Then, the 2003 team lost their catcher and first baseman, and the same Loria that had destroyed the Expos was threatening to leave Miami. Attendance did increase from 10K to 22K per game, but they again did a firesale.

Only MLB stepping in to force him to stay in Miami. However, it takes YEARS to build up a fanbase. Tossing aside players every time the fans get attached to them leads to spurned fans. Once Bitten Twice Shy. Even the other expansion teams are averaging in the mid twenties. Had Wayne and Loria not stunned the loyal fans twice and then threatened to leave, I am sure that attendance would be in the mid to high 20s and perhaps even gotten to the low 30s.

Think about it, instead of our players on Detroit, Boston, LA, NY, and Chicago, they would be pulling in fans for the Marlins.

Check ANY team after a firesale, and you will see an attendance plummet.

It’s a risky and, IMO, foolish move in the long term, but I see no evidence that this guy has the wherewithal to help bankroll a stadium without borrowing from a revenue stream (whether it’s current operating income, pledging future media revenue, etc.) which would otherwise accrue to player salaries.

Makes me glad Portland didn’t fall for the Marlins’ dog-and-pony show. We already have AAA baseball.

“After all, though [Loria's] behavior seems juvenile, it worked: he’s getting a $500 million stadium for a third of the price. Why spend your own money when you can spend someone else’s? It’s the voters and the politicians who deserve the blame for giving in. But this is beside the point.”

Really? You can accuse Marlin fans of a lot of things but giving in to Loria isn’t one of them. For 5 years Miami has fought tooth and nail with the Marlins over this deal while Loria has rejected multiple lesser offers, including a $325mil stadium, and consistently floated a possible move to San Antonio or Las Vegas over the city’s head as leverage. Should we also blame Sonics fans for NOT giving in to Clay Bennett? Furthermore, that you say the financing of the stadium has little bearing on the issue of how Loria spends his revenue-sharing money is not quite true, since Loria has repeatedly used Miami’s ostensible indifference towards the Marlins, his evidence for which is precisely the city’s unwillingness to fund a stadium, as an excuse to keep the Marlin’s payroll to a bare minimum. What kind of precedent is this setting? Now cities have to fund new stadiums not only to keep their teams in town, but to ensure a good faith effort from ownership to at least try to put out a quality product every year? In my mind, the Marlins’ practices, despite the team actually winning, represent a lot of what’s wrong with professional sports.

The attendance graph is telling. As Marc Schneider put so well, community investment is needed. The stadium is about garnering more revenues for ownership, and you hope they funnel it back into player payroll.

As to the market itself… When I asked Fay Vincent as to whether expansion in the ’90s was done to offset the collusion payments. I wrote in part, “There is the perception, real or otherwise, that expansion was done to offset the losses incurred over collusion in the ‘80s. What is your perception of that issue?”

Vincent replied, “Well, I think it’s absolutely correct. Indeed, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. Look, each owner had a $10 million bill and there were about 26 clubs before expansion and 30 at the moment, then $280 million, let’s say $10 million a club – they didn’t have the money. So they did what most would business do, they sold stock, they sold interest in the clubs, in the expansion clubs. In my day two of them – Miami and Denver. And that money, which was vital, paid off their collusion debt. Without it I think baseball would have had a very serious time.”

Back to the point you are making J.C… You write, “Some of that money not going to player payroll is going to baseball operations devoted to scouting young talent that is cheap.” It would be good to know how much is going to where it is supposed to go. Kevin Goldstein has exactly two prospects in his Top 100 from the Marlins: OF Cameron Maybin at #10 and RHP Chris Volstad at #88. That doesn’t exactly point to solid investment in player development.

The bigger question is, is it the job of high-revenue making clubs such as the Yankees and the Red Sox to pay entirely for the Marlins player payroll? It’s a mockery, what the Marlins are doing. If one person in MLB can be found (outside of Loria and Sampson) that will rationalize what the Marlins are doing, it would be a mean feat.