Profitgate: Marlins Issue Official Statement Regarding Leaked Financials

[middledge]

to profitable NOT to fail

smarmy wannabbe film critic, too cool radio newswimp,dan lev, money sucking daddy in loria, banana republic local pols....(hey, 3 anglos from palm beach county commission currently in prison too!) and you get The Marlins....and near billion dollars stadium care of the tax payer who was not allow to vote yeah or nah in a referendum. Where are the real sports reporters.......?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/sp...tml?ref=sports

Socialized American Sports.....public funds, owners cash.......

[Mainge]

Thought you were a bot.

[emkayseven]

I did too

[Mainge]

Maybe he is?

Jeffrey Loria sucks.bot

[Party]

smarmy wannabbe film critic, too cool radio newswimp,dan lev, money sucking daddy in loria, banana republic local pols....(hey, 3 anglos from palm beach county commission currently in prison too!) and you get The Marlins....and near billion dollars stadium care of the tax payer who was not allow to vote yeah or nah in a referendum. Where are the real sports reporters.......?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/sp...tml?ref=sports

Socialized American Sports.....public funds, owners cash.......

Because 'The People' and their infinite 'wisdom' rejected the American Airlines' ballot initiative and the 'People's Transportation Plan' that made our mass transit the envy of the world.

Oh wait!

[emkayseven]

I like the part about "yeah" or "nah"

BALLOT INITIATIVE: Do you want to allow funding?

Nah, son!

BALLOT INITIATIVE: Do you want to cut off funding?

Hells yeah!
--------------------
thinking about it I think it's time we abandoned antiquities and changed yea/nay to yeah/nah

[Party]

And 'The People' in their infinite 'wisdom' re-elected Javier Souto, by a 50 point margin last week. Souto, who was a long time opponent, voted for the stadium and clinched it for the Marlins.

THE PEOPLE!

[wanks1212]

By DAN LE BATARD
dlebatard@MiamiHerald.com

The truth doesn't matter. Not in this sport. Not in this climate. Not in Madoff's America. You know what matters? Perception. Confirmation bias. Distrust. Previous betrayals. Cynicism. And whether we like you or not.

So the Marlins are guilty. Even if maybe they aren't.

Nuance? Perspective? Benefit of doubt? They have not earned these things, even though those are usually given for free with fairness. The air the Marlins breathe is so poisoned that the team has essentially given up on public relations and cosmetics because, really, what difference does it make if they lose fans they don't have? Popular, mediocre Cody Ross gets sent away, making business cents but not fan sense, and it doesn't matter how rational the Marlins explain it as a business/baseball move. Doesn't matter, either, that they told Ross himself they are saving his salary toward re-signing Dan Uggla and Ricky Nolasco, not when Uggla is crying in the clubhouse over Ross' departure. There is zero trust, faith, belief. So clarity gets clogged as it runs through a perpetual prism clouded by bull feces.

And for good reason. This sport, from its strikes to its steroids, is stacked atop lies. This franchise has dismantled champions twice with heart-breaking that isn't forgotten. And this management team, viewed as carpetbaggers since arriving, and viewed this way even though it brought a championship disinfectant, muddies things. It ruined baseball in Montreal. It was forced by Major League Baseball and the players' union, in an epic shame, to stop being cheap. And it can be hard to like. Likeability might not be the seed where fandom grows, but it is fertilizer in that garden, and this is where Marlins president David Samson steps in it.

He is a fascinating creature. Obsessive-compulsive. Germ phobic. Insomniac. Owner of a panic room. Triathlete. And brilliant. He is the voice for this team on sensitive issues, and that voice can be condescending and snarky. He is very presidential in practice but not very presidential in presentation. And likeability in sports, well, that's only the perception difference between Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds.

(Disclosure: I do a weekly radio show with Samson. I like him. Trust him? That's more complicated. I would trust him in meaningful ways, as a person. But I wouldn't trust him, or many people, when forcing him to choose between my interests and his own, as a president.)

Which brings us to last week's scandal that might not actually be a scandal, the president's interests colliding against ours. Was Samson a bad person but good president? Was he bad at truth but good at sales? Aren't there nuanced exit ramps between those extreme destinations? I can't figure out, as fans shout and the media feeds, if the Marlins are guilty of anything other than good business and bad PR. But, in this sport, this climate, this America, are you going to trust him?

The numbers are slippery and soaked in lawyer and accountant talk. Even something simple, like Uggla's salary, isn't. Samson says Uggla's listed$7.8 million salary is actually $8.6 because of pensions and benefits.

