Seems like a no brainer.

 

This is a terrific opprotunity for out of state fans to show the nation what great fans they are by sending in private donations to pay for these renovations. Ross will be the envy of the owners association for having the greatest fan base supporting him.

 

Loving this! The stadium needs to be a lot closer to the action. You can have front row tickets and feel like you have nose-bleed tickets currently.

 

If Ross is paying back the money, why bother with this at all?

Just do the renovations.

Certainly these new proposals make the deal more palatable but the devil is in the details.

 

His money is tied up. He wants an interest free loan maybe>

 

Well the article says that the Fins pay back the money in 30 years, with no adjustments for inflation and without paying the county's interest and other debt service on the bonds.

It's not a great deal but better than it was previously

 

Steve Ross' cost of capital is much higher than the county's.

 

Leverage + No Interest = Very Beneficial

 

I imagine that regardless of how rich he is, it is very hard to write a check for $389 million.

 

was this sarcasm? any amount that out-of-state fans would send in would be a drop in the bucket and nothing more than symbolic.
plus it would make zero sense. stadiums benefit the local economy. If out-of-state fans want to show their support, they can do it by driving down to Miami, attending a game and spending money in the area.

 

State sales tax subsidy? Kinda oxymoronic.

 

Why would out of state fans care if the team plays in Miami or Alaska???

 

I cant tell you why but some of them care about seeing a full stadium on their TVs at home. They tell local fans they are not good fans if they dont go to the games and then proclaim how they definitely would if only they lived closer. This is a great opprotunity for them to put up or shut up. If each of them would pony up what the average local fan spends in a single season on going to the games then Ross could get his new stadium, and the out of town fan can proudly know they are doing their part to support thier team by doing what they can to fill up the stadium. If each of our out of town super fans would send Ross a $5K check it would only require 35K fans to participate.

Come on guys, get err done. Make the team feel your love.

 

Their wives wont let them and the travel expenses are too much for them or they would.

 

I feel like this was directed my way. My comment was specific to "every weekend". All of my family is from Florida, I went to school in Florida, and my pops is from Miami. I can get by with 1 or 2 trips to Miami to see a game a year. But NO wife is going to let their husband shoot down to South Beach every weekend. Not going to happen. It just doesn't make any sense to do so. That would rougly cost about 5000-7000 dollars a season, way more than what the typical local fan would pay. The logistics of an out of town fan coming to a game is way different than a local fan. Apples and Oranges.

 

My point is that the out of town fans would be better off paying money to have the team play home games in their city, not another.

 

It was directed at the people calling local fans bad fans for not going to the games then making excuses why they could not go when they were asked why they dont attend games. Then we also have out of state fans telling Florida residents that they should gladly want to loan Ross the money to renovate.

Assume for a moment that a new stadium will boost the local economy around the stadium, how does that benefit the rest of the state. That added tax will discourage tourism and negativily impact the local economies.

I appologize for coming off like such a Dick in this thread and I have no ill will toward any of you, I am just trying to drive my point home. It is a significant commitment of time and money to be a season ticket holder. I have tons of respect for those that do it but I would never criticize somebody who chooses not to do it. I'm doing it sarcastically right now only to show some people how unreasonable they are being about stadium attendence and where the money should come from foe the renovation.

FTR: I do not live in the Miami market so my numbers may be off here but think about this for a moment.

Average fan season ticket holder:

1. At least two seats, nobody buys just 1 $50 each? 10 games? $1000 on tickets
2. $40 to park
3. Food/Beer/Program

Its not cheap to go to a game and from what I hear getting in and out of the stadium is a slow process so it costs lots of time too. Forget the 4 O'Clock game, you aint gonna see it. Add to that the dejected feeling you have because your team loses its home games. Just because people are getting tired of that does not make them fair weather fans.

 

My point is that the team would benefit if they sent them money

 

You're missing the point. Out of towners have no inherent reason to see the organization benefit in that market. The Dolphins could pack up and leave Miami, and it would make 0 difference to out of towners.

