to attack Rush Limbaugh.
I lived in Coral Gables for 7 years; they’re not the smartest people. Samson’s right. Miami can’t take the truth.
>>He said voters in Miami are not the smartest people in the world
I understand the owners of the Marlins changed the name from “Florida” to “Miami” as a condition of getting a taxpayer-funded stadium to play in. Voters are not the
smartest, yet guess who’s financing the stadium..?
>>The new park’s name is a temporary one until naming rights are purchased. Per agreement with the city and Miami-Dade County (which owns the park), the Marlins officially changed their name to the “Miami Marlins” on November 11, 2011. They also adopted a new logo, color scheme, and uniforms.
>>Owner Miami-Dade County
(Wikipedia: Miami Marlins, Marlins stadium)
also from wikipedia
>> Miami Marlins – $155 million
Miami-Dade County – $347 million
City of Miami – $13 million
Total Cost: $515 million
Not included were the extra $10 million that went toward the demolition of the Orange Bowl stadium, the site preparation outside of the construction budget, as well as the parking garage.
as long as he didn’t say it in Spanish he should be fine...
My friends had front row seats at 1st base at dodgers stadium for years and years - when the city got involved more seats were added in front of them and now only go to politicians and those politically connected.
They take care of their own.
I don’t know about the voters in Miami, but I can tell you that this guy has taste for s**t in designing baseball uniforms.
Those new uni’s are absolutely hideous. Also, why did he have to put the city’s name on the front of the home uniforms? Are they the “Miami Miami” or the “Miami Marlins”? I note the good folks in Arlington Texas have the same problem with the “Texas Texas” playing at Rangers Park at Arlington.
Well, guess what?
There's not one single voter in Miami-Dade County paying one single dime for the new stadium unless they stay in a local hotel or motel, considering that the ENTIRE contribution by M-D County comes from the M-D County hotel "bed tax," commonly known as the "tourist tax."
They didn't even raise it, they just reallocated where it would go. 1% of the same old 6% total bed tax is what pays for the stadium.
Guess you're not as smart as you thought you were, huh?
I won't wait for you and others who have no clue about what they're talking about to withhold stupid comments until they have even a basic grasp of rudimentary facts.
Sorry, not from the area! Only going by a little research. TOO little, as it turns out. I stand corrected. Very much
corrected.
And that makes giving taxpayer money to millionaires for their own private business acceptable because?
I heard David Samson for years on Miami sports talk radio claiming poverty and that the Marlins lost money. It turned out to be a huge lie.
“Baseball’s a game for billionaires but we are simply millionaires and that’s why we need taxpayer money.” - David Samson (paraphrase).
F*ck him and anyone else who thinks they can use the public treasury to fund their private businesses.
Sez you, yet someone else who has no clue. That you don't understand baseball financial statements or operating costs or believe other people who don't know what they're talking about means nothing.
They actually WERE losing money. They tried to capitalize on 2003 by spending in '04 and '05 (Delgado) and still no one showed up, so Loria was forced to cut back. He got tired of losing money.
They have always had the worst deal in all of pro sports in a crappy football stadium, but finally got a real baseball stadium built after 20 years of trying by every owner since day one. Loria got it done, he actually cares about baseball.
Don't get me wrong, I think that sports teams should pay their own way, but that doesn't change the fact that they can rent-seek because municipalities want to retain franchises.
And so they did.
Ah, no they're not. Most of them are just suffering from and manifesting their usual incompetence. Samson was taken completely out of context. By the pitiful New Times, a total joke of a rag of the first order.
The local ABC-TV affiliate, to their credit, put it well:
Marlins president David Samson was quoted in a local newspaper as making some very controversial and insulting comments about the people of Miami during a speech to the Beacon Council on Tuesday.
I just listened to his speech. We had a reporter at the event as part of our coverage of the opening of Marlins Park.
Let me make one thing clear. Listening to Samson, he came across as arrogant at times, but in his defense, his quotes were taken out of context.
[snip]
Okay. Did you get that? Samson is speaking to the audience and not the people of Miami. He didn't say people in Miami are dumb. To me, he merely pointed out that the people in the room were some of the smartest and most successful people in our community. He was speaking directly to them.
[snip]
All that said, his words were twisted in this case, and that's why we didn't run the story.
When ABC-10, a bunch of anti-business liberals in their own right won't run a story, you know it's totally toxic. As in bogus.
The whole thing is a figment of the New Times' imagination and penchant to warp and twist anything to do with the Marlins (and most anything else,) picked up by other undiscriminating media who hate the Marlins and then parroted by individuals who hate the Marlins.
The entire thing is typical of New Times "reporting." But notice how it brought out ignorant Marlins-haters in this thread.
Maybe you missed the story where their financial statements were leaked, and the years they claimed to be losing money they in fact made millions.
And, so what if they were losing money? Does that mean the Taxpayer has to bail them out? What, are you some kind of crony capitalist?
Perhaps you missed what the Marlins said at the time:
"The messages that we delivered for years are all confirmed in these statements. The team had net income of roughly $33 million for the two years 2008-2009. This number does not include many cash expenses incurred by the team, so it is not the amount of cash held in a bank account at the end of this two-year period. The statements clearly show that of the $31 million of cash generated by the operation of the team, $24 million was spent on the new ballpark and the rest was used to reduce our team's debt.
Some of the team's debt is held by banks, some by Major League Baseball and some by the owner. Reducing the debt was and remains critical so that we can fulfill our contribution to the new ballpark, which is currently being built on time and on budget in Miami. To prepare and to be in position to pay a substantial portion of construction costs, the team had to execute a plan many years in advance. That plan was to stop incurring debt, actually reduce debt, and manage the team so that the banks, Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami would agree to do business with us.
The reduction of debt was a critical component of the team's operation, because losses from previous years had led to excessive debt balances. This large amount of debt would have made it impossible to contribute to the ballpark's construction and would have put baseball in Miami in jeopardy."
There was no "huge lie," just idiot "reporters" who didn't have a clue. And then there are the fools who believed them.
The '09 balance sheet showed debt of 113 million. The partners' capital account had a cumulative deficit of 61 million. Numbers like that are the result of years of large losses, and those numbers were net AFTER making money in '08 and '09.
Nobody gave away anything, Miami-Dade County owns the new stadium, not the Marlins. The Marlins are contributing $155 million to its cost and will own nothing. The "taxpayers" are almost 100% non-Miami-Dade residents, they're called tourists.
If you've got a problem, take it up with the City and County, they're the people who wanted to keep the Marlins from moving elsewhere, nobody held a gun to their heads. As I said, "I think that sports teams should pay their own way, but that doesn't change the fact that they can rent-seek because municipalities want to retain franchises."
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