Here’s my problem with
the Miami Marlins signing Giancarlo Stanton, their 25-year old star right
fielder, to a 13-year contract worth $325 million—taxpayers are footing a lot
of that salary.
That’s because Dade
County and the city of Miami financed most of the $600 million-plus Marlins’ baseball
complex that opened in 2012; factor in interest payments, and the public will be
on the hook for anywhere between $2.4 and $3 billion. (Exact figures are hard to come by since no
one wants to talk about it. Public
officials tend to blush when word of their gullibility breaks, just as teams
don’t want to be seen for the greedy entities they are.)
Any team in any sport
can sign any player it wants, as long as the same rules hold for those involved
and their fans. I can buy a new car
every January, just as long as I can meet my mortgage payments. If I can’t do both, (and trust me, I can’t), the
repo man will drive away with one possession while the sheriff’s deputy evicts
me from the other. Fear of financial
ruins makes for great discipline in the real world. Professional sports teams ought to try it
sometime.
That, or taxpayers
should force them to.
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