This was supposed to be a time of excitement for the Dolphins.....

Didn't he say IF Ross sells the new owner could move. One of the reasons he said it was because the deal included a commitment to stay, the other reason was to get fans in a frenzy about the possibility of the team moving bc the deal didn't get done.

He hardly hinted that the team, or anyone affiliated with the team is interested in moving the team

 

The miamian brain, fueled by Cuban coffee and traffic.

 

Hope everything works out for you guys and your team is there to stay. No fan base should have to go through what happened in Cleveland and Baltimore when their teams packed up and left. Again..best of luck!

 

Lol..

 

What happens if South Florida Stadium, LLC goes belly up with Joe Schmoe as the Owner/Managing partner? The Dolphins and the stadium are separate entities.

 

DJ just burying your head in the sand won't make it go away. This is a real threat.

However once again, everyone gets hungup, including myself, in this being just a Miami-Dade thing. There is always Broward county that could come the rescue.

 

just saying they took the helmet off the dolphin to get rid of the M on the logo

 

With all due respect, that's bull sh-t. He's fear mongering the fan base. Openly. Directly. At a time when they're trying desperately to pull the fan base back into the fold. He didn't have to say JACK SH-T. He could've maintained the company line about how Steve Ross is committed to owning the Dolphins and returning them to glory, we're going to have a great season, yadda yadda yadda. He didn't do that. Instead he sent shocks of fear through a fan base that already has been disillusioned by the mockery of football that has been played in that stadium over the last decade.

Yes, I would fire him for this. Among other things. He's trolling his own god damn fan base.

 

The interview was in large part, to present Ross's official declaration of war on Weatherford, and immediately turn up the heat beneath his otherwise well padded political seat cushion.

Who better suited to initiate this order, than his own, arguably militant, easily incitable, torch and pitchfork toting fanbase?

 

Thing is Will Weatherford represents District 38 which is in Pasco County. So Mike Dee incites a bunch of Miamians to be mad at Will Weatherford and they aim to vote him out. And then they realize he's not on the ballot anyway and...whoops?

 

Not sure where Pasco county lines up district-wise, but is it entirely outside the influence of Dolphin sympathisers?

Sympathetic perhaps not to the loss of a superbowl appearance, but rather (given the more fervent dialog) the fate of a team symbolic to the state?

 

Yes, Tampa.

And I swear they think they are better than Miami. They even think they have better Cuban sandwiches.

It's insane, better Cubans than Miami...Smh

They use salami, wtf

 

Where is J-Lo and Gloria Estefan? We need leadership in times like these!

 

You give me too much credit. The short answer is, he's the speaker of the house and so he's able to shelf the bill and not allow it onto the house look for discussion and vote. That's about all I know.

 

Do we really need three or four separate threads about this same BS?

 

Dj, I love the way you love the Phins, brother, but set aside the homer in you for a sec. Read between the lines. There's no need for Ross to have brought up points such as him selling before the profit deadline (or w/e it's called) would not make sense because there would be a penalty involved. Nor does it make sense to discuss his mortality and what will happen after he's purchased real estate in the next life. He's dancing around it. Why do such a thing? He wants it to float out there. And whether its true or not, plausible or impossible, it's out there to be interpreted or misinterpreted.

And please- this goes to all of thephins posters- DO NOT have the cavalier cojones or Neanderthal naivety to declare, :mocking whining voice: "But Ross himself said he's not selling." Because for a fan base that went through the biggest bold face lie ever spoken on a podium to believe the words coming out of any of these guy's mouths is pathetic. Yes. Be offended. I am calling those of you who would believe any word coming out of Ross' mouth pathetic. If history has taught you nothing, I am ashamed to be called a Dolphin fan because of you. But if you need to hear, " I will not be the Alabama coach" once more, I suggest you take to youtube this instant and for your own sake, hope there is still footage of it.

 

Dee is a clown, when I saw that interview he did I immediately thought this guy's attitude is not what it should be. But seeing Ross' letter to the public and making threats to Weatherford that Ross will play an "important role to fix the dysfunction in Tallahassee" means Dee's opinion reflects Ross'.

Those are the type of things you DON'T say if you want to bring up a stadium deal next season. But apparently Ross killed it completely by making that quote.

 

Allow me to expand. And with all due respect to CK, this is much more my realm than it is his (as I like to think he himself will tell you) as I'm a lawyer who is actually contemplating a move to government work versus private practice

He's a representative of Pasco County, an elected position. When you are elected to the house of representatives. Now, the house of representatives are one of two houses in the Florida legislature - the house of representatives and the Senate. The House is the lower of the two. The house members are elected every 2 years.

Okay, so you've got these reps in the house of reps, which have been elected by their peers. Each representative has a district (there are 120 districts in total in Florida) and therefore, we've got 120 representatives.

