Marlins owner Bruce Sherman released a statement this afternoon reaffirming his commitment to lasting ownership of the franchise.
“The Miami Marlins are not for sale, have not been for sale under my ownership, and will not be for sale in my lifetime. It is irresponsible to report otherwise,” Sherman said (via Jordan McPherson and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald). “It is and will continue to be a privilege to own this great organization. I look forward to seeing our loyal fans at Opening Day on March 30.”
The announcement comes in response to a column from the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday morning. That report cited MLB sources suggesting the Miami organization could hit the market at some point soon. There’d been no previous indication of the Marlins potentially changing hands, and Sherman’s forceful pushback represents a firm declaration that won’t happen.
Sherman made similar sentiments in an interview with the Herald last September. “No, I have never considered selling the team,” he said at the time. “I am more deeply invested in the team’s success now than ever. I’m looking forward to reaching the playoffs, returning the World Series trophy to South Florida, and making this community proud of its hometown team.”
The Marlins are only a few years removed from an ownership change. Jeffrey Loria officially dealt the franchise to the Sherman/Derek Jeter group in October 2017. While Jeter was the higher-profile member of the group, Sherman has been majority owner for the entire time. Jeter departed the organization last offseason.
Upon taking over, the Sherman ownership group cut player payroll. Miami’s season-opening payroll had been at $115MM during the final year of Loria’s ownership, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Under Sherman’s ownership, the franchise hasn’t topped $100MM in player spending. That’s likely set to change this year, with Roster Resource projecting their spending around $103MM.
hmmm
No reason to sell.
Sherman and his group are making a huge profit.
Fans are the losers.
Let’s don’t spend, have the fans not to show up but get bails outs from the state for a new stadium and the other owners from luxury tax pay offs why on earth would he sell. He literally can do nothing while making millions from all these suckers. And when Chisom and Alcantara need to be traded then ship em out and keep the money train a going.
And yet still claims he is sports poor. Curious that so many guys who claim they can’t afford FAs on their teams are so unwilling to sell for a profit.
Yep. Sucks for Marlins fans (and other franchises like the As and Pirates) but that’s just how it’ll keep going. They have the perfect system in place. Develop your young talent and when they’re nearing a big pay day, ship them out for young talent that you can develop and keep the cycle going. No incentive to spend or try to win unless the other teams start putting pressure on you, which they’ll never do because they want to win and want tomato cans to beat along the way.
Marlins have been rebuilding since 2003 with no end in sight.
Yeah, I’m sure every Marlins fan is good with the knowledge that Ownership is stuck in the hands of another Ebeneezer Scrooge type like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Oakland. I bet they’re all tossing their cookies right about now.
How does MLB allow a franchise in South Florida to be run so horribly for so long? Baseball in Miami could be insanely huge but instead they choose to neglect that market for… what reasons?
The problem is that every owner we’ve had has treated the Marlins like a cash cow. And sadly, MLB and MLBPA has become a group of me people thinking solely about money instead of having a steady balance of decision making that involves ‘for the good of the game’.
Think about this. The Marlins have had the BS owners they’ve had, while Gustavo Cisneros was prevented from bidding during that underhanded deal between Selig, Loria and John Henry. Jorge Mas didn’t get a chance as somehow they deemed that Sherman had more money to bring in despite being worth less than half of Jorge Mas. And to top things off, Mark Cuban is been blocked multiple times from bidding on any MLB team from the Pirates to the eventual Nationals, and even being blocked during that aforementioned Selig/Loria/Henry deal that also blocked Cisneros.
Cisneros wanted the Marlins to be his feature team on his Latin America media empire and even mentioned the model that Ted Turner did with the “America’s Team” campaign in Atlanta years ago, and Cisneros having a plan in place to expand his market beyond South Florida by making them “Latin America’s Team” as was reported back then. Mas was going to try to win immediately with the roster that was already in place. And Mark Cuban just wants any MLB team as he’s made clear in his past attempts to get into MLB.
Just a sad reflection of what MLB has become in their leadership, both in the MLB league office and MLBPA.
