Todd
10-15-2003, 11:39 PM
Huizenga profits from Marlins
By Joel Engelhardt, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 10, 2003
Former Marlins owner H. Wayne Huizenga likely will be perched in his luxury skybox tonight watching the Marlins -- and all the money they'll bat into his piggy bank.
Even though he dismantled the team and sold it after winning the World Series in 1997, Huizenga still stands to take a bite out of every hot dog sold during this weekend's sold-out games against the Chicago Cubs at Pro Player Stadium.
When 65,000 fans jam the ballpark Huizenga owns, his cash registers will ring for every parked car, stadium billboard and $5.75 bottle of beer -- on top of a piece of every ticket sold. His skybox and club-seat customers -- people who have been paying Huizenga, not Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, for choice seats through the team's lean years -- undoubtedly will be primed to buy again next year, spurred by the Marlins' late-season triumphs.
How much isn't clear because these are private transactions. But it's safe to say Huizenga's take this championship weekend will amount to millions.
When the Marlins win, Huizenga can't lose. His former team's resurgence is good for the bottom line. How good? Huizenga won't say.
Back when the Marlins were pitching a new ballpark, some details of Huizenga's profit-sharing were revealed. For instance, he got 62.5 percent of parking revenue.
Marlins management now says the terms in 2001 haven't changed.
So that means when fans shell out $10 to park this weekend, Huizenga gets $6.25. At that rate, parking alone raises $300,000 for Huizenga's enterprises.
While the Marlins get 70 percent of the concession profit, that still leaves Huizenga with 30 percent. In food terms, that's $1.50 for a large bottled water, $1.20 for a hot dog, $1.05 for a bag of peanuts. All to Huizenga's South Florida Stadium Corp.
To top it off, Huizenga gets $2 million a year from the state of Florida from a $60 million tax rebate he secured to bring the Marlins to Florida. He gets the money whether the Marlins win, lose, move or fold.
"Huizenga made a killing when he sold the team for $150 million (in 1998) and had the lease for this stadium that enabled him to keep just about all the stadium revenue," Smith College economist and sports author Andrew Zimbalist said. "There's no question that Huizenga is still an enormous beneficiary."
Huizenga's stadium president, Bruce Shulze, said he can't comment on details of the lease except to say the terms have been unchanged since Huizenga founded the team.
Loria won't release details either. But the Marlins have grudgingly accepted the terms as the price of keeping the team alive in South Florida.
"It's a contract that the Florida Marlins abide by," is all Marlins President David Samson, Loria's stepson, would say.
For the team, the terms have always been less than advantageous. When Huizenga claimed the Marlins lost $34 million during the team's 1997 World Series run, he didn't point out that his sports entertainment empire was profiting from the lease.
Using financial statements released at the time of the team's sale to Boca Raton commodities billionaire John Henry, Zimbalist calculated that the profits captured by the stadium -- also under Huizenga's ownership -- offset the losses reported by the team.
Huizenga dumped the team, but kept the stadium where the Dolphins play football, and the money from both teams continued to roll in.
Henry tried to patch together a deal to build a new baseball-only stadium, where he could cash in on skybox sales, club seats and naming rights to escape Huizenga's financial grip.
Repeated failure to make a stadium deal raised talk of moving the team or even of its folding, and Henry sold the Marlins, preferring to spend $700 million to buy the Boston Red Sox, along with the team's storied playing field, Fenway Park.
With nowhere else to go, the new Marlins ownership embraced Pro Player Stadium, with its football-oriented views, seldom-used upper deck and Huizenga lease.
They recently extended the lease through next season, which leaves them little time to shop for a new stadium in light of this year's success.
That doesn't mean they won't. Huizenga's short-term gain amid the Marlins' late run ultimately may prove to be the catalyst the Marlins need to get their stadium -- and their independence.
It's easier to convince the public to support a winning team than a team gutted by a billionaire owner pleading poverty, said Zimbalist, whose latest book, May the Best Team Win, debunks baseball's claim of weak finances and need for subsidized stadiums.