Can you be both liar and pioneer if packaged right? Certainly, god Pat Riley has done plenty of public lying and filed it under business. The core issue here is that leaked, audited documents show profit that Samson claims, for the first time publicly, was not pocketed but poured back into covering debt to make the franchise solvent to banks and the county. Did Samson manipulate facts to get the stadium?

``No,'' he says. ``The operation of our team has been mischaracterized.''

But how do you correct that mischaracterization?

``People who believe, believe,'' he says. ``And the people who don't believe will never believe.''

Yeah, but that doesn't correct anything. . . .

``It isn't correctable,'' he says. ``Some people just want to believe the worst. You correct it by moving forward.''

But you don't correct a car accident with your rear-view mirror.

``We're not hiding,'' he says. ``There's nothing to hide.''

But there's the whiff of, what exactly? A lie? Creative accounting? Deadspin.com released private Marlins documents that show the team making a profit -- and the news in this is . . . well, I don't know.

The news is that private has become public, I guess, and the Marlins didn't want that because, well, nobody would want that. And a multimillion management fee paid to a company owned by Jeffrey Loria and Samson needs to be explained. But as the noisy frenzy grew last week, this is what I received, unsolicited, from CPAs who understand these documents far better than I do:

``It's funny to hear all these sports journalists throw around accounting terminology like they know what they are talking about and the general public will understand. It's like you are just finding the biggest number that says `profit' or `income' next to it and including it in the article, hoping for a reaction.''

And:

``Loria keeps expenses as low as possible to spin-off as much profit as possible, so he can show the bank good numbers and also show good-faith own funds. The problem: Few people understood then, and understand now, how poorly capitalized Loria is. He and Samson are remarkable businessmen, really.''

And:

``I am NOT a Marlins fan. But I have looked at the financial statements, and I believe taking the leap that the Marlins have lined their pockets with the profits is unfair. . . . I'm not saying David is telling the truth but these statements do not indicate he is lying.''

When my radio show was inundated with angry shouting, finances consuming fun and games, my co-host said, ``I want to punch this issue in the face.'' Which is easier than understanding it -- and works as a symbol for where fans are with this team.

``We've never manipulated anyone,'' Samson says. ``The county and city met with our bankers. The irony here is that what is being written is wrong, and they have the financial statements now to get it right. Some people don't want to let the truth get in the way of a good story. Creates bold headlines. It's pile on.''

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports has called the Marlins ``swindlers.'' This doesn't seem to bother Samson.

``We always do what we think is right, not what we think is popular,'' Samson says. ``We want to win. Not for our fans. For ourselves. That's the truth.''

But you understand your tone keeps you from being liked or trusted?

``That's a very loaded and complicated question,'' he says. ``I understand that in my position I can't be popular among the masses. I have to do things that are unpopular or things that can be misunderstood.''

So he becomes a receptacle for hostilities -- about greed, corporate fraud, cheap baseball, public financing, past betrayal, losing.

``I don't care what people write and say,'' he says, and he is one of the few people I've ever believed when saying this. ``I know the truth. That comes off as condescending, self-assured, Napoleonic. Maybe it's just a defense mechanism.''

Or shameless.

``I'd use a different word,'' he says. ``Bold. Daring.''

David, I've never seen or heard you feel shame. . . .

``Am I capable of feeling shame?'' he says. ``Not within the context of my job, no. When my kids do something that is a poor reflection of me, I feel ashamed of that. I'm very sad for my daughter, who has been getting `Your dad is a liar' at school. But my job is to protect the interest of the business of the Florida Marlins. I don't apologize for that, ever. I protect Jeffrey's money. Every penny.

``We'll make a change with an office supplier if it saves. I can take the criticism. My job is to be unpopular.''

And, appearances be damned, the man who got a stadium built in this broke city with tax dollars during a recession is very, very good at that job.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/2...n-good-at.html

[Beef]

Carpetbaggers!

Popular, mediocre Cody Ross gets sent away, making business cents but not fan sense, and it doesn't matter how rational the Marlins explain it as a business/baseball move.

For real

[Fritz]

I was excited to see "carpetbaggers" as well.

[Party]

Those quotes from Samson are gold.

He sounds like a character out of Atlas Shrugged in this article. Cool stuff.

[FishFanInPA]

Samson says. ``We want to win. Not for our fans. For ourselves. That's the truth.''

This disturbs me.

[Party]

That is the best quote in that article. I really respect that.

[FishFanInPA]

respect what, the balls of saying something so stupid?

[Beef]

I want to win for me and not David Samson. Is that also stupid Fip?