Thanks for the history lesson. I’m old enough to remember Jorge Mas’ name being floated around as a potential new owner before Sherman’s group “won” out. However, I was too young to remember Loria’s purchase of the team and any other possible candidates for ownership at that time.
The whole history of the Marlins spits in the face of MLB’s attempt at outreach of the Latin American community (specifically in Miami). It just reeks of hypocrisy.
If i remember correctly loria actually got screwed as he was supposed to have the nationals as he had part ownership of the expos but they wanted the lerners to own them. They basically gave him the Marlins and probably had a sour taste over it.
Florida is a tough market though as spring training is down there and the yankees and mets had claims for years down there before and how many retired ny nj people end up in florida retiring. Also if im not mistaken they are more an NBA town down in miami.
Anyone that has been to Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach knows how much of a Northeast false narrative the retiree thing is about Florida. Retirees are a very small of the Florida population, especially in South Florida where the Marlins are located. That narrative comes from people who have not been here at all or even for more than a minute.
As for Miami being an NBA town, it actually wasn’t until after the 1997 Marlins fire sale. It lined up perfectly with Micky Arison having Pat Riley rebuild the Miami Heat franchise into what they have become since. Prior to that year, it was still all about the NFL Dolphins.
As for Loria, he actually wanted out of the Expos/Nats. He pushed to grab up Miami after Henry was vacating the Marlins. Loria felt he would get in Miami what he didn’t get in Montreal and felt he couldn’t get in DC. It’s absolutely a false narrative to think anyone would accept being the owner of a sports franchise that he was sour about owning. In fact, that sounds like fan fiction that you get from BS networks like E!SPN or checkout line tabloids.
The Spring Training thing did have some affects, but that’s three decades in the past. Most of those fans are gone or modified their allegiance one way or other.
from my family experience i disagree, i have had all of my aunts and uncles in the tristate are have moved to florida with the exception of one that has real estate in the north east which totals out to 4 in orlando, 7 in ft lauderdale miramar area, and 1 in bradenton. That is also 6 out of 15 of my co workers that have moved to florida from the northeast. Usually because they can keep the northeast pay but have cheaper living costs in the florida area and lower taxes. That is also not including the numerous friends and other family that have moved for the very same reasons. Most of those end up in the miami, ft lauderdale, boca raton, and pompano beach areas along with a few in orlando.
Some of my family that have been down there for a few decades, most of them are huge maimi heat fans (i have a feeling its pat riley nostalgia or the lebron super team from a while back) but still follow the new york teams so that is personal and family recollections . Me personally i would move to the carolinas as there is less threat of hurricanes if you are inland and it seems a lot of people are heading there and tennessee since memphis has been a growing area i guess but i digress.
Throwing hard data, the attendance records show the top 20 home games were pretty much the Mets, Braves, and Dodgers games (whom also used to have spring training in that southern florida area in vero beach),.While about 1/3 of the overall rest of games are less than 10k people attending. That leads me to believe majority of fans are there for the other teams. Also miami is consistently in the bottom 5 for overall attendance if not last which shows they are either overpriced or dont have a very strong fan base. Even the pirates they only have around 10-15 percent of their home games under 10k and never lower than 8 where the marlins were as low as 2k fans for games.
I will also concede all the stories i read on loria were stories i read from multitude of articles: some bleacher report, some espn, some linked articles from here. So i can not confirm or deny them as i can only go by them as i dont work for the front office or know loria personally.
How did he get screwed? He was a minority owner in the Expos who scammed his way into majority ownership, and then made bank by selling them to MLB while getting an interest free loan from the league. And if that wasnt enough, he then scammed the league claiming he was poor while making profit off of revenue sharing, conned the city into building him a stadium and then sold the team for insane profit. You certainly do not remember correctly.
More of a football town, I always thought. Dolphins and Hurricanes. Probably a fair share of Gators and Seminoles, too.
Discounting history and market size I would contract Marlins, Rays, Baltimore or Washington, Oakland, Pittsburgh, and perhaps the Rockies. Less firm on that one.
