Say "No" To NFL SB Stadium Extortion Urges Sun-Sentinel Community Columnist Mayo | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Say "No" To NFL SB Stadium Extortion Urges Sun-Sentinel Community Columnist Mayo

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Mayo makes a good case that the league needs South Florida more than it needs the SB and that local taxpayers are the ones who'll get soaked because some fat cats attending last February got drenched. I don't disagree

excerpted from:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...ium-mayocol-b011010-20100109,0,6955773.column

Just say no to NFL Super extortion
Pricey stadium upgrades a luxury public can't afford
Michael Mayo
News Columnist
8:08 PM EST, January 9, 2010

My first reaction to those gawd-awful sketches of the NFL's dream Dolphin Stadium: Is that a really bad miniature-golf hole or a square bagel with toothpicks?

My next reaction: They can't be serious.

This whole notion of spending a lot of money to keep the fat cats who organize and attend Super Bowls happy and dry is wrong on so many levels.
And if anyone thinks the upgrades to the private Dolphin-Land-Shark-Joe-Robbie-Whatever-They're-Calling-It-This-Week Stadium should come from public funds, that's borderline obscene.

"I dare anyone to find a public source of funding that's available to do this," said Broward tourism czar Nicki Grossman. "And believe me, I'm someone who lusts after Super Bowls."

Like me, Grossman doesn't buy the vague threats that the NFL won't return after next month's Super Bowl without the stadium improvements.

"There are a lot of new stadiums that want to be in the rotation, but nobody is better equipped to handle a Super Bowl than South Florida," Grossman said. "Our amenities are incredible, our hotels are incredible. We know how to do this."
After next month's edition, South Florida will have hosted nearly a quarter of the Super Bowls played — 10 of 44. Does anyone really believe the NFL will abandon the sun and fun if someone doesn't cover the seats?

I'm inclined to call the league's bluff.

If we were dropped from the Super rotation, I bet the NFL and its patrons — there are few real fans in a Super Bowl crowd — would miss South Florida a lot more than South Florida would miss them. Go ahead. Make our day. If the league would rather play its premier event in a partly covered stadium in Dallas, a fully covered stadium in Indianapolis or a frigid new palace in New Jersey, then it should take a hut-hut-hike.
"I don't think you could qualify our stadium as tired," Grossman said about the 23-year-old Dolphin Stadium, which started $250 million in refurbishments before the 2007 Super Bowl.

This crazy drumbeat began last month, when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the stadium would need improvements in order to compete for future Super Bowls.

It continued last week, with Dolphins officials showing off some artist renderings of a partly roofed stadium and local Super Bowl host committee officials floating the public-funding trial balloon. Nobody wants to talk about the price tag, but it will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

"If there's no will to do this, then at least we'll know where we stand," said host committee chairman Rodney Barreto. "Let's take it to the public, let's start the debate."

Uh, let's not and say we did.

But if we must debate, start and end with this: After a week in which Miami's cash-strapped public Jackson Memorial Hospital was forced to cut dialysis treatment for needy patients, how do you keep a straight face saying the comfort of Super Bowl fans is a bigger community priority? The Dolphins don't want to pay for the upgrades, saying they don't need them. And the league doesn't want to pay, not wanting to set any precedents or disrupt the extort-the-locals formula that's been working so well.

Guess that leaves us.

So hold onto your wallets. And brace yourself for an onslaught of self-serving studies on the Super Bowl's economic impact.

Norman Braman, the Miami car dealer who opposed the Marlins' public stadium financing, has heard it all before. He used to own the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, and he headed the Super Bowl site selection committee for five years.

In the case of South Florida, he said the impact figures are vastly overstated.

"The hotels, at least in our county, in late January and early February are already at 90 to 95 percent occupancy," Braman told my colleague Sarah Talalay on Friday. "The increase that the Super Bowl provides is marginal.

"If it's here in July, that's different. Or in a city like Jacksonville. It probably has better economic impact in Tampa. I haven't heard the NFL tell Tampa, 'If you want a Super Bowl again, you have to have a roof.' This is all nonsense."

