The Biz of Baseball has a piece about the Marlins recently approved stadium deal and what it might mean for the future of the team.

I almost wrote a post trashing Jeffrey Loria last week when the stadium deal was approved. In terms of how he conducts the operations of his teams (remember, he used to own the Expos) Loria is right up with the worst owners in professional sports. I’m always half-hoping the Marlins will become completely unprofitable so that Loria will leave. But it won’t happen, especially not now.

“It’s a function of revenues, and we were not really able to derive any revenues out of this facility,” Loria said of the team’s current home, Dolphin Stadium. “As we get closer to the (new) stadium, those things will change. We need to be in that facility.”

Sure. Here Loria is explaining why the team’s payroll is projected to be $20 million this year. That’s $10 million less than last year. The team has plans to increase payroll when the new stadium opens in 2011.

Funny enough, Yahoo! spun that idea like this.

Forbes estimated that the Marlins posted $43.3 million in operating income last year. That operating income included earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. How did the Marlins rate in terms of operating income – a measure of profit – compared to their other 29 counterparts? They were first with the Dodgers in second at $25.5 million, a difference of 41 percent.

Can’t all owners just view their teams purely as extensions of their immense egos and set the business aside? I guess not, but it sure hurts the game when owners start running their team as a business.

Cut your margins enough (low player payroll) and regardless of whether you have embarrassingly low attendance by rolling out a team of made up with what can best be described as replacement level players, take in a healthy level of revenue-sharing, and what you have is a prime example of Jeffrey Loria and David Sampson living on corporate welfare.

Yeah, well put.

Fun Fact: Loria made his dough as an art dealer. Maybe that’s common knowledge. I didn’t know.

(Via Baseball Think Factory)