Sale of the teams occurred in 2002, coincidentally your next 2 WS champs are Florida and Boston, which is 1 of the many reasons you will never convince me games aren’t fixed. The league rewarded 2 of the cheapest owners with championships and all that playoff revenue that comes with it in return for playing ball, rather than bring in an owner who actually had a plan.
I’m from the other side of the country, so I don’t know too much about South Florida. But based on what I do know, I find it surprising that the region’s Major League franchise doesn’t thrive there.
Sure, ownership can make a profit sticking with the status quo. But they could also invest more in the franchise to create a winner—which comes with considerable financial benefits.
There are a lot of Braves fans in Florida. Braves country extends to much of the American southeast & mid-atlantic states. There just aren’t a lot of people that will suddenly shift to liking the Marlins. Braves fan parents will make Braves fan children. Etc.
That is accurate to a certain extent. It more accurate to say that both the Rays and Marlins have been adversely affected by the Braves reach. It’s more the Rays that have been hit by it though because many of the Braves fans that were here prior to the Marlins existence switched allegiance with the arrival of the Marlins. Also, long term Braves fans that were older, lifelong fans down here, after three decades, are no longer around for one reason or other.
Yep. Well said
If the Marlins could afford a $100 million payroll while Loria was the owner, every team should be required to spend $100 million a year. The bottom 9 teams are just welfare queens living off the luxury tax paying teams.
It’s getting to the point that MLB needs to get an agreement on a Cap&Floor system or just start contracting teams. From what I see, if they contract teams, it look like 6 and maybe as many as 10 teams can’t realistically compete in the current financial structure and discrepancy MLB and MLBPA has created.
Which ten teams and why? There are too many small market teams who consistently compete for me to accept that concept. I agree there are probably 6-10 teams whose incompetent leadership prevents them from being competitive. But it’s not purely financial. The biggest difference I see between the Mets and the A’s for instance, is the Mets can better afford to make bad decisions.
When a team can afford to make bad decisions and others can’t, that is a structure that doesn’t work for this many teams. Each team should be on a level playing field when you are talking about a professional league. If they want to keep this model, then they need to contract teams.
I agree but you will never get an agreement of a floor (owners) without a cap (players union). I think there could be some kind of reduction of funds shared funds.
There could be a a minimum average payroll over a 5 year period or you have to have made atleast a division title or certain number of wins or some kind of condition. If you dont meet either criteria you lose draft picks and shared revenue on a percentage level. This way you dont punish teams like the rays who run a well run team for cheap but you dont have a team like the pirates who just pocket money.
If you are say a 2 or 3 time offender you go under probation then 4th year a council of union leadership / players council and owners make a decision on what to be done with the team … make them sell / cut them off from any revenue share / fine .. if no decision is agreed to it goes to arbiter.
Can’t or won’t?
@DarkSide830 Is there any owner that can compete with Cohen in spending?
Same concept with the other teams trying to spend against the other big market teams.
The gap widens.
@marlinsfanbase
Small market teams would never agree to a salary cap because then they would lose millions every year. Right now Dodgers and Mets contribute tens of millions in tax penalties. Small market teams wouldn’t give up that money and agree to a salary cap
“Don’t worry Marlins fans, our current level of excellence will continue unabated indefinitely!”
He calls that excellence? I have some Edsels to sell him.
As for this story, it’s interesting that Sherman came out to say this after a story was already reported about it. It reminds me how Loria and his lucky man juice stepson or whatever, Dave Sampson got upset at the late Jim Mandich who said early on like that Loria was a snake oil salesman combined with a carpetbagger or something along those lines, and that as soon as they got a new stadium at the taxpayers expense, they would put a ‘For Sale’ sign on the team. Loria and Samspon always were on the attack of him and his employers, even ending the contract with the 560 WQAM radio station.
Salary caps are awful thankfully the players will never agree to it.
Could you imagine risking as much as NFL players do to have non guaranteed contracts and earnings caps? All while the league and owners makes billions.
Too bad someone like Cohen doesn’t come in and take over the Rays, Marlins or A’s. Someone that has no care about profit or loss financially, but will just spend whatever it takes to win. It’d be interesting to see if how many fans would show up if a team like that had a $200m-$300m payroll.
