March 30, 200422 yr pre?var?i?cate ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pr-vr-kt) To stray from or evade the truth; equivocate. From Today's Sun-Sentinel - Link Huizenga stands firm on stadium lease By Sarah Talalay Staff Writer Posted March 30 2004 PALM BEACH ? Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga said Monday he still wants the Marlins to move from Pro Player Stadium and continues to refuse to alter the team's stadium lease, saying it was devised to reflect the average of all baseball stadium leases at the time. Before being awarded South Florida's baseball franchise in 1991, Huizenga said he fought with the Robbie family over terms before agreeing to the average of baseball's 26 other stadium leases. Huizenga, who bought the Dolphins and the stadium from the Robbies, has not altered the terms through two Marlins ownership changes. "That lease is still in effect today," Huizenga said Monday. "And that's the lease that John Henry had. And that's the lease that [Jeffrey] Loria, got but he makes it sound like it's way out of whack and it's so one-sided. That was based on the average lease in baseball." Huizenga added: "We didn't hear John Henry b***hing about the lease the whole time." But Marlins owners always have complained the lease prevents them from earning enough revenue to field a competitive team. With only percentages of concession and parking revenue and none from suites, the Marlins say they need a new stadium and have set a May 1 deadline for financing. Huizenga also blamed two of kicker Olindo Mare's missed field goals last season on the baseball diamond turf remaining on the football field as the Marlins made their successful World Series Championship run. "We wouldn't kick them out, but we'd like them to go," Huizenga said. ------ What the big guy at PPS doesn't mention is that MLB salaries averaged $850,000 in 1991, TODAY THEY AVERAGE IN EXCESS OF $2.5 MILLION. Times a 25 man roster thats a $41 million increase in average payrolls. To give a better example, in 1993, the innaugural year of the Florida Marlins, their payroll was just above $18 million. Today their payroll (just for the 25 man roster, not the 40 man roster that they have to pay for) is approximately $53 million +++. Factoring in their contribution for health/retirement benefits to the players association and the 40 man roster the figure is close to $70 million. So WH is being disengenuous at best by looking at only one component - rent - and ignoring all the other profit-centers the Marlins receive virtually no $$$ from - parking, concessions, etc. and conveniently forgetting that payroll is three times what it was in 1991.
March 30, 200422 yr Makes you wonder how he earned those millions....the man just isn't that bright. :plain
March 30, 200422 yr Makes you wonder how he earned those millions....the man just isn't that bright. :plain Au contraire mon frer, he is quite "bright" and also as sly as a fox. Of course he knows that salaries have gone up and that the share the Marlins get from the stadium is minimal, at best. Huizenga is a shrewd businessman. Do you ACTUALLY expect him to get up and say, "Oh, yeah, I'm screwing the Marlins over!" C'mon, get real. He was shrewd in 1997 when he concocted losses for the team, based on the fact that the Marlins were basically "taking" money from Wayne's left pocket (the team) and depositing it in his right pocket (the stadium). Sure the Marlins entity was losing money, but it was merely a redistribution of wealth that conveniently "found" itself in his stadium entity. You don't make money in the "waste management" business by being stupid.
March 30, 200422 yr Author Makes you wonder how he earned those millions....the man just isn't that bright. :plain WH is an extraordinarily bright fellow. Of course he know that salaries have trebled, of course he knows all the other unfair parts of the lease, he simply choses to ignore them in order to give his argument a ring of truth. That's why I chose the word "prevaricate". What I liked, was his comment about the Dolphins missing two field goals "because" of the Marlins, as if to tell all Dolphins fans that the problems with that troubled, hapless franchise lies at the feet of the Marlins and not the management of the Dolphins. Lololol.
March 30, 200422 yr John Henry wasn't b***hing about the lease??? Were we all just imagining that he was trying to get a new stadium you jackass?
March 30, 200422 yr wayne is evil ... very evil I hate him and his dumb dolphins... sorry to all those fins fans in here
March 30, 200422 yr wow Wayne is such a jerk..but I guess he can do whatever the hell he wants to which really sucks. See he said only reason Wanstead was not fired was because mare missed the field goals.
