Despite offseason progress this organization continues to shoot itself in the foot

They have been loyal for years, but are just tired of the endless rebuilding and rebooting of the team and its direction. The Dolphins have not made it easy to remain a fan of the team, with the unstability. And for years, the Dolphins did take the fans for granted. It was only as of 2009 that the fans started staying away in droves. Before that, this was one of the better fanbases in regards to attendance, most years being close to, if not in the top 10 in % capacity of the stadium, game in and game out.

 

NCFinFan -

Quick question for ya. What happens if the hotel tax was unable to generate enough revenue to pay the loan back over 10 years? Who covers the cost?

 

Not quite, since there are relatively few Democrats in Weatherford's constituency. I would suspect you would need to confront him in the party primaries to have a chance to defeat him. Throwing money at a Dem in a general election in that district, would be a waste of money.

 

That is the million dollar question. Or rather multi-millions of dollars question.

 

Yeah, ever since the rained out Super Bowl it's been talked about from Goodell that we need to have a better stadium....besides, this stadium is 20 yrs old already and DOES need some improvements...

 

So you want a politically correct answer even if you know its just lip service? Is that what things are like now?

 

Dolphins responsible for any shortfall. This has been discussed ad nauseum. The ship has sailed at this point.

 

I just want to bump this after a day, to point out that yesterday saw Armando blast the fact this didn't go to vote and Dee didn't close the door on trying again. Plus, Ross launched the first salvo in his charm offensive by promising a large portion of his wealth to charity.

The things I was trying to tell you would happen have already begun. I'm not saying this to gloat, I'm saying this because I want as many fans as possible to stay hopeful and excited for this season.

 

People forget Ross is a business man first and owner second. Ross's linage isn't one like Robert Kraft or Al Davis who helped to build the modern NFL, Ross is looking to maximize profits and make money. By doing so it takes investment and a steady revenue stream, the fans aren't in the seats and they need to be in order for the club to be profitable. Ross knows that and there are two things that are going to fix that problem, a quality game time experience and winning football.

Miami stadium is the eighth oldest right now I think, it needs a upgrade but the city of Miami is too stubborn to see it. If the team ends up moving that is on South Florida, not Ross. Ross offered a fair package to the tax payers and they gave him a resounding "hell no!"

I'd hate to see Miami leave Miami, it would suck *** but if you are Ross and you have half a billion on the line wouldn't you do the same if another venue came calling with offers of grandeur?

 

I have never heard Ross saying this. Dee has said Ross WILL sell the team at some point in the future.

 

That's not a threat. Ross is in his 70s.

 

Classic uninformed out-of-state a-hole. Get your facts straight and then come and talk please.

 

This isn't really true. Ross isn't trying to squeeze every dollar out of the franchise. Its clear that he is willing to lose some money. He's spent tens of millions on buying tickets so games aren't blacked out.

What Ross isn't going to do is blow hundreds of millions building a new stadium that won't benefit him much. He is better off playing in the stadium as-is.

 

Let me tell ya about out of state and uninformed. It cost the Jet/Giants 1.6 billion to build MetLife Stadium, that cost was private and used as a model for other sports teams to show that stadiums do not need to be funded with tax payer money. The problem is when you borrow that much money the note comes due and to then the cost is passed on to the fan. MetLife is one of the most costly venues to attend now with a fan cost index of $617 for the Jets and $592 for the Giants which ranks 2nd and 5th on the list so privately funded events can come at a price.

Contrast that to Miami which is below the NFL average and has a fan cost index of $400, 21st on the list. Ross's proposal kept most of the cost to renovate the stadium private, which is what the populous wants, less taxpayer backed sports venues. It also proposed no new taxes to the tax payer, granted there was proposed hotel tax hike which in the grand scheme of things taxes mostly people from out of the Miami-Dade county area and was modest at best. They local government will raise property taxes on the average homeowner and consumer much greater then what amounts to a 1%t bed tax.

The politicians were foolish to at least not let the public vote on this deal, it honestly was a good blend of private and taxpayer dollars and relatively cheep in comparison to some NFL projects.

Ross was willing to re-pay 159m out of the 350m over 30 years.

 

Nothing has changed in this instance, Ross offered the deal of the century and a lot of folks are sleepin on it..folks better wake up man..

