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?
ROTFLMAO
You are so funny you should be a comedian, you are funnier than Larry the Cable Guy, Jim Carey and Cantiflas all rolled into one.
I hope you have fun doing the wave BY YOURSELF in the always empty Marlins stadium.
People cant afford $250 to take a family of 4 to see a shitty team with a greedy scumbag owner that has the lowest payroll in the majors, just so he can put more cash in his back pocket.
Screw the Marlins, and screw that punk Hanley Ramirez too.
And I'm quite sure that they'll never draw that many fans to the new stadium. Close to half the crowd I usually sat with (section 452, upstairs behind the plate right on the railing, best seats in the house) was from central and western Broward. They are not going to spend 50-70 minutes each way going to the ball park 4-5 nights a week.
It would have made far more sense to build the stadium out on I-75 where it would have been easy to get to from anywhere.
You have GOT to be a writer.
That was well written!
