Thursday, May 23, 2013
By TIM DAHLBERG The Associated Press
(Continued from page 1)
Jeffrey Loria, owner of the Miami Marlins, is trying to soft-pedal his image in south Florida, where fans aren’t bothering to buy tickets for a second-year stadium and a team, because of a payroll purge, that may not be good enough to win 50 games this season.
Photos by The Associated Press
Jeffrey Loria got the public to pay for his stadium, and he’s guaranteed millions through baseball’s television package. So if he doesn’t want to pay for quality ballplayers … well, so what?
Now Loria is raking in more money from MLB's new television deals than he's paying players. He's guaranteed tens of millions in profits even if his team doesn't win 50 games. And if he's not the most popular person, well, so what.
Loria won't even commit to signing the team's only remaining star. Giancarlo Stanton isn't eligible for arbitration and Loria said he wants to see him play another year before deciding to pay big money.
Apparently the 71 home runs Stanton hit the last two years weren't convincing enough.
Fans are reacting the only way they know, by refusing to buy tickets. The pitch Loria made to get his stadium was fans would come out in droves if they had a proper ballpark with a retractable roof. But the turnstile count last year was just 1.4 million, a million below expectations. This year will be even worse, with season ticket sales not even half the 12,000 sold for the inaugural season.
One newspaper called Loria the most hated man in baseball, and with Frank McCourt no longer controlling the Dodgers and Alex Rodriguez on the disabled list, it's hard to argue with that.
No, Loria may not yet be the worst owner ever. But give him time and he may get there.
Tweet
Copyright ©2013 MaineToday Media, Inc.
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Maine Yellow Pages
Facebook
Twitter
Further Discussion
Here at PressHerald.com we value our readers and are committed to growing our community by encouraging you to add to the discussion. To ensure conscientious dialogue we have implemented a strict no-bullying policy. To participate, you must follow our Terms of Use.Questions about the article? Add them below and we’ll try to answer them or do a follow-up post as soon as we can. Technical problems? Email them to us with an exact description of the problem. Make sure to include: