Loria be Schemin'

Hey look! Someone investigated Jeff Loria's claim that tourists, not local residents paid most of the cost of constructing Marlins Park, and it turns out he's not being entirely truthful.

Politifact has the breakdown, courtesy of the Miami Herald.

Loria is borrowing from politicians’ playbooks here: He cherry-picked a fact that puts the situation in the best light while omitting a thorough explanation. On the surface, he is correct: Much of the public funding for the stadium came from hotel bed taxes largely (though not entirely) paid for by tourists.

But these are still tax revenues that belong to the taxpayer, and if it didn't go to the Marlins, it would have gone to some other public purpose to benefit those taxpayers. He also ignores that the county will be paying off that debt for decades. His implication that locals can shrug their shoulders at that public cost, and dismiss it as coming from the wallets of out of town tourists, is disingenuous.

There is an opportunity cost to building a bauble of a stadium, but can we really expect a guy who gave a $27 million contract to "proven closer" Heath Bell to understand what opportunity cost is?

Not that it matters. Loria has already won (and MLB revenue sharing money will keep the team from losing much - if any - money in the ensuing years, so he is pretty incapable of being punished). We can stop buying tickets and merchandise, but that likely still won't be enough to make Loria feel anything resembling regret.

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