Hey everyone... first off I want to introduce myself. I am new to the boards and a long time fish fan. Even though we are struggling right now... I think this team is yet to get hot this year. I was wondering what everyone thinks of Jeffrey Loria? We all know how he was when he was with the Expos, and that is why I have always had trouble trusting him. Loria has done some fantastic things for the Fish... like the new ballpark. Do you guys think he is willing to stay committed to contracts to guys like JJ and Hanley... and Stanton in the future? Or are they just tradebait down the road?

At least it's not John Henry

"We all know how he was when he was with the Expos..."

 

How was that exactly?

He is an awful owner, but hopefully he sells when the teams value goes up with a new stadium.

"We all know how he was when he was with the Expos..."

 

How was that exactly?

Probably considered the worst owner in baseball when he owned the Expos. Was notoriously known for not willing to hold on to good players or to pay his young players. That is why I am having trouble deciding what to think. He does not resemble that type of owner at all the last few years. I have no complaints at this point... but I do not trust him... despite signing JJ, Hanley, and the new ballpark.

 

Charlie Rose Jeffrey Loria interview

 

I did find this interview... and it is very interesting... his comments contradict his reputation... I just wonder what Loria's intentions are. I have become very attached to Josh Johnson and some other players... and while I am used to the way the organization has run things in the past... I would like to see some consistency and a solid foundation.

The few times I've met him he has been very nice.... he tends to not spend as much on the team (obviously) compared to other MLB teams ... but then again the revenue stream in our market is not like others... fingers crossed things will change when we get the new stadium...

 

 

He goes to almost all the home games, if he didn't really care about the team and it was just an investment vehicle he could be an absentee owner... but he is not...

"We all know how he was when he was with the Expos..."

 

How was that exactly?

 

He came in saying he would save the team and make the city happy, but in the end it was all a lie. How is a team suppose to do good in a city, where they have no English radio or tv? He was a awful man,,,,the fact that the Expos moved to D.C. even though minority owners had a case that was shutdown in court is a disgrace to MLB.

"We all know how he was when he was with the Expos..."

 

How was that exactly?

 

He came in saying he would save the team and make the city happy, but in the end it was all a lie. How is a team suppose to do good in a city, where they have no English radio or tv? He was a awful man,,,,the fact that the Expos moved to D.C. even though minority owners had a case that was shutdown in court is a disgrace to MLB.

 

Did I miss something? 790am carries all the games in ENGLISH and 150 of the games are televised (mostly on Fox Sports)

 

A majority of the people that work at the stadium speak english... so what's the big deal?

 

The Expos had attendance problems too...

The few times I've met him he has been very nice.... he tends to not spend as much on the team (obviously) compared to other MLB teams ... but then again the revenue stream in our market is not like others... fingers crossed things will change when we get the new stadium...

 

 

He goes to almost all the home games, if he didn't really care about the team and it was just an investment vehicle he could be an absentee owner... but he is not...

 

 

 

 

 

I agree MiamiLifer... I hope that once the new ballpark is in place... attendence improves and we can see more consistency as far as other things are concerned. I do believe Loria wants to win... I think the new ballpark was priority #1 and once that was taken care of... he would worry more about keeping particular players. Lets just keep our fingers crossed...

"We all know how he was when he was with the Expos..."

 

How was that exactly?

 

He came in saying he would save the team and make the city happy, but in the end it was all a lie. How is a team suppose to do good in a city, where they have no English radio or tv? He was a awful man,,,,the fact that the Expos moved to D.C. even though minority owners had a case that was shutdown in court is a disgrace to MLB.

 

Did I miss something? 790am carries all the games in ENGLISH and 150 of the games are televised (mostly on Fox Sports)

 

A majority of the people that work at the stadium speak english... so what's the big deal?

 

The Expos had attendance problems too...

 

I believe he is talking about the Expos experience with Loria. There was no English TV or Radio for the Expos the last 4 or 5 years they were in Montréal. Loria was owner during the time the contracts expired. Attendance really fell only after Loria was the owner, and he made it clear they either got a new stadium or he would move the team (sound familiar ?), and he refused to spend any money on payroll (again, does that sound familiar ?).

 

Of course, it would have been better for us had Loria remained with the Expos and moved to Washington, but I am convinced that MLB wanted no part of Loria and his abrasive style of ownership in Washington. I'll never forgive Selig for shoving Loria down our throats. I would have rather been under MLB control until an owner was found for our franchise. I believe had we had a local Latino owner buy the team in say 2003 or 2004 a stadium would have been built by 2009.

 

Of course 2003 World Series may never have come our way, but in the long run I think the chances of winning another World Series with Loria are next to nil, because of his cheapness. Loria has a lot to prove to South Fla before they will believe he is serious about winning a title.

I just want him to give the green light to the FO to go get some friggin' bullpen arms.

"We all know how he was when he was with the Expos..."

 

How was that exactly?

 

He came in saying he would save the team and make the city happy, but in the end it was all a lie. How is a team suppose to do good in a city, where they have no English radio or tv? He was a awful man,,,,the fact that the Expos moved to D.C. even though minority owners had a case that was shutdown in court is a disgrace to MLB.

 

Did I miss something? 790am carries all the games in ENGLISH and 150 of the games are televised (mostly on Fox Sports)

 

A majority of the people that work at the stadium speak english... so what's the big deal?

 

The Expos had attendance problems too...