We can only hope this push gets flushed soon.
 
man that "upgrade" or whatever they want to call it is god awful!!!! i dont get why they would build a stadium for the marlins when the cant consistently get 12,000 to a game? they may fill it up at first (because its new) but after a 3 years, it will be right back to were it was before. city of miami is strapped for cash! they need to be smart about s__t! stop trying to pimp the people!!!
 
"If it's here in July, that's different. Or in a city like Jacksonville. It probably has better economic impact in Tampa. I haven't heard the NFL tell Tampa, 'If you want a Super Bowl again, you have to have a roof.' This is all nonsense."
Exactly. I really hope they don't build a roof. I doubt the county wants to be taxed another 1/2 cent.

It would be kind of sad though if South Florida never hosted a Super Bowl. Maybe the retractable roof in Dallas will break and a ice storm occurs during next years Super Bowl.

:finnasty:
 
Exactly. I really hope they don't build a roof. I doubt the county wants to be taxed another 1/2 cent.

It would be kind of sad though if South Florida never hosted a Super Bowl. Maybe the retractable roof in Dallas will break and a ice storm occurs during next years Super Bowl.

:finnasty:

When the premier hospital in the region has had to cut back on literally, life-and-death community services, it really would be obscene to extort the county for a one week event that would barely make an incremental dent on its tourism/hospitality industries. The more I think about it, let Goodell begin some sort of league levy on teams' revenues, or increase ad and licensing rates, to underwrite upgrades in desirable SB cities for stadiums they deem "unacceptable" instead of putting the burden on individual counties' taxpayers. I'm really beginning to despise that elitist, game outcome-manipulating, favoritism-playing ****head.
 
its sad but stuff like this is happening everywhere....have and have nots
 
Gotta agree, let Goodell huff and puff, if they dont want to let us be in the rotation for a superbowl appearance then so be it, take it to Oakland.

Hopefully Ross throws this little "upgrade" out the window. Goodell has been doing this for awhile and i hope this blows up in his face. To sit there and demand we make unnecessary upgrades, upgrades it sounds like we dont even want to make(as the dolphins are refusing to pay for it), without any support is absurd. Can't have it both ways.

As the stats suggest, nobody knows how to do the superbowl better then south florida and it will only hurt the league to lose that. So go ahead, pull it from us, and well just deal with the next commissioner after his incompetant *** is replaced.
 
If they go ahead with this not only would they have to increase the tax rate but say hello to PSL's at Dolphin stadium as there is NO DOUBT that they would have to start these to recoup the cost of this idiotic idea.
 
If they go ahead with this not only would they have to increase the tax rate but say hello to PSL's at Dolphin stadium as there is NO DOUBT that they would have to start these to recoup the cost of this idiotic idea.

And we all know how well those are selling in Giants stadium right?? :lol:
 
And we all know how well those are selling in Giants stadium right?? :lol:

Ummm.....there are selling for the Giants but not for the mooching Jets franchise....they tried but after they could not sell them they eliminated the PSL's for the Jets for at least the upper tier seats.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/sports/football/27giants.html

Having said that...they probably won't sell in Dolphins Stadium due to the aloof, fair weather fans this team mostly has
 
The new stadium plans look like crap. I guess I'm one of the few that prefers a run-down beat up old stadium with character.
 
Football is an outdoor sport... Play it in the rain and shut up. We got rained on at Wembly and the NFL went back there again...
 
But if we must debate, start and end with this: After a week in which Miami's cash-strapped public Jackson Memorial Hospital was forced to cut dialysis treatment for needy patients, how do you keep a straight face saying the comfort of Super Bowl fans is a bigger community priority?

Wow, seriously?
 
Roger ****dell has not done a single good thing for the NFL or football. Since he has become GM he has failed more times then Gary Betman and Bud Selig of the NHL and MLB have. I can understand installing a somewhat roof on the fans beacuse of the sun that is shining down on the fans at 1. But to do it beacuse a bunch of loser rich idiots that probably don't even know how the game is played and only go there for the halftime show is retarted.

If there is no football after 2010 and they go on strike Roger better get fired from the NFL Commish position so we can get a guy that will make the game better and not just focus on making sure his butt buddy Tom Brady stays healthy.
 
If Wayne H. still ran the team he would just head over to Goodell's office and pop one of his testicles for trying to cut Miami out of the Super Bowl rotation. That's probably why he waited for Ross to take over before he pulled this s***.
 
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