"Voters and politicians are more amenable to giving him (Loria) a subsidy because now people like the Marlins instead of hating them, which is what Huizenga accomplished," Zimbalist said.
joel_engelhardt@pbpost.com
By Joel Engelhardt, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 10, 2003
Former Marlins owner H. Wayne Huizenga likely will be perched in his luxury skybox tonight watching the Marlins -- and all the money they'll bat into his piggy bank.
Even though he dismantled the team and sold it after winning the World Series in 1997, Huizenga still stands to take a bite out of every hot dog sold during this weekend's sold-out games against the Chicago Cubs at Pro Player Stadium.
When 65,000 fans jam the ballpark Huizenga owns, his cash registers will ring for every parked car, stadium billboard and $5.75 bottle of beer -- on top of a piece of every ticket sold. His skybox and club-seat customers -- people who have been paying Huizenga, not Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, for choice seats through the team's lean years -- undoubtedly will be primed to buy again next year, spurred by the Marlins' late-season triumphs.
How much isn't clear because these are private transactions. But it's safe to say Huizenga's take this championship weekend will amount to millions.
When the Marlins win, Huizenga can't lose. His former team's resurgence is good for the bottom line. How good? Huizenga won't say.
Back when the Marlins were pitching a new ballpark, some details of Huizenga's profit-sharing were revealed. For instance, he got 62.5 percent of parking revenue.
Marlins management now says the terms in 2001 haven't changed.
So that means when fans shell out $10 to park this weekend, Huizenga gets $6.25. At that rate, parking alone raises $300,000 for Huizenga's enterprises.
While the Marlins get 70 percent of the concession profit, that still leaves Huizenga with 30 percent. In food terms, that's $1.50 for a large bottled water, $1.20 for a hot dog, $1.05 for a bag of peanuts. All to Huizenga's South Florida Stadium Corp.
To top it off, Huizenga gets $2 million a year from the state of Florida from a $60 million tax rebate he secured to bring the Marlins to Florida. He gets the money whether the Marlins win, lose, move or fold.
"Huizenga made a killing when he sold the team for $150 million (in 1998) and had the lease for this stadium that enabled him to keep just about all the stadium revenue," Smith College economist and sports author Andrew Zimbalist said. "There's no question that Huizenga is still an enormous beneficiary."
Huizenga's stadium president, Bruce Shulze, said he can't comment on details of the lease except to say the terms have been unchanged since Huizenga founded the team.
Loria won't release details either. But the Marlins have grudgingly accepted the terms as the price of keeping the team alive in South Florida.
"It's a contract that the Florida Marlins abide by," is all Marlins President David Samson, Loria's stepson, would say.
For the team, the terms have always been less than advantageous. When Huizenga claimed the Marlins lost $34 million during the team's 1997 World Series run, he didn't point out that his sports entertainment empire was profiting from the lease.
Using financial statements released at the time of the team's sale to Boca Raton commodities billionaire John Henry, Zimbalist calculated that the profits captured by the stadium -- also under Huizenga's ownership -- offset the losses reported by the team.
Huizenga dumped the team, but kept the stadium where the Dolphins play football, and the money from both teams continued to roll in.
Henry tried to patch together a deal to build a new baseball-only stadium, where he could cash in on skybox sales, club seats and naming rights to escape Huizenga's financial grip.
Repeated failure to make a stadium deal raised talk of moving the team or even of its folding, and Henry sold the Marlins, preferring to spend $700 million to buy the Boston Red Sox, along with the team's storied playing field, Fenway Park.
With nowhere else to go, the new Marlins ownership embraced Pro Player Stadium, with its football-oriented views, seldom-used upper deck and Huizenga lease.
They recently extended the lease through next season, which leaves them little time to shop for a new stadium in light of this year's success.
That doesn't mean they won't. Huizenga's short-term gain amid the Marlins' late run ultimately may prove to be the catalyst the Marlins need to get their stadium -- and their independence.
It's easier to convince the public to support a winning team than a team gutted by a billionaire owner pleading poverty, said Zimbalist, whose latest book, May the Best Team Win, debunks baseball's claim of weak finances and need for subsidized stadiums.
"Voters and politicians are more amenable to giving him (Loria) a subsidy because now people like the Marlins instead of hating them, which is what Huizenga accomplished," Zimbalist said.
joel_engelhardt@pbpost.com