 

I believe he is talking about the Expos experience with Loria. There was no English TV or Radio for the Expos the last 4 or 5 years they were in Montréal. Loria was owner during the time the contracts expired. Attendance really fell only after Loria was the owner, and he made it clear they either got a new stadium or he would move the team (sound familiar ?), and he refused to spend any money on payroll (again, does that sound familiar ?).

 

Of course, it would have been better for us had Loria remained with the Expos and moved to Washington, but I am convinced that MLB wanted no part of Loria and his abrasive style of ownership in Washington. I'll never forgive Selig for shoving Loria down our throats. I would have rather been under MLB control until an owner was found for our franchise. I believe had we had a local Latino owner buy the team in say 2003 or 2004 a stadium would have been built by 2009.

 

Of course 2003 World Series may never have come our way, but in the long run I think the chances of winning another World Series with Loria are next to nil, because of his cheapness. Loria has a lot to prove to South Fla before they will believe he is serious about winning a title.

 

 

I realize that some people have to rely on other's gullibility to make facts out of their fiction.

 

Facts are terrible things. They get in the way of fables. Like the fact Loria only bought into the team (35%) in December 1999. By spring of 2002 he had sold the franchise to MLB. So when you read about no broadcasts for four to five years understand that a) it's not true, the english language broadcasts were never in dispute, what happened was Quebec (the province in which Montreal is located) was in the middle of a sometimes bloody civil war within the province and threatened the fabric of Canada itself. Things were so bad in Montreal that The Bank of Montreal actually moved their headquarters to Ontario. Quebec passed "equality" ordinances - every street sign, every bus route, every document in every school, every library, every municipal building, every permit to do business had to be bi-lingual, which was then extended to the media saying if you broadcast in English you have to broadcast in French as well and prohibited the Expos from broadcasting in english as they always had UNLESS they signed a broadcast contract for equal dollars with a french-speaking station of equivalent strength. Not unjustifiably Loria refused. Oh BTW, the contracts had already expired when Loria became Managing Partner.

 

As for attendance, and keeping in mind Loria's tenure was December 1999, or for all intents and purposes the beginning of the 2000 season until the spring of 2002 when he bought the Marlins. So we're talking about two seasons 2000 and 2001. According to the writer attendance only fell after Loria took over.

 

Wrong again. Rather than go year by year here's a link to the Expos attendance numbers from 1969 on. Keep in mind the only two seasons that matter are 2000 and 2001, but it's worth observing that in the years previous 1994-1999 average attendance fell from a high of 22,340 to a low of 9,540, BEFORE Loria. Here's the link: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/montattn.shtml

 

Attendance was actually up in 2000. It did fall in 2001 but we all know what the last of the season looked like after 9/11.

 

As for the minority owners who by their own hand created second class status for themselves by refusing to pony up their share and leaving it to the person the Toronto Globe and Mail (Canada's largest and most prestigious newspaper) described as their hand-picked "fallguy" to pay the bills out of pocket for the entire operation, their legal claims, after three different mediation panels and two hearings in front of two different federal judges were found to be completely without substance, had to pay court costs and the final nail in their coffin was the judge's ruling which said they "had no one to blame but themselves". In short that "good case" wasn't so good. It was merely a PR attempt to deflect the scorn heaped on the previous owners and their grandiose dreams and broken promises to the people of Quebec.

 

I could go on but why bother. This guy is wrong about Selig, he's wrong about Loria cheapness in Montreal - after all he funded the team 100% out of his pocket for two consecutive years without trading away a single significant player or watching them leave through free agency - it's all BS right down to what difference a Latino owner might have meant to the franchise. No one knows, no one can see the future, the only two guys who were rumored to be interested was a foreign national with a political agenda and a developer now turning over most of his holdings as deeds in lieu of foreclosure - in other words busted out. So who knows where we would be right now. If the Marlins had been sold to MLB as this guy wants we would have gotten the same treatment, Omar Minaya trading away every player worth ten cents and destabilizing the franchise as he did with what's now the Washington Nationals meaning 2003 would never have happened and all those players long gone.

 

No thank you.

 

Loria is far from the perfect owner but ask yourself this - if he had won the right to buy the Baltimore Orioles (he lost out in the final round of bidding) instead of Peter Angelos do you really think Orioles fans would be looking forward to their 13th consecutive losing season with Loria at the helm? I don't.

Yes, I do. Their payroll would reflect what the Marlins currently is and they would of traded Roberts, Markakis, etc long long ago. Loria has shown he isnt willing to pay any more than slot value on first rounders(and even then begrudgingly) so they wouldnt have Weiters either.

Yes, I do. Their payroll would reflect what the Marlins currently is and they would of traded Roberts, Markakis, etc long long ago. Loria has shown he isnt willing to pay any more than slot value on first rounders(and even then begrudgingly) so they wouldnt have Weiters either.

 

 

Except that the Orioles have all the revenue streams inside the park and out that the Marlins currently don't have and haven't since John Henry signed what can only be viewed as the worst contract in the history of sports. As for draftees those numbers are guidelined by MLB and it does seem to me that (I admit I can't put a name to it so if I'm wrong my bad) the Marlins have exceeded slot money more than once.

Revenue streams wouldnt mean a thing to Jeffrey Loria.

Why the hate on Loria? He is the best owner we've ever hand, and the fact that he's been coasting for 5 years doesn't eliminate the payroll expansion of 2002-2005 and indicates nothing about what he is going to do starting in 2012. My only complaint is not giving the green light for another few million for legit bullpen guys.