I'm more interested in what this means for the teams debt levels:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/23/3195536/nfl-could-help-ross-pay-for-stadium.html

Different deal but that debt load question still applies.

 

He's a land developer. He's good at that. So I'll credit him for being good at that. Glad it benefitted the Dolphins.

 

It's a rabbit hole bro. Nothing will ever be good enough.

 

This is a plot by Ross to move the team to Los Angeles. I just have a feeling in my gut. He is a Jets fan and hates Miami.. Watch, in 30 years this team will be gone. Ross is a haterz lolz and the worst owner in professional sports. Look at how little that SOB spent in free agency and look how poorly Harbaugh has done since Ross tried to recruit him. F*** Ross. Also, who cares if he is spending 350 million on the stadium, he is a billionaire and part of the 1%. The city is getting a raw deal by subsidizing this clown.

 

I'm not a "Ross hater" by any stretch, but thanking him seems a bit much don't you think?

He purchased the team and the stadium knowing they were both fixer uppers, then mucked a few things up and saw attendance fall partly because of how outdated the stadium is. Shouldn't he WANT to fix up the stadium in order to get his customers back? Surely he knew before buying it that it needed a lot of work.

I'm not sure thanking him for renovating the property that he owns is necessary. In fact, I doubt very highly he would be doing said renovations if the Dolphins were winning and fans were scooping up every ticket in the house.

 

Yes, that is a major reason. The amount of money the team spends isn't predetermined. They have a cap and a floor, but there is a good amount of money in between. Further, there are a lot of things the team can spend on aside from player salaries that affect the team. Front office, coaching staff, facilities, equipment, etc. Beyond that, there are things that affect the fan's experience at the stadium.

Not to mention it likely will be a factor when Ross sells the team. Its a less than ideal situation, and could impact who potentially buys the Dolphins.

 

He wants to fix up the stadium using the typical measures employed by other owners in every other franchise and professional sports team. However, the local Florida community no longer wants to be in that type of relationship so Ross as owner is left holding the bag. He always knew he was going to fix it up. He didn't anticipate the "change of heart" by the local legislature.

 

If the team was selling out games, he'd absolutely want to renovate. It would allow him to raise ticket prices.

But I think your characterization is a bit off. He purchased a team with a ****ty stadium, but there are many avenues he could have explored that he didn't. The most obvious being threats of moving the team. Blackouts as well. He could have been a lot more aggressive in jamming up Miami-Dade. The county ended up with the best deal I've ever seen for an NFL city. Stephen Ross ponied up a bunch of his own money as well.

 

LOL I never understood people saying "he is a jets fan"...

The guy owns his own NFL team. He's not a fan of anyone.

 

He is 1 of 32 people in this entire planet. People have got to realize that he has a VERY big reason to want Miami to be successful. Billions of reasons really.

That's like saying someone buys pepsi and is really rooting for coke to put them out of business......ridiculous.

 

I'm confused. We should thank him for not being a complete scumbag about his multi-billion dollar entertainment investment? I genuinely don't understand the concept of thanking someone for not doing something bad.

 

I don't agree with the premise of him not being a complete scumbag.

Cities offer NFL teams boatloads of money just to have a team. Owners taking the money offered to them does not make them scumbags.

 

I still think the Clippers sale had a lot to do with him caving on this. Ross even said publicly he felt stupid for buying the Dolphins until word got round of how much the Clippers were selling for.

Every owner in the NFL had to look at that sale and see dollar signs. The Clippers sale completely blows up the Forbes model for assigning franchise values. Other franchise sales had gone for significantly above Forbes value before, but the Clippers sale turned that Forbes model into nothing more than numbers on a dart board.

From Steve Ross' perspective I think it signaled to him that he should stop screwing around with pissing matches over this stadium upgrade deal. He needs to get back to owning a premium brand sports franchise (the NFL is a premium brand) that regularly hosts Super Bowls and other major sporting events in a premier American city. Even if he has to fund this with some of his own money, in his mind the price tag of the Dolphins just went from $1 billion (according to the Forbes model) to $2 billion, if he can just put up some window dressing.

 

Not sure a 2 week old Clippers sale was able to influence a 350 million dollar project that quickly.

Plus, over a year ago (probably closer to a year and half ago) I posted in club that I spoke to contractor (business meeting) that was directly connected to the team at a high level and that he flat out told me that with or without government subsidy the upgrade was happening. I even said, "Even if Ross fronts all the cash" and his response was 100% yes. Ross was hoping to have help but this has been planned all along.. It was a question of leverage and he lost.

 

Has he sold the team?

 

The fan base is NOT at fault at all. The fact is that Ross became the majority owner of the Dolphins after the 2008 season. He took over ownership of a team which went 11-5 in 2008 and won the AFC East division . The team has been 35-45, with no playoff appearances in the five years he has been the teams majority owner.

South Florida fans do not support losing teams. They NEVER have and it is Ross's responsibility to understand this and hire the right GM and head coach to put a winning product on the field. I lived in South Florida for over 50 years and I realize that if you want fans to show up for games, you have to win games. If Ross doesn't understand this, he needs to sell the franchise to an owner who knows how to run an NFL franchise properly.

Fans will show up, no matter how old the stadium is or what condition it is in, if the team is winning. Unless the product on the field improves dramatically, it won't matter how much money Ross puts into the stadium renovations. Fans will stay away if this team continues to finish at 500 or below, season after season.

 

That and it will affect plans on ever building a new stadium. Once Ross is not the owner, even when you find a guy willing to buy the team it's going to make it that much harder to work out a new stadium if your carrying too much team debt. Of course with the current commitment it looks like this should be the last major investment in the stadium and 22 years from now whoever owns the team will start working towards getting a new stadium up. It's a 'far off' future problem. I'd also have to imagine Ross would either pay off a good amount of that debt over the next 10 years or so.........or take a price cut on that $2 billion sale he's probably dreaming for now so the new owner can use the rest to pay off that debt. Just curious how much of this $400 million gets applied to the team debt load that already is at whopping high levels.

 

I still say move the dolphins to San Antonio and redskins to California!

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I wish the team still played in the Orange Bowl.

 

It's not as if he did this out of the goodness of his heart. He did it because he felt like it was the appropriate business decision.

 

No one who owns an NFL franchise isn't a fan of the team he owns. He did this because it's the correct business decision for his team to put fannies in the seats AND he did it because it's HIS team.

Somebody ought to give the man a jersey with two dollar signs where the numbers go. That's his role.

 

They just better not mess with my seats if there is a realignment!

 

I have 4 front row sideline seats. They better stay that way is all im saying.

 

There will be new rows in front Of my current seats?

 

I read that they will be getting all new seats, and moving closer to field. I imagined I would move to whatever equivalent to row 1, seats 5/6/7/8 are tho.

I won't get the tickets again if they arbitrarily move me to what will be row 8 or 9, seats 5/6/7/8