I’m sure Cohen cares plenty about profit and loss. He just understands the concept of investment, much like the Dodgers ownership group. I don’t think payroll is what attracts fans. The Rays win. If they spent like the Rangers and won 75 games a year would the fans be happier? I think people get hung up on payroll levels. Fans want their teams to get better. They don’t really care how it is accomplished.
I want my team to win but I also don’t want to pay triple what I pay now to bring my family to a live game. Win with a modest payroll. I also don’t think anyone should tell a business owner what to do or not do. Specially MLB which is geared to retaining their long term big markets as happy as they can. Look be happy you have a local franchise and remember others do not!
Team payroll has almost literally nothing to do with ticket prices. Ticket prices are almost entirely dependent on fan demand (ie, how much fans are willing to pay).
Yes – ticket prices are standard economics. The A’s for example pretty much give away tickets just so there’s fans in the stands. You’d never see the Yankees or Dodgers do that.
If teams are winning and there’s more fans willing to pay than tickets available, they can raise prices.
The Cubs are a perfect example of this. Prior to their success 7-8 years ago, tickets were cheap – relatively speaking, and they weren’t selling out. They started doing well, fans packed the stadium, ticket prices skyrocketed, and they continued to do so until last year when the Cubs were clearly going backwards. This year is the first year the Cubs have cut back ticket prices in a LONG time. Their payroll will still be around $200m, but fans haven’t been showing up like they were due to the lack of winning.
@Ryan – I believe your claim about the Cubs low prices 7-8 years ago is inaccurate. According to Team Marketing Report’s Fan Cost Index in April of 2015, the Cubs were second only to the Red Sox for cost of attendance.
Wriggled has for a very long time been one of the most expensive places to see an MLB game.
@Ryan – I believe your claim about the Cubs low prices 7-8 years ago is inaccurate. According to Team Marketing Report’s Fan Cost Index in April of 2015, the Cubs were second only to the Red Sox for cost of attendance.
Wriggled has for a very long time been one of the most expensive places to see an MLB game. Edit: Wrigley
The average ticket price at Wrigley in 2015 was $44.81. It was as high as $59.49 in 2019. Now it’s slightly down from that at $56.83 in 2022, and they are cutting them down again for 2023.
You all are smart people – let me ask this then. How does an mlb franchise create that demand for tickets? Do they spend more on marketing promotions (sure) but one sure fire way to create demand seems to me is by spending more and bringing in new assets that are more valuable and attractive. See what Mets are doing – see what cubs did 7/8 years ago. Create that higher brand feel. Another way would be new digs – better stadium with a better location but owners typically don’t do one without the other. Guys it’s simple economics – young players playing well does create short term demand. Experience branded vets or payroll spending creates that demand for tickets = higher ticket price increases quicker. Don’t buy that it doesn’t.
I’m not saying payroll is the only factor but yes it major factor on balance sheet of the business that needs to be offset by higher ticket office prices at stadium and tv rights deals. For sure
So if winning is what matters – why aren’t the Rays bringing in more fans? They are one of the most winning MLB franchises in the past 5 and 10 years.
Their stadium stinks, and they let their good players go so they don’t have to pay them. If they re-signed their stars instead of trading them for future prospects, fans would feel more connected to the team. It’s hard to feel excited about your team and/or players when you’re longest tenured players are Brandon Lowe (2018) and Yandy Diaz (2019).
According to seatgeek, A’s tickets are as low as $17, Dodgers at $22. A’s payroll $40 million, Dodgers $205 million. $5 extra in ticket prices gets 5x the payroll. Doesn’t add up if the extra cost was do to higher ticket prices.
Most fans know TV contracts are more important but the financials remain the same. MLB teams will charge as high as prices as fans will pay. It’s smart business.
@RyanD44
MLB has had the opportunities to allow owners with deep pockets to own the Marlins. They simply have not allowed them in (Gustavo Cisneros, Jorge Mas)..
It is not for sale, until someone offers a price you cannot refuse.
Take my offer or sleep with the Fishes.
The only thing I see different from the org moving into Sherman’s hand is the removal of that monstrosity beyond the centerfield wall.