Miami Sucking-Sound Machine
Stadium welfare update from NBCmiami.com:
The price tag says $515 million, but by the time the new Marlins stadium is paid off 40 years from now, it will have cost a whopping $2.4 billion. […]
Earlier estimates put the total costs at about $2 billion, but thanks to rising interest rates, the people of Miami-Dade will have to pony up even more for the field of dreams in Little Havana.
Suddenly, the $120 million the Marlins are contributing doesn't seem like very much.
No, it really doesn't. Particularly since A) the team has spent (if I'm not mistaken) less on payroll the past four years than any other major league team, a combined $104 million from 2006-2009, and not surprisingly B) has produced inferior (if occasionally promising) product, going 17 games under .500 during that stretch, even though C) Picasso-owning, 7,000-square-foot-Upper-East-Side-apartment-living team owner Jeffrey Loria has seen the value of his franchise rise to an estimated $277 million since he bought it for $158 million in 2002.
But most importantly, D) Miami-Dade County is staring at a $400 million budget shortfall, and most of its cities are facing deficits and contemplating the deadly recession-exacerbater of tax hikes/service cuts, all while unemployment looks poised to bust through double digits. Spending scarce tax dollars in this environment on a rich man's hobby, one enjoyed by a minority of the population, is flat obscene.
I've written previously about the Marlins stadium boondoggle here and here.
