FRZfishfan

The problem as I see it with the downtown site is not the size of the parcel for the actual stadium but the fact that all parking will be off-premise private or public lots which is revenue that the stadium or the team won't control. The OB site minus the OB would have much more on premise parking because the footprint of the ballpark will be smaller. The OB site also fulfills a lot of the needs (and gets rid of a lot of problems) for the politicians. As fan my preference is certainly downtown but I can see why the politicos are pushing for the OB. I don't think it will be as bad some you think. And I think it's better than Hialeah Heights.

http://floridafishfan.blogspot.com/2007/03...-hypocrisy.html

The rebate is $60 million but only $30 million is required for the stadium project. BTW I wrote an open letter to Steve Geller, the legislator that said his constituents would be unhappy if he voted to spend their money to make seeing the Marlins more inconvenient. The letter is available at my blog.

The fact that it's finally getting out of committee and will see the floor of the legistlature is a very positive sign. Remember that the speaker of the Florida house is now from Miami-Dade county. The sales tax rebate on makes up $30 million or less than 10% of the total budget of the project. There needs to be some common sense in Tallahassee. A Marlins team that moves out of state generates no tax revenue anyway, so what do they have to lose. Besides it's always "you wash my back, I'll wash yours". When the the reps and senators from other parts of the state want their pet projects approved our reps and senators will remember if we get the back of their hand now.

newsday needs to get their sh*t together. its Dolphin Stadium. Actually it's the folks at the stadium that need to get their sh*t together. Their logo says Dolphin Stadium but their web site is Dolphinsstadium.com and they have tons of content on it that calls it Dolphins Stadium including their copyright notice at the bottom.

I don't think calling a guy who is not gay a fag is the name thing as using the N-word about someone who is black. I listen to the radio everyday and the so-called shock jocks use the word fag on the air all the time. It's not a word that gets bleeped like N-word. I think this whole thing is much ado about nothing.

The players union will never agree to contraction. That's why Selig "took it off the table." It's never going to happen. He needs to use whatever leverage he has to get other concessions from the players when it's time to bargain again.

I get an error: Host is unreachable. ARGH.

There's a slight chance a special session could be called (for other issues) and maybe they can bring this back. The senate was the problem and it seems they got the votes there.

As I said above, and as I read the posts that followed mine, stadium financing has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with funding for education. Zero, zilch, nada, nothing. Funding for each comes from completely different and purpose-driven taxes, and in fact only the taxes for education come from Miami-Dade county residents. Tieing the two together in the same sentence leaves the taste in the mouth of the reader that they are received by the palate as one, when of course they are totally different. Regardless of what you consume later, one still remembers the flavor of the first bite, schools or a stadium, stadium or schools...and that was purpose of the piece. That'swhy I made the comment in my initial post that I did but Cape just didn't get it. I understand what you are saying about the local funds that come from bed taxes and the like which have nothing to do with schools, etc. but the state sales tax rebate the Marlins and the City of Miami were lobbying for would have come from sales taxes which are the main source of revenue for the state. My argument was just that it's all BS anyway because the Marlins could be gone for 10 years and we'll still be bitching about the schools.

Obviously he can't read. I never said schools shouldn't be fixed. But the simple act of not building a stadium does nothing to fix schools or decrease class size or raise achievement levels. Just another demagogue.

I said it on another thread and I'll say it here. The argument that schools should come first is a canard. We've had problems with schools that predate the Marlins existence. The problem with schools (or roads or fill in the blanks) has nothing to do with money. As the article states our taxing authorities are experiencing a windfall that they aren't allocating wisely. Will schools get magically fixed if the Marlins move to Texas and everything else remains the same? Of course not. Let's not kid ourselves. Besides the state money the team and the city of Miami were trying to get was in the form of a sales tax rebate. Well how much revenue will the San Antonio Marlins generate for Florida in the form of sales taxes? You have two guesses. Ok, time's up, the correct answer is zero. The state can only make money off the Marlins if they are in Florida. So it seems that our state senators cut off their nose to spite their face because they risk losing the revenue and the team. Great work! :hat

8,994 That is really bad. http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...e.aspx?team=014 wow..but the sad thing is the numbers will continue to go down...wouldn't even surprise me to have section 145 all to myself. They won't have an announced attendence much lower than 8,000 because of all the STH accounts that are counted in the attendance whether they show up or not.

My beef with Loria is not the fire sale. In fact I wouldn't mind a fire sale every 6 or 7 years if it meant long term stability for the club and a chance to make a run at the playoffs periodically. I'm not mad at him for trying to get what other owners (even right here in SoFla) have gotten, a publicly financed stadium. That's the playing field he's playing on. Other rich guys have gotten their stadiums built so he wants the same. I don't blame him for trying to pressure the city and the county by exploring other markets. It's the only leverage that he has. What I do blame him for is how he and his step son shat on the fan base during the off season. Rather than be standoffish they could have been conciliatory. They could have offered every season ticket holder and extra seat or something. Think about it, it wouldn't cost them a dime and the stadium is empty anyway so there's plenty available. There were about 5,000 season ticket holders in 2003. Those are people who had no idea the team would make the playoffs. This year there's abotu 8,000. People that didn't know this firesale was coming. That means still more than half of the season ticket holders are people that were supporting this team when there were zero expectations, the ones that kept the pulse of baseball alive between the WS wins. Now they've burned us all.

News to me. I though that if a ball dropped within 3 feet of where you are standing still it would have to be an error. An error shall be charged for each misplay (fumble, muff or wild throw) which prolongs the time at bat of a batter or which prolongs the life of a runner, or which permits a runner to advance one or more bases. NOTE (1) Slow handling of the ball which does not involve mechanical misplay shall not be construed as an error. NOTE (2) It is not necessary that the fielder touch the ball to be charged with an error. If a ground ball goes through a fielder's legs or a pop fly falls untouched and in the scorer's judgment the fielder could have handled the ball with ordinary effort, an error shall be charged.