The City of Miami, The Marlins and The Subpoena

The Miami Marlins have a lot more than baseball to worry about these days. With the rise of their new stadium, the Marlins organization and City of Miami officials are under investigation over the new stadium’s financing. With over 75 percent of the 634 million dollar stadium’s cost being paid through tax dollars and bonds, City of Miami residents are in an uproar.

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The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued subpoenas to the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County. They are demanding that a significant amount of documents and records be provided for investigation. On January 6^th, Miami Government officials, who have agreed to comply fully with the SEC, will release all necessary documents. As of now, the Miami Marlins organization has not been subpoenaed, but there is a possibility they could be, along with a group of Major League Baseball executives. The executives that the SEC is looking at include: Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, Marlins president David Samson, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and ex Major League Baseball President Robert DuPoy.

The SEC wants to investigate the 500 million in bonds sold to raise funds for the stadium. The SEC also believes that bondholders may have been misled. They also want time charts of when executive meetings occurred and what was discussed. Since the stadium plan was established, Miami’s already high unemployment rates have kept rising. Andres Otero, 23, a City of Miami resident and Marlins season ticket holder was not pleased at all with the tax situation. Otero said, “I’m really excited to get some serious talent on this team, and the new stadium is going to be great to watch games at, but at what price? They bleed us for money and now allegations are out. I hope I get some money back if anything.” Most fans agree with Otero, because Miami has never been a big spending baseball club and ticket sales last year were third lowest in MLB.

City of Miami Mayor, Tomas Regalado has openly said that the City welcomes the SEC’s investigation and has full confidence that all stadium matters were handled properly. When the plan to build the stadium was voted on, Regalado was city commissioner and voted against the new stadium.

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With the new stadium has come a new way of thinking for the Marlins. For Years, the Marlins front office would criticize big spending teams, such as division rival, the New York Mets, whom are infamous for spending over 100 million dollars in an offseason on new players. Today, the Marlins have made the decision to become big spenders. They are looking to spend over 140 million dollars on just 2 players and also plan on signing St. Louis Cardinals star 1^st baseman, Albert Pujols, to a 10 year, 200 plus million-dollar deal.

The Marlins are in the thick of the baseball offseason, set to spend crazy money on players, yet the city they call home has to pay over three fourths of the total cost on the new stadium. Outrage is easily one way to describe it. ESPN 760 executive producer, Kelley Bydlon had some choice words to say about this whole scandal, “this is pretty bad, first they finally start spending money on players, and yet there is an outcry from the residents that they are catching the raw end of the deal. The SEC has to step in and see if there were any crimes committed, and if so, it will be interesting to see if anything is done about this situation”. With the outcome of the investigation unknown, and the majority of the media pointing out the shortcomings and shadiness of the new stadium deal, it is easy to assume there is a crime being committed. However, no documents have been released, and nothing is imminent at the current time. On the week of January 6^th, 2012, we will know whether there are criminal charges being pressed. Until then, taxpayers have been tricked into paying more than expected from politicians, the bond situation appears to be inaccurate and the Marlins are planning to be big spenders this winter.