Hooray! Taxpayers Call Miami Dolphin’s Owner Steve Ross’ Bluff And Get Super Bowl Anyway
BY SAM FIELDS
Three cheers to the people of South Florida who made it loud and clear that taxpayers should not pay one cent to help multi-billionaire Miami Dolphin’s owner Steve Ross “trick out” Joe Robbie Stadium…the real name.
Ross said that the Super Bowl would never come to South Florida if he didn’t get millions in public money to renovate his stadium.
He didn’t get the money after an outcry from taxpayers.
The Super Bowl is coming here anyway.
Steve Ross
Unfortunately, taxpayers only stood up to Ross after they were suckered by another deep-pocked millionaire and owner of the Miami Marlins, Jeff Loria.
Taxpayers bought Loria’s line of crap about the need for government money for his proposed ballpark.
Loria moaned the Marlins were losing money and couldn’t pay for a new ballpark. In 2010, Deadspin published documents that indicated the Marlins had been making a profit.
Still, taxpayers are now on the hook for a $500 million in bonds used to finance the stadium. With thirty years of interest payments, that scam will eventually cost Dade taxpayers a couple of billion.
Public outrage reached a peak when Dade’s Mayor and a County Commissioner were recalled with 90% of the vote.
Enter the next pig at the public trough…Steve Ross, a developer who Forbes says has a net worth of roughly $12 billion. Ross has enough resources to give $313 million to date to his alma mater the University of Michigan
Whining that his Dolphins were losing money, and the NFL won’t give us another Super Bowl unless we put a roof on his stadium, he went around town doing his best Oliver Twist act…”May I have some more, sir.”
When it was apparent that Dade and Broward would not cough up the money he went to Tallahassee for $250,000,000 from his fellow Republicans. Even they said no.
Somehow or another a man who found a Hundred Billion Dollar$ for his Hudson Yards project in Manhattan couldn’t figure out how to privately raise $450 million for a stadium umbrella.
He threatened to move the team. My response was to offer him my Sun Pass.
We now know Ross was bluffing and the public correctly called his bluff.
In the end he found the money with no help from Broward and chump change from Dade.
And Wednesday the NFL awarded him the 2020 Super Bowl.
His newest threat is to punish Broward’s parsimony by excluding us from the festivities. They even refused to name the Host Committee: The South Florida Host Committee and named it the Miami Host Committee.
Apparently this pettiness is based on the notion that Super Bowl tourists won’t figure out those Broward hotels are actually quicker to the Stadium then the ones on South Beach. I guess all those folks coming down from New York, Chicago, Boston, etc. assume Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood are next to Wayne, Nebraska.
Personally, I wish it were so.
If the NFL season continues to stretch-out, and finally reaches May or June, we might need Super Bowl tourist$.
In January and February, the hotels are already filled to the gills. The streets are parking lots and the restaurants are “hurry up and wait”.
Notwithstanding that, The Broward Tourist Something or Other agreed to reserve 4000 hotel rooms for the NFL…at a discount!
At a time of the year when demand exceeds supply we are cutting prices?!?!?
Let Ross and his minions continue to threaten Broward. Perhaps he can borrow an idea from his good friend Donald Trump: “I’m going to build a 20 foot wall from the ocean to the Everglades along Hallandale Beach Blvd. And I’m going to make Broward pay for it”!
June 1st, 2016 at 10:09 am
Buddy:
While I agree with your article in principle, we could do a whole lot worse than Steve Ross. He’s a decent guy by all accounts. Many (Most?) NFL owners are flaming A——s. Dan Snyder? Remember Bob Irsay?
June 1st, 2016 at 10:15 am
OH MR NEVINS YOU ARE BEING KIND TO MR ROSS WHOSE LATE UNCLE MAX FISHER OF DETROIT PUT HIM INTO REAL ESTATE FROM HIS NEBBISH LIFE ON MIAMI BEACH IN ITS JEWISH LOWER BOURGEOUS LEFTIST DAYS.
People forget his rise included TAKING OVER PUBLIC or NON PROFIT HOSPITALS WITH GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES and purchasing AND DESTROYING GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS TO BUILD AFTER GOVERNMENT UPZONIBG LUXURY HIGH RISES FOR FOREIGN DRUG DEALERS N DICTATORS AS THE NEW YORK TIMES EXPOSED RECENTLY.
Here in Ft Lsuderdale made something like 100 Million Dollars profit on the Flagler Village Deal of luxury units for yuppies built where workibg people including Blacks woukd have local affordable housing.
Does ANYOBE REMEMBER FORT LAUDERDAKE LOST THE HYDE PARK MARKET SITE we all hoped to have as a park in a 22 year or so legal battle with a developer Jorge Perez AND STEVE ROSS!!!!!!!
I saw Steve Ross’ firms go from developers with subsidized housing units for local working class people or middle class rentals TO LUXURY UNITS FOR FOREIGN CRIMMINALS..
FROM BUDDY NEVINS:
This piece is the work of Sam Fields, not me.