The "speaker of the house" is someone who actually is elected in a similar fashion, albeit with a smaller voting pool. Each representative gets 1 vote to elect a fellow representative as a speaker of the house. The general public does not elect this speaker.

The speaker has a lot of duties, but the ones you care about are: his ability to dictate the calender. He chooses what goes up for a vote and when. He doesn't have this superior power that people are giving him - to look at a bill and say "**** that!" and just go by. What he can do, however, is prioritize different votes depending on the calender. If two bills come in at a similar time and there is only time available for 1? He gets to make that decision.

This whole thing has really shone light on how little the average person knows about politics, which frankly terrifies me.

 

So I guess if I put 10 million dollars into something we have an agreement on...and you burn me in the end...I'm supposed to take the L and not speak on it because it will take away some people's warm and fuzzies? I'll be damned. Owner/CEO take care of the bidness.....GM/Coach take care of the football. You burning me on 10 million is bad for bidness..oh....we gone speak on it....we gone speak on it more than once too...with numerous people. Can't get to a politician unless you mess with their votes or their money. People get hurt bad over 500 dollars.....let alone 10 million. Billionaire or not....you gone have to see me on that. Where you want it...in your head or your gut.

 

How are people surprised at how this has unfolded???

This is straight from the NFL playbook. Try and get subsidies. If you don't get what you want, you hang the cloud of re-location over everything until you get what you want. This is pretty much standard practice for how the NFL has operated for a long time now.

 

Saw this as soon as Goodell (NFL really) made its threat, and followed with excuses about the weather.

 

And after bending over backwards to give the county every concession they asked for, and then still get rebuked, its hard to see Stephen Ross try and avoid this. He likely was already getting **** from his partners for giving the county such a favorable deal.

 

Stadium comes with the team, last I heard we are 1 of 4 or so teams that own their facility outright.

 

At this point I don't know who and what to believe anymore..I usually let Stringer write whats in my head on this topic, he's smarter and writes better than me, but CK has now fu&$ed my head up..we need damage control and were getting Armageddon.

 

There is no damage control coming. It is what it is. Look at every other city that has been in a similar situation. The cloud will hang over the team until they get the stadium subsidies resolved.

 

Pretty much. Until we bend over and take it, and ask for more, this stuff will keep being discussed whether the threat is empty or not (and right now it is)

 

I mean they don't have to give the stadium subsidies. This can just be a perpetual cloud like we have seen in San Diego. Thats probably my least desired outcome, because it is the worst one for the team on the field.

EDIT: and to be fair, I don't believe the deal that was on the table was bending anyone over. Ross made every concession the city wanted. IMO Ross just wanted to get this over with.

 

That is the way it is now, but they are separate corporations. I was being facetious about the going belly up. I haven't been able to find anything that prohibits Ross from selling/giving away the stadium and then becoming a tenant.

 

Ok thanks CD, so we know this wasn't the case of someone who denied the bill forever, more like decides whether it's important enough to be heard over other issues?..

It still hurts though,because you know you just lost the Super Bowl, and that's a big freakin deal to lose ya know..I don't blame them for being livid , they just lost a lot of money, but, is there a reason why they are being so openly critical?, or, should they be practicing damage control?

As a fan, I would like them to reassure us that their disappointed about it but life and the Miami dolphins will move on and be excited about the future, but I understand the disappointments, the immediate loss of money, and the thoughts of future losses, and missing out on improving the esthetic of your venue that could help your team and culture.

 

Whatever tactic used to get the renovations done as quickly as possible, I'm for.

 

I just think it's ridiculous for a Billionaire to cry about having to invest money into his privately owned business.

He can pay for it himself. And all this crap about the benefits to the city are a myth, as many studies have shown that cities don't benefit as much as the NFL claims... it's exaggerated by a factor of 4 to 10 times, depending on which study you cite.

He can afford it himself.

 

Ross doesn't need these upgrades. He makes the same share as every other owner no matter where the game is played. If the City/County decides they don't want SB and other events they will move the team to a place that does. It's pretty simple really.

 

I would say the simple thing is that these billionaire owners should man up and pay for it themselves. But the system is set up to help the rich get richer, so we have people like Jerrah Jones in Dallas getting these modern day palaces built on the taxpayer's dime.

http://deadspin.com/panthers-owner-was-at-a-closed-council-meeting-on-sta-494087240 **** like this, and the Marlin's deal, are why people are starting to get antsy about continuing payment for billionaires playgrounds. Sure, its a small favorable deal today. What happens in 4 years when it is claimed more stuff is falling apart. The only reason Ross was offering a remotely favorable deal is because the Marlins dicked over his chance at an easy ride on the taxpayer dime. And now that he isn't getting his way, it's "wah wah I'm gonna take my toys away!" This stuff is rediculous. Wish the govt. would just pass a law preventing these owners from bilking the public. That would really be the only way to end the threat, aside from calling it a bluff.

