Miami Marlins: Hometown team being sued by hometown

More Bad Press For Marlins

The thing is, Jeffrey Loria is probably a lot more likely to ultimately win his court case than the Hurricanes are to win theirs. Now that’s technically win: the public relations repercussions are a different story entirely. Loria might be gone, but the Miami Marlins remain. That victory will do nothing but continue to put the Derek Jeter led the franchise in the crosshairs of local politicians and the national media. Meanwhile, UM probably gains a couple recruiting victories and a ton of free good publicity.

So there’s a lot to unpack here for the average Miami Marlins fan. The fact that Loria is being sued shouldn’t bother anyone. He’s derided around the country as not just the worst baseball owner in recent memory, but all of sports. Many South Florida fans objected to the stadium being built with public money, to begin with. Marlins diehards like myself were just happy it was being built, but mainly on account of the decade-long claim, the stadium was the reason payroll was so small.

Of course, as the team heads into Year 7 of the Marlins Park era, only two of those seasons saw the organization have anything close to a respectable payroll. So, yes, the natives are restless.

There’s also the coldly practical view. This is entirely on the plate of Miami-Dade and the city for signing such an unfavorable contract in the first place. Sure, the community I grew up in is being taken advantage of. Sure, Loria was a criminally penurious owner. But I’ve saved plenty of criticism for the leaders that allowed that to happen. When hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are put into something, there should be iron-clad stipulations and protections set in place. They weren’t.