http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/beyond-belief/

As you know the Marlins were purchased by Jeffrey Loria for about $150 million in 2002. Over the first five years after purchase an owner can amortize 50% of that. In other words, the Marlins can make a book entry in the loss column in years 1-5 of ownership for $15 million.

 

They've owned the Marlins for four full seasons?ergo $60 million of their purported "loss" are from that. Furthermore, the value of the franchise has increased over that same span almost $70 million.

 

Loria and David Samson?s salary is also included as an expense?hence in the ?loss? column. So while they're paying themselves money they can also claim they lost that very same money. In other words he could pay himself a $1 million salary and say the Marlins (that he owns) lost $1 million.

 

 

:o

 

You mean someone other than myself has pointed this out? :whistle

 

The Marlins won their second World Series, and not wishing to break with tradition, claimed to have lost $20 million. When asked to open their books to prove public subsidies were justified, Samson replied: ?Many private companies ask for public help?in tax abatements, incentives to move firms to new areas and other kinds of government help. And you don't see those companies releasing their figures.? Of course, had the losses been legitimate opening the books would?ve been a no-brainer.

 

 

:lol :lol

 

And my personal favorite:

 

Even if Bodley's worst-case scenario were to come true and Jeffrey Loria did go bankrupt, well it's like this: when you factor in the money you get from revenue sharing, merchandising, MLB.com, national television, local television, radio, even before you sell a single ticket or hot dog and you've got a friggin' monopoly on your product plus the mega tax breaks that come with owning a major league sports team and you still go belly-up?then chances are you're too bloody stupid to be in business anyway.

 

Consider it a form of natural selection.

samson is such an idiot

Awesome article.

samson is such an idiot

 

 

Im always hereing that here :lol

Ferry.....you're throwing that article out there like bait to a fish. Then you sit back and wait for us to bite, before you set the hook and tell us what a bunch of idiots we are. Continuing the pattern that you and 2003 have of considering most of us here a bunch of mindless neandrathals who just don't understand the business of baseball beyond when they raise the price of a beer by a quarter. Why don't you just tell us what YOU think about the article. Please educate us mindless trolls.

Forget the highbrow article.......how bout those Fish Tank Frenzy photos!!!!

 

Thats called hitting for the cycle.

I think the columnist is an a**hole whose diatribes do not deserve to be printed and if they are must be accompained with a disclaimer warning people that the columnist is incapable of providing acceptable pieces on the subject due to his intense dislike of its participants.

 

Brattain was ecstatic that a relevant source (Bodley) said something about Loria and Samson so he could once again bash them for all the evils of the world. He was getting so depserate that a week or two or ago, he threw in a joke about Samson's height in a completly unrelated article.

 

 

Swift, you got something against accrual accounting? Loria is the managing owner. Samson is an employee. They deserve to be paid for their efforts in operating the team. However, Brattain has no clue what if any compensation they have or will receive. He might as well accuse Loria of shooting Kennedy. Oops, did I give Mr. Brattain his next artcle?

Swift, you got something against accrual accounting? Loria is the managing owner. Samson is an employee. They deserve to be paid for their efforts in operating the team. However, Brattain has no clue what if any compensation they have or will receive. He might as well accuse Loria of shooting Kennedy. Oops, did I give Mr. Brattain his next artcle?

 

 

Well, first of all it's cooking the books, you know that, I know that.

 

Second, you don't find it the least bit coincidental that the first year without an amortization of loan payments also coincides with the Marlins blowing the team up and scrapping payroll so any profit would seam reasonably expected?

It's not cooking the books. And the numbers are much less than you and Brattain suggest as Loria can only amortize the cost of player salaries included in the sales price. Selig and the Brewers fought for that right in 1984 and successfuly won their case against the IRS. They are fully in the right to do so, despite Brattain and your attempts to make them out as liars and scoundrels. The only scoundrel is the one's who concoct incredible claims with inaccurate figures and poor language to damn your enemies as much as possible. ("revenue sharing" is the popular term for the transfers under MLB's complex revenue sharing program, not a team's share of collectively negotiated contract rights) Just because you resent the fact they hide the books doesn't mean you can make up numbers. All we know is what they tell us and what has been learned from people such as Pappas and Zimbalist.

 

Companies typically like to avoid great differences in their finances. Consistency is well regarded and a key goal for every business. Their problem is they must report activities at the time which they occur, not when they need it. Manipulating the time and methods they are designated is the very definition of cooking the books. Legitimate business decisions that might have a similar impact on the company's books are not cooking the books. A company investing a period's sizable profit into research and development is not cooking the books. There's not a single person in this world, no matter what their knowledge of the tax code, that would suggest there's anything wrong with taking legitimate business actions to turn a company reliant on 'welfare' from the industry into a smaller profitable although much less market share company.

 

Still I contend this offseason was a perfect time organizationally to make the change. The 2004-5 teams were going nowhere. They were full of players whose values would have dropped significantly.