 

2 things that will break your heart if you are dumb enough to let them: #1 your favorite sports teams, #2 strippers. The 1st I let go of 14 years ago and the latter I never let happen.

 

Liar, Mystiqe thinks I am special!

 

This is football though ASOT, rebuilding comes with the territory, fans should just be grateful that they have a team, a root for them with a new slate every year, jmo...the anger, the boycotting crap, that stuff to me sounds childish and ridiculous..it's our fu&$in team..bad or good, it's ours, and if we continue to act in a spoiled ungrateful manner, we'll always carry the rep we have today.

 

Wise words, GreysonWinfield.

 

You can buy/renovate a stadium now....or you can buy/renovate a stadium later. But trust and believe...you are going to buy/renovate a stadium. If you don't, you won't have a team. That doesn't go for the Dolphins....that goes for every city which has a franchise. To believe that your city/state is exempt is naive. Only 1 stadium doesn't have public funds pumped into it and that stadium has two owners that own it. Deal doesn't get much better than what the Dolphins gave up. I hope the same deal stays on the table next go around.

 

Makes sense to me..

I only hope this city learns the lesson of being denied, very quickly..

 

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

NFL is not going to let one of the top ten TV markets in the country go without a team, the Dolphins aren't going anywhere. JMHO

 

I think the fear for me at least is a deteriorating culture combined with an antiseptic stadium compounding the problem and making things overall more difficult to produce a winner..

 

The language they used doesn't worry me whatsoever...there are COUNTLESS reasons why the team won't move out of Miami...it's not worth worrying about IMHO.

Besides, I don't run a multi-million dollar business so I'm not qualified to say what they should've done...all I can do is choose to support the players and hope for a breakout year...which I completely expect.

 

Florio thoughts

 

So should we not support our owner for getting screwed by this guy which robs us of a chance to get some extremely important work done for our stadium, or should we be pissed at them for acting out when they should of taken the high road?

 

They may have been blindsided by Wetherford not calling for a vote, but I'm not sure how you can say the renovations were SUPPOSE to happen. Even if the state legislature had passed the bill, the voters of Miami-Dade County would have had to vote in favor of the referendum for the renovations to go forward.

I didn't see a single poll which showed that the voters would have voted in favor of the referendum. The vote might have gone in favor of the Dolphins, but it most likely would not have. So Ross and Dee shouldn't have been counting their chickens before they hatched.

I actually think Weatherford did Ross a favor. Ross now will have plenty of time to educate the voters of Miami-Dade why they should be in favor of using taxpayer money to renovate the stadium. If he can convince them that it is a true benefit for all the citizens of Miami, he will have a much better chance of having a vote go in favor of renovating the stadium the next time he possibly gets the chance to bring it before the voters here.

 

They will need to do that, and if they get the chance and let us down, then I wouldn't blame Ross for anything he'd want to do.

 

I don't think the team will be moved to another city either, but the fans in Baltimore, Cleveland, LA, St. Louis, Houston and other cities in the past also thought their teams would never leave their cities and they were wrong.

I think eventually the taxpayers will be forced to pay for renovation to the stadium, or even build a brand new stadium. If not, is a good chance the Dolphins will find a city who will be willing to build a stadium for them. This may not happen in the next few years, but the taxpayers will end up footing the bill if the Dolphins remain in South Florida.

 

I think the campaign to get votes for the renovation was done so quickly this time. many voters felt the Dolphins and some politicians were trying to get one over on them.

Ross now has plenty of time to get the positives of this renovation out to the public and perhaps this will cause more voters to be in favor the referendum if a vote is held in the next few years.

Instead of complaining about what didn't happen this time around. Ross and the Dolphins need to learn from their mistakes and turn this negative into a positive going forward.

 

Its as if someone was saying the reporters were going to start blasting Weatherford for not letting the people vote.....hmmmmmmm...who could that have been?????

 

I didn't say they were supposed to happen. I said they were supposed to happen AS FAR AS THEY WERE CONCERNED.

 

You call it complaining. I call it a full frontal attack on Speaker Weatherford. I expect a pincer assault by a highly motivated Miami-Dade contingent at next year's session.

 

that's an Interesting point, I too don't think it would of been passed by the public vote.