 

He can pay for it himself. It would be a terrible investment to do so. Renovating a stadium doesn't make the team worth more. The current stadium is worth $150M. That is less than what is owed on the stadium renovations done under Huizenga. The stadium is just a depreciating asset that will never make the team the hundreds of millions required to put into it. There are two parties that should benefit - the NFL and the community.

 

You can blame this entire change in mood on the front office of the Dolphins. Instead of talking up the team for this coming season, they have spent the last few days crying about not getting their way in Tallahassee.

Dee, (Ross's mouthpiece), is threatening that Ross will possibly sell the team if the team doesn't appear to be a playoff team in the near future. He also has tried to threaten the fan base that if and when Ross sells the team, the next owner might decide to move the team to another location out of state.

My view is that I am already sick and tired of the threats by the Dolphins front office. If Ross wants to sell the team, please do so immediately. The reality is that the Dolphins will never get taxpayer assistance to renovate the stadium as long as Ross is the teams owner. He made sure of this when he and Dee both made comments calling the speaker of the house a liar. I don't see the Republicans in the state legislature forgetting these comments, if Ross ever tries to get public funding from them again.

Ross hasn't been a very effective owner to begin with. The team has had a losing record every year since he became the teams majority owner and attendance at the stadium has also declined each year since he took over the team. Ross has made it quite clear that he has no intention of leaving the team to his family members and that he will sell the team in the future.

Since he now states he won't put anymore money into the stadium and he will only stick around if the team becomes a playoff team, I think it is time he sells the team. He obviously isn't happy right now owning the team because of the stadium issues.

Hopefully the next owner will want to leave the team in South Florida, and he will have better relations with the politicians in Tallahassee, especially Weatherford. I also hope that the next owner wants to own the team for many years, much like Joe Robbie did. We don't need anymore owners who only want to own the team for a few years and then sell it because they are getting old and no one in their family wants to run the team after they die.

I wonder if Mark Cuban would be interested in buying the Dolphins? Of course the NFL owners would never approve the sale of the team to an owner as outspoken as Cuban. I just think he would be a great NFL owner if ever given the chance. I also think he could find a way to work with the state legislature to get help in funding the stadium renovations.

Oh well, for now we are stuck with Ross and Dee. I'm sure we will continue to hear more threats from them until the team is sold and they both have left the the franchise behind. It's just a shame that the front office has turned this great off season into such a downer in recent days.

 

You make some good points but the stadium and the franchise are two separate entities. There are only a handful of stadiums that are still owned by the teams that play in them. There are a lot of stadiums that are drawing monies from the general fund and I disagree with this model completely, but that isn’t the case here. I used to travel for a living and my employer spent substantial money in surcharges and taxes for everything from rooms, rental cars, airport fees and parking. A lot of the fees were waived if you were a local resident but not all of them.

I think the solution to this dilemma is for the local business leaders and the local governments to determine if having these events is really worth it to the local economy. If not then stand firm and let the NFL find another place that feels differently. I don’t have the answers or the resources to get them.

The NFL and BCS have an unparalleled following and the will do everything in their power to cash in on it. I think it was Stringer that likened the NFL to OPEC and I think that’s a valid assessment.

The folks that are lampooning Ross and Dee are shooting the messengers.

 

“I am delighted, grateful and honored to join this important effort in the hope that collectively we can leave the world a little bit better place than we found it,’’ wrote Ross, who turns 73 on Friday. His was one of nine billionaire pledges that the Seattle-based charity announced Tuesday.

The announcement comes on the heels of Ross losing out on a bid to use tax money to fund about 45 percent of the upfront costs of a $350 million renovation Sun Life Stadium, and as the New York developer sends word he will not foot the bill for a smaller upgrade of the 1987 facility. Team CEO Mike Dee told 640 AM’s Andy Slater Tuesday that a privately financed renovation “was never an option we considered” and that there is no “Plan B” now that the tax-plan has failed.

But Dee also said the Dolphins are “absolutely not” closing the door on pursuing tax dollars again. “We’re still going to explore ways to do this,’’ he told The Miami Herald. Given the age of the stadium, Dee added, “This issue is not going to go away.”

Throughout the stadium debate, Ross talked about the limits of his fortune and what his death may mean to the franchise he purchased in 2009. While he promised not to move the team even if the tax help fell through, Ross warned his family would be forced to sell the team once he dies and that a future owner may demand a new stadium in exchange for remaining in Miami. “I can’t rule from the grave,” Ross told the Herald in April.


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/0...#storylink=cpy

I think this guy might find a way to get it done, pretty nice of him to donate part of his worth to charity, and it seems to me he wants this because it keeps the dolphins here for a long time, where everyone makes money, he's basically telling us we better wise up.

Get it done Ross.

 

How is this the taxpayer's problem? It's his private business. Let him figure it out.

The community does not benefit as much as the NFL claims. Look up the studies. It's a myth.