By BARRY JACKSON

bjackson@MiamiHerald.com

 

A recently completed investigation by the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust offers some behind-the-scenes insight into the Marlins' stadium talks.

 

Among the findings: Venezuelan businessman Gustavo Cisneros has expressed interest in buying a team and discussed the Marlins with Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and occasionally with Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks. (The Marlins said last week Cisneros has never made an offer.)

 

But the investigation ''could not [corroborate]'' Marlins president David Samson's claim that city manager Joe Arriola ``pressured him to sell the club to Cisneros . . . as any such remarks were made during private conversations between Samson and Arriola and no witnesses would have been present.''

 

Samson said the Marlins never pursued the matter with the ethics commission. The commission initiated the investigation because if Arriola had been proved to have pressured the Marlins, it could have qualified as ''exploitation of official position'' and violate the Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics ordinance.

 

Samson told the investigator that during stadium negotiations, ''It came up time and time again that [Arriola] wanted Jeffrey [Loria] to sell'' and at least twice last summer, Arriola told him Cisneros was interested in buying the Marlins. ''He wanted us to sell the team outright to Cisneros,'' Samson said.

 

Though Samson has always said the team is not for sale, Arriola claimed to the commission's investigator that Samson was ''the one who brought Cisneros up. He's desperate and looking for someone to blame.'' Arriola said Samson asked him to call Cisneros, and he spoke to a Cisneros assistant whose name he couldn't recall. ''I don't know what happened,'' Arriola said. Joan Burton Jensen, general counsel for the Miami-based Cisneros Group of Companies, said Cisneros ``does not recall ever meeting Mr. Arriola.''

 

But the investigation discovered that Cisneros' representatives in March 2004 discussed the Marlins' proposed stadium with city officials including Diaz (who also spoke directly to Cisneros about investing in the team), and also that Cisneros approached MLB about acquiring ownership in an undisclosed team.

 

Samson said last week that even if Cisneros makes an offer, it would not be considered because the team isn't for sale. Other findings in the report:

 

? Arriola alleged Samson contacted as many as 20 to 30 prospective investors. Samson denied that last week, saying the team invited influential community members to a meeting in 2002 to discuss possibly becoming minority shareholders, but Loria then decided he didn't want to sell any percentage and hasn't spoken to any potential investors since.

 

Arriola added that prominent local developer Armando Codina considered helping the Marlins obtain land for a stadium and possibly invest in the team but lost interest. Samson denied that, and Codina said he's ``not interested in being an owner nor have I ever expressed any such interest.''

 

? Samson told the commission that city officials didn't act diligently in stadium talks. He said the city failed to assign a full-time staffer to the matter and canceled or failed to show at meetings. Samson said the team was prepared in a September meeting to close the funding gap -- by then, $40 million to $50 million -- but the city didn't physically attend. (Arriola participated by speaker phone.)

 

Miami-Dade County tax collector Ian Yorty said during that meeting, Samson 'might have said, hypothetically, `If I write a check for $100 million, are we done? Are all the issues done?' '' Yorty said he thought the suggestion was far-fetched ``because there are always going to be issues.''

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/14018344.htm

 

:plain :plain :plain

 

 

 

How can these people working for the city be so incompetent? They didn't show up because they didn't want to build Loria & Co. their stadium.

:plain This whole thing is making me sick.

I've made this comment before, but the reason the Marlins cannot sell a minority interest is because they already have approximately nine minority shareholders, seven from the Expos days and two locals. Setting a value to buy-in would put a value on the Expos disgruntled minority ownership group's shares who might demand to be taken out. So what happens is you sell shares and the money goes not to financing a stadium but to the dissident shareholders.

 

I suspect knowing the history of guys like Codina and Cisneros, they have zero interest in being "an" owner, it's either "the" owner or nothing.

You wish maybe MLB could have taken an offer.

I think the fire rescue tax fiasco has shown conclusively there is nothing, zero, nada, zilch you can believe that comes out of Joe Arriola's mouth. The words truth and Joe Arriola should never be used in the same sentence.

 

One thing I've been thinking about lately is MLB revenue-sharing. I have to wonder whether there would be a way to have the Marlins agree to not accept their share of it for say the next five years (and perhaps their share of the money anticipated to be distributed among the MLB owners from the sale of the Washington franchise) in exchange for a lump sum, deficit-closing, upfront payment from MLB to finance the stadium?

 

Just another one of my crazy ideas this Sunday morning.

Anything and everything will eventually be negotiable to MLB because they are getting desperate.