This shouldn't be a difficult issue. Do you believe the Dolphins should stay in Miami? Do you even care?

 

My favorite ones are the hypocrites that have their own local team they're not supporting.

 

This is literally one of the dumbest things I've ever read on this site. I can't imagine you're actually serious about this idea.

 

The added hotel tax will likely go unoticed. People outside of Miami likely know very little about the tax in the first place and aren't reviewing their hotell bill close enough to even know there is a tax. I know when I visit Miami, I am paying a premium and have no problem. I hardly ever go over my hotel bill with a fine tooth comb. I imagine most other don't either. And if its 10-15 bucks or whatever I'm not going to cancel my trip to Miami over it. Vegas does the same thing and nobody stopped going to Vegas. I highly doubt anyone will stop going to Miami. There are few locations like Miami to simply go somewhere else. Not like you can just go to Jacksonville instead. I live down the street from a newly createde stadium (at the time) FedEx Field in Landover Maryland. The area around it wasn't always the best area, but after property values have gone up and it truly has helped the local economy, so much that the residents of DC want the stadium back in the city. Good look with that though.

And my point wasn't directed at becoming a Season Ticket Holder. The Miami Dolphins attendance rate is indicative of fans not going to games at all. Expecting everone to be a STH isn't really practical, but its pretty clear most local fans aren't even popping in to see a game at all. Most of the time we aren't talking direclty to the forum members, because there is already a reasonable assumption of fanhood. However, as local fans its easy to get generalized in with the rest of the Miami fanbase. In most instance its not directed at YOU...but at the Miami local fanbase in general.

 

The Miami hotel industry has endorsed the Dolphins plan, so I'm not sure there is a strong argument that the tax would be detrimental to tourism.

 

No the point is that we have out of town people on this board telling local fans how to act and how to spend thier money to be considered a good fan. Then when I tell them how to act and spend their money or they are not a good fan they get offended. Just a little hypocritical... NO?

 

Nobody is saying how to act. Just making observations about the market. As I said, if a city were full of people like me, it would be a bad football market.

 

Sorry but you are wrong Stringer. It goes on around here a lot. If you live within 50 miles of the stadium you are expected to attend games and make noise. Out of town fans are pretty consistent and blunt about their oppinion of local market fans who do not attend the games.

 

No, you're not expected to. Just don't complain when there are talks about the team leaving Miami. Nobody is entitled to having a local football team.

 

Pfft! I am!

 

Whatever dude you are just being argumenitive now. I know you have read the posts calling out local fans for not going to the games more.

There has been no talk about moving the team but if they did it would effect me very little. I do not live in Miami.

 

This is exactly my point. The people that benefit from the team being in Miami are the people that live in Miami. If Stephen Ross announced that the team was moving to Oklahoma City, you or I wouldn't even blink.

But if Miami refuses to help build a new stadium within a few years, then there certainly will be talk about the Dolphins potentially moving, and with good reason. It happens with every team that doesn't get help from it's hometown. Mike Dee has already alluded to it. No smart owner is going to sit around and watch the other 31 teams gets subsidies, while he spends his own money.

 

And it wouldn't be a great deal.

No deal like this is ever all that great for the taxpayer. But there are certainly deals that are palatable enough to me that I could support simply because I enjoy football and want the team to have a nice stadium. The proposal gets closer to that for me.

 

Lucky for us, thats not gonna happen.

 

I dont disagree that miami residents are the beneficaries of having the team there. I never implied otherwise. I do not go around telling other fans how to behave in order to be "good" fans, not until recently that is, LOL. The people who have been doing that have not been doing it to save the team from moving. I have heard them use it to threaten local fans with but that is just one of the many excuses they use to justify projecting their image of what a fan should be onto others.

 

Huh? It says they'd sign the agreement if they get the funding for renovations.

 

That would be awesome if they moved to okc, seeing how I live in Oklahoma. We might actually have home field advantage too for a change. It'll never happen but it'd be awesome.

 

I really want this to happen because Im a season ticket holder. I don't want this to happen because I have to pay for those season tickets; and Im on a fun budget.