The Florida Legislature Redeems Itself

As goofy as they normally are, the Florida Legislature did something right in rejecting the public funding of a baseball stadium in Miami for the Marlins.

Here are some of the remarks by players and management of the Marlins.

We are deeply disappointed in the Florida Legislature's decision, and we feel very bad for all of the baseball fans in South Florida,'' owner Jeffrey Loria said. ``We will now review our options, and not comment further until this review is completed.

I think it's a major mistake,'' said third baseman Mike Lowell, who grew up in South Florida. ``We're one of the few teams that has proven we can win a championship in this state, and it just seems not everyone is a big fan of us. 

It's very disheartening,'' said Marlins veteran Jeff Conine, who played in the team's first game 12 years ago. ``You go through the laundry list of things they've done with the team - they built us into World Series champions and made us competitive every year - and you'd think they would have all the ingredients to get the support to do that. But it hasn't happened.

It creates a $30 million hole,'' Book said. ``I don't know where they go to fill the hole. They have to explore the options.

How about by raising ticket prices. Jeffrey Loria, the team's owner, doesn't want to take the risk of plunking down a huge chunk of change and find that Miami residents still don't want to attend Marlins' games. The Marlins have one of, if not the worst, attendance records in the league. Even in their two years that the Marlins won the World Series they were near the bottom in term of attendance.

 

Comments

[True_Liberal]

A wakeup call for MLB and NFL and communities that are being asked to publicly fund such opulent edifices. Let the users (and those directly or indirectly benefitting) cough it up!

Face it - the taxpayer at the other end of the county sees virtually no return on his tax dollar when it buys a stadium, unless he is a direct employee of a primary agent of the team. It is called a ripoff.

[joe o]

San Francisco citizens repeatedly voted down bond issues for a new baseball stadium. The Giants eventually paid for it themselves. The use of local taxpayer funds in givaways to big companies is just stupid.