Bryant Gumbel has a story about the stadium and the "outcry" about the financial documents that were released tonight at 10pm on HBO.

Real Sports episode 163 synopsis

Norman Braman was on the radio this morning with Jimmy Cefalo talking about the Mayor Alvarez recall and at the end they talked about this briefly and from they said the documentary will not be kind to how the city / county handle the whole thing.

Well, there was some shady behavior that occurred in getting the new stadium. Some of those issues should and still need to be addressed.

Surprise surprise shady events in government.

 

:o

Even more surprising, it's in MIAMI.

I watched it. Nothing earth shattering here. Although it did seem pretty biased against the deal. But I've never liked Bryant Gumbell since his days on the Today Show. So I'm a bit biased myself.

Samson had some interesting things to say in the Rodriguez article a few days ago. First, about the leaked financials:

 

"We haven't had one person who's purchased a seat say a word," Samson said. "We haven't had anybody mention it at all except Norman Braman, and now Norman Braman is busy doing other things trying to recall the mayor. For me, it's a non-issue because the irony is…the county and the city knew exactly what our financial position was because they met with our banks and our banks told them. "The biggest problem we had over the seven years of negotiation, the single biggest one, was their concern that we would not have the money to build our share of the building and they would have to take over and finish themselves. In order for us to secure the money to build it, we had to go to banks. In order to do business with banks, you have to show you're healthy. In no way was any money pocketed. It was all done to bring down debt and put us in position ironically to take on more debt."

 

Non-issue to any fan who is even semi-financially literate. Except to Norman (is he a fan?) No surprise, in any case.

 

More interestingly, about ticket sales:

 

Samson added that season tickets for premium areas of the new ballpark are selling better than anticipated to this point.

 

Most interestingly, about naming rights:

 

He also said the Marlins hope to have a naming rights deal in place by year's end.

 

Naming rights went for about $4 million a year in Philly and Houston (a few years ago.) The Mutts recently got $20 mill average per year from Citi FOR 20 YEARS. But that's NY (and the idiots at Citi.)

 

Locally, Sun Life paid $7.5 mill per year average for 5 years for our current football stadium.

 

I'll guess that the Marlins get somewhere between $3 and $5 mill per year, maybe a little more. Having guys like Hanley and Josh and Stanton and LoMo around increases the value because of the higher odds of play-off games being broadcast nation and world-wide. It's no small issue, we don't get a dime from Sun Life.

 

Think of it as enabling a decent bullpen and bench.

 

:lol

I never had a problem with the deal from the beginning... I thought Dupuy made the most sensible argument and even after the documents leaked I think Sampson explained it well enough for me to understand.