I don’t think I will ever know all the politics involved in such city projects. I just know that they are expensive but the city also receives the a benefit of having a major sports franchise.It depends. I'm not entirely sure Miami has gotten all that much benefit having the Marlins---particularly after their rather odious owner (Jeffrey Loria) snookered the city into building him a spanking new ballpark on the promise to provide a competitive team. He got the ballpark but the team is still anything but competitive. (Flip the coin and you see the Tampa Bay Rays, who are very well run, very competitive, and play in a park nobody likes---possibly including the team itself.)
I was a Marlin fan since 1993. They started to place in Joe Robbie Stadium, which was bought and paid for by Joe Robbie himself. The city provided the land and infrastructure support.
Wayne Huizenga brought the Marlins to the World Series, built up the roster and paid more for that year than maybe the previous 3 years combined. They win, and he demands a new stadium, it was voted down, and Huizenga sold the team to Loria. Loria did the same exact thing and got the Marlins to win the 2003 world series. Shortly after they build the stadium at the old Orange Bowl site. The Marlins always marketed to the Latin Americans. However, I didn’t see to many of them in the stadium. They mostly came from Broward and Palm Beach County and were middle class families. It would have been wise for him to build it near Boca or Ft Lauderdale. Now they have this big new stadium that is always empty. He cut to the payroll to by far the lowest in the league, and no one believes they will win a pennant anytime soon.
When you compare Joe Robbie, Wayne Huizenga and Jeff Loria in south Florida, Joe Robbie is a local hero. No one likes the other 2 that much.