June 1st, 2016 at 1:48 pm
I agree with him yet we still gave near 100 million as a donation to the billionairs owner of a hockey team that few give a hoot about. sic transit Gloria.
June 1st, 2016 at 3:48 pm
So much money is needed for other things that it would be ridiculous to give money to a sports team owned by a billionaire. Other than the Super Bowl, which does bring tourists, what is the economic benefit. If we didn’t have the team, the ticket and skybox money would be spent for some other purpose. Miami-Dade was right to tell Ross to shove it.
June 1st, 2016 at 3:52 pm
Steven Ross doesn’t even live in Miami. He has an 11,000 square foot home on the ocean in Palm Beach which cost him $31.86 million nine years ago. He flies to the games in a helicopter.
June 1st, 2016 at 3:55 pm
If the Miami Dolphins could play football, maybe we would be willing to pay something for a new stadium.
June 1st, 2016 at 4:54 pm
SORRY Mr Nevind.
Then Mr Fields was. Being TOO KIND.
June 1st, 2016 at 8:08 pm
Football stadiums are a hard sell. You only have 8 home games a year. Ballparks with 61 home games a year are a little easier to sell. Arenas are very justifiable to use public dollars on, assuming you have a metropolis with half a million people or more. Even without pro hoops or hockey, we still need a place for Disney on Ice, Ringling Brothers, pro wrestling, concerts, etc. Add in the NBA and/or NHL 41 games each, and you get what we have here in south Florida which is 2 highly successful arenas. Both publicly owned. The problem with both of them is that both counties have commissions that are handing over the management contract to the Heat and the Panthers. So anytime anyone needs to rent one of these magnificent venues, they pay rent to Micky & Vinny, rather than to the county. The naming rights, the parking, the concessions, the suite money, etc. It all goes to the team owners, who then cook their books, and the county gets diddly. Oh and the tram owners also get the television and broadcast rights. BB&T makes a ton of money and Broward has nothing to show for it, other than it’s residents having a place to go. Giving the Panthers 80 million for a scoreboard was a stupid thing to do. Why doesnt the county just take back the management contract and hire an Arena Manager?And not some management company. Hire someone to manage the place.
As far as Dolphins Stadium goes, it’s a nice new canopy. Joe Robbie would love it. And speaking of Joe Robbie, isnt he one of only 2 owners to build a stadium with all private money, then had to sell the team to cover the mortgage?
The canopy didn’t cost 400 million. Before Ross would spend 400 million on a canopy, he’d use that as down payment on brand new digs. But it looks great and Miami is getting another world wide audience.
June 1st, 2016 at 9:55 pm
I apologize for blogging again but Steve Ross – Republican or not – has n is making billions because BOTH PARTIES give sweart deals of zoning and dont negotiate to take care of working n middle class jobs n small businesses destroyed by Related’s huge mega luxury projects all over South Florida such as Bal Harbour South Beach Ft Lauderdale and Manhattan. The elected officials in each and everyone of these places enabled Related LUXURY projects with zoning change of use etc changes and negotiations and legal moves that were a joke.
Sadly Hudson Yards mentioned from 1977 through 1994 when I returned home to Florida was to be middle to working class housing and small scale commercial. A combination of Left wing activist organizations and a few greedy small shopkeepers looking for huge City buyouts killed plan after plan until the Bloomberg Administration threw in the towel and let the “market decide”. And of course the deal they made was useless for working people now we have Flagler Village including Mr Steve Ross’ building he sold for 142 Million Dollars tenanted by Yuppies who dont shop or invest here as they are saving to move to Davie Weston Parkland Boca or Vero Beach or go back North!
June 2nd, 2016 at 10:37 am
count as you speak of flagler village and since I used to live next door let me set the record right. the only good thing there was the old ymca the rest was a collection of crack houses, it was not a middle class enclave, flagler village was a tremendous gamble and a great addition to a dangerous area.
June 2nd, 2016 at 11:27 pm
@10 Zigy IGNORED MY POINT: it could have been developed into low rise affordable housing with local shops or studios that would have been a stable community instead of the hairhead yuppies who are only going to be around for the short term. As some who has seen Ft Lauderdale Miami Miami Beach since September 1946 I have seen the changes over the years. Yes great fortunes have been made — but what else has been achieved in Ft Lauderdale with the Flager Village? Think of Delray Beach Deerfield Beach Boca Raton cultural tourism n events in Plantation Hallandale n Hollywood compared to what Ft Lauderdale has LOST IN THE LAST TEN YEARS in exchange for vacant brain yuppies in skyscrapers sold for MASSIVE PROFITS by outsiders.
June 5th, 2016 at 9:07 pm
This commentary by Mr Field’s was detailed and compelling. The Sentinel Columnist, Dave Hyde, wrote a an incredibly glowing column of Mr Ross and how we taxpayers should grovel in thanks to Mr Ross. I hope that Mr Hyde reviews the contrarian and the facts in the above commentary.
I would not expect a retraction by Mr Hyde, but his glorification of Mr Ross was unjustified.
Virtus