Miami Herald: How a $91M loan on Marlins Park will cost Miami-Dade $1.2B

[3_Octave_Fart]

Domino.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/24/3199018/how-a-91million-loan-on-the-marlins.html

The chart (if you can’t see it, try refreshing or opening this article in a different browser) lays out the debt-repayment schedule on that initial $91 million.

The first column is the money borrowed, and the small lines show the amount of principal and interest owed each month. The soaring line is a running total of how much money Miami-Dade is scheduled to pay back for the loan. It crosses the $500 million mark in 2042, and hits $1.18 billion by the time the last payment is due 2048.

Miami-Dade will use hotel-tax revenue to pay off the bonds. But payments don’t kick in until 2026. Once they do, they get very costly very quickly. The first payment, for example, totals $260,000. The fifth jumps to almost $8 million and the 10th tops $20 million. Payment No. 18 brings the big hit: $118 million comes due in 2042 alone.

The high interest comes from the penalty Miami-Dade must pay in exchange for a repayment plan that lets the county delay by 15 years making it first debt-service payment to the Wall Street lenders who bought the bonds.

“It’s an expensive way to borrow money,’’ said Frank Hinton, head of the county’s bond program. “You’ve got $1.2 billion to pay back. It is a lot of money.”

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Public money for stadiums is bad enough, but this has to be the worst of all.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Where's the Tea Party?

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

This is one from the we'll-all-be-deader-than-crabmeat-by-the-time-this-****-comes-due school of debt repayment. And public servants promoted this.

 

[Bubbler]

Porn for Starman.

 

[Captain Obvious]

I remember when Maricopa County officials got flak for a sales tax to pay for Chase Field. That tax raised $235 million in two years.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Cheaper to default.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

The best part of that payment plan is by the time they start making payments in 2026, the Marlins will either have moved out of state or demanded more taxpayer money to renovate renovations paid for by this loan.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The best thing would just to have a couple of cops pull the owner over for a busted taillight and then have shot dead resisting arrest. Renegotiation would be a breeze.

 

[YankeeFan]

The best part of that payment plan is by the time they start making payments in 2026, the Marlins will either have moved out of state or demanded more taxpayer money to renovate renovations paid for by this loan.

You beat me to it.

What are the odds that an MLB team is playing in this ballpark by the time the loan is payed off?

Very dumb way to fund it.

 

[HanSenSE]

The best part of that payment plan is by the time they start making payments in 2026, the Marlins will either have moved out of state or demanded more taxpayer money to renovate renovations paid for by this loan.

You beat me to it.

What are the odds that an MLB team is playing in this ballpark by the time the loan is payed off?

Very dumb way to fund it.

We're dealing with people who believed Jeffrey Loria would field a competitive team. Buyers did not beware.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

A good Dexter episode would be disposing of a serial franchise killer.

 

[old_tony]

Who'd have thought not making your first payment on a huge loan until 15 years later would cost money? /bluefont

 

[wicked]

Loria is a scumbag but Miami-Dade has gone along with it.

Don't feel bad at all for any taxpayers there.

You get the politicians you deserve. If citizens truly care, recall every last one of them (if possible) or vote them out next time around.

 

[Starman]

The best part of that payment plan is by the time they start making payments in 2026, the Marlins will either have moved out of state or demanded more taxpayer money to renovate renovations paid for by this loan.

You beat me to it.

What are the odds that an MLB team is playing in this ballpark by the time the loan is payed off?

Very dumb way to fund it.

Maybe they have a legally ironclad lease, like the Bucs.
Some people say the Bucs are a candidate to move, but they're locked in until at least 2025.

A professional sports franchise owner obeying terms of a lease? BWAHHAHAHAAHAH.

They'll do whatever they want, pull another extortion episode on the taxpayers as usual.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

The best part of that payment plan is by the time they start making payments in 2026, the Marlins will either have moved out of state or demanded more taxpayer money to renovate renovations paid for by this loan.

You beat me to it.

What are the odds that an MLB team is playing in this ballpark by the time the loan is payed off?

Very dumb way to fund it.

Maybe they have a legally ironclad lease, like the Bucs.
Some people say the Bucs are a candidate to move, but they're locked in until at least 2025.

A professional sports franchise owner obeying terms of a lease? BWAHHAHAHAAHAH.

They'll do whatever they want, pull another extortion episode on the taxpayers as usual.

You don't know what you're talking about here.
Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa wrote the lease in such a way the Bucs incurred virtually no construction costs.
And then got to pull in its chest of profits.
The team pays no taxes on the facility as it was cleverly and legally specified as a 'condominium' to avoid tax jeopardy.
The stadium is Super Bowl-ready, unlike others in the state, and, as it turns out, in most of the NFL.

 

[Starman]

And in very short order, they will want more, and threaten to leave if they don't get it.

 

[Starman]

Sure it does. The billionaires always want more.

Whatever they're getting now, they'll want more, and they'll take hostages to get it.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Very well-argued.
I particularly admire the geometric circularity of it.
You're dealing in vagaries. Bring some facts or hit the road.

 

[Azrael]

Maybe the way to demonstrate the utility of the stadium and its financing is to offer into evidence the "revenue" it's going to "produce" for the "community" over its long (fantastically expensive) lifetime.