Forbes came up with rating of its 10 Sports Franchises most likely to move and naturally, the Florida Marlins are one of them.
What do the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, New York Islanders and basketball's New Orleans Hornets all have in common? Dreary stadiums they don't own and stalling businesses eager to rake in more cash. In other words, they're all ripe for a move. And that means city or state governments around the country can expect them to come calling for help financing a new venue. It is extremely hard to move a MLB franchise. First, the commissioners office has to approve it and then it needs the approval of the majority of owners of the other baseball teams. This doesn't happen very often. Major League Baseball, a world of local TV deals and 81 annual games that make market size much more important, has had just one franchise move since 1970--that being the excursion of the struggling Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C., three years ago. If any club is going to break that spell, expect it to come from Florida, a seemingly natural baseball market that hasn't lived up to expectations. Both the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays have been at or near the bottom of the league in attendance for a decade, thanks in part to the dreary stadiums they call home. Sports marketing experts call the Marlins' Dolphin Stadium and the Rays' Tropicana Field "major impediments" to success. Given the economic climate it is possible that Miami-Dade or the City of Miami could kill the deal on the stadium. They have that option, but it would cost them given the fact they would've to reimburse to other parties for all expenses on the stadium up until the point they called it quits. It would be very surprising if that were to happen. And even if the Marlins ended up homeless, exactly where would they go? It is not like any part of the country is doing well, economically, at the moment. Take heart, there is a history of building stadiums during economic downturns. Back during the era of the WPA and the CCC new baseball stadiums were built. For example: the monstrosity known as Cleveland Municipal Stadium was one of the projects. The stadium, when finished, was built with...I don't know...about a gazillion bricks. Not to mention the fact it was much too large to be a decent baseball stadium. (Though as it turned out, it wasn't a half bad football stadium.) I guess what I am saying is that in economic downturns and even ones that last for quite sometime, stadiums have been built in the past and they probably will be again in the situation we may find ourselves in. It is duty of the government to spend money on infrastructure projects if things are looking bad economically. And believe it or not, baseball stadiums qualify in that category. So I doubt the Marlins are going anywhere. Oh, by the way, Forbes celebrated all the so called "wealth" created by the leveraging of derivatives when it was happening -- so what do they know.