Debt is eating into the Marlins’ income, and that is one of the reasons the team doesn’t expect to turn a profit despite paying players so little this year.So Loria, like the Rays' Stu Sternberg, probably isn't getting terribly rich off revenue right now, but the value of his portfolio most certainly continues to grow. And the Herald adds that the Marlins, like the Rays, also stand to make a lot more revenue later this decade when they renegotiate their television contract.
“Now it’s the same old low-revenue, low-cost scenario they’ve been running most of the past 15 years,’’ said Neil DeMause, of the popular blog Field of Schemes, which tracks stadium subsidies.
The Marlins do pay Loria. The 2009 financial statement published by Deadspin put the yearly management fee paid to a Loria company at $3.2 million, up from $2.8 million in 2008. It’s not known what the management fee is now. Loria also collects interest revenue on the money he loans to the Marlins. In 2009, the financial statement had the balance at $15.4 million, with interest expense at $1.1 million.
Even if his franchise loses money, Loria likely saw his net worth grow when his lobbying team convinced Miami and Miami-Dade in 2009 to provide the Marlins with a new stadium. A recent valuation by Forbes estimated the Marlins to be worth $520 million, 15 percent more than a year before and double the $256 estimate in 2008, when a stadium deal was uncertain.
Loria paid $158 million for the team in 2002. The latest financial statement put the team’s debt at about $200 million.
But the biggest takeaway is how bad Marlins fans have it. Which is why the biggest threat to Tampa Bay baseball fans is not the possible loss of the Rays, but the possible loss of the Rays' valuable ownership group.
I don't think Stu will be dumping the TB Rays anytime soon, with the current and expected future upward trajectory of the value of the franchise.
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