March 30, 200422 yr That whole idea that the Dolphins season was ruined because of a missed field goal in the clay infield, from Mare, just pisses me off. You know I am convinced that Wayne sold the team with the intention to destroy the franchise, he structured the elase the way it is so that the team had no hope of surviving. See he figured that there is no way this team could ever field another winning team with the revenue it was making from that lease, so he assumed that attendance would stay low and we would never win and this team would be history in SoFLA. But now we WON a WS and are in the Virge of getting a new Stadium. I REALLY REALLY hope we can get a stadium cause I wanna see Wayne's reaction when he looses the Marlins as tenants at PPS and see's the Best Sport's franchise in SoFLA take off!!!! =)
March 30, 200422 yr Right around the time the team was sold by WH he negotiated a long term deal with Sports Channel (which eventually became Fox sports) which benefitted the network. Then he sold the network and the team and the network. WH could have cared less what this did to the Marlins. WH just wanted to maximize the revenue that Sports Channel got so he could get the most money from fox. This same thing goes on with the stadium. Not only are salaries triple what they were in 1991, but ask yourselves how many teams have gotten out of stadium deals like the ones he negotiated with the Robbies' and built new stadiums (REVENUE) since 1991. I will always boo Wayne!
March 30, 200422 yr Quote of the month: Huizenga added: "We didn't hear John Henry b***hing about the lease the whole time." There wasnt a new movement to get a stadium a couple of years ago, huh Wayne? There also wasnt a clause inserted into the lease of multiple 1 year leases in case the team moved, huh Wayne? This guy is an a**hole. Plain and simple. (Sorry, kids) I wish retribution is visited upon him, and it will be. The Dolphins are a team of chokers. Huizenga is the biggest excuse maker and therefore their poster boy. Sounds a lot like the Red Sox owner...who is that guy again? I am glad that the media is speaking out against H-bomb - that shows he doesnt run the business at least.
March 30, 200422 yr I really hope that guys at QAM (Fat Hank in particular) pick up on the garbage Wayne is spewing. Wayne is a first-class a**hole. :thumbdown
March 30, 200422 yr The 3 main ways Wayne sucked money out of the Marlins when he owned them...and still kinda does... based on the WGN-Cubs story 1) Pro Player Stadium Lease 2) Move to SportsChannel Florida (now FSN) from Sunshine 3) Dolphins Wayne used money from the Marlins and funneled it to the 3 organizations above as the Cubs do with... 1) Wrigley Field 2) WGN-TV 3) WGN-AM He wasn't losing money, the Marlins were losing money on the books, but PPS was making money, SportsChannel Florida was making money, and the Dolphins were using Mrlins money as revenue to raise their cap potential.
March 31, 200422 yr What a bunch of BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mare couldn't hit the FG due to the field (Marlins). . . Common now, the OTHER teams were able to hit the FGs at the exact same spot when they needed them. The 2003 Dolphins were a joke, a team without leadership and no passion on the field. I won't say what I hope for the Dolphins , out of respect to Dolphins fans in this forum. I won't support the Dolphins while that loser owns them.
March 31, 200422 yr It's amazing how getting a stadium would solve so many problems for us. I just wanna get out of PPS so we can forget about Wayne H. and what he did and is still doing to our team.
March 31, 200422 yr Author The only terms the PPS guys want to see the Marlins leave PPS is for another stadium out of state. That's been their game plan all along.
March 31, 200422 yr "We wouldn't kick them out, but we'd like them to go," Huizenga said. With pleasure, pal.
March 31, 200422 yr "We wouldn't kick them out, but we'd like them to go," Huizenga said. How about that a-hole stepping away from pro sports for good. He would be the perfect villain for the next CSI: Miami episode, you know, the one where a baseball team turns up dead and the forensic scientists start collecting evidence at Dan Marino Blvd.. :whistle
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