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Article snippet: MIAMI — Few things make Carlos A. Gimenez more irritated than Marlins Park. A decade ago, Mr. Gimenez, then a county commissioner, was one of the few local politicians to oppose spending hundreds of millions of public dollars to help the Miami Marlins pay for a new stadium they said they could not afford to build on their own. Mr. Gimenez, who is now the mayor of Miami-Dade County, was outvoted. In the midst of a recession, the city and the county agreed to pay for about three-fourths of the $650 million retractable-dome stadium, even though the team would keep nearly all the revenue from the building. The city and the county will end up paying about $2 billion over the life of the bonds on the stadium, making it one of the more lopsided deals in professional sports. And now, the team’s owner, Jeffrey Loria, wants to sell the Marlins for an estimated $1.2 billion, nearly eight times what he paid for the team. Fans may indeed want a new owner to revive a club that has not made the postseason since 2003. But Mr. Gimenez can only think about how Mr. Loria may end up making hundreds of millions of dollars, in part, he says, because the publicly funded stadium, which opened in 2012, has substantially enhanced the value of the team. “I would think he’ll walk away with $500 million in his pocket,” Mr. Gimenez said. “It sticks in my craw.” The bidding for the Marlins has turned into a major distraction for Major League Baseball, which will host the All-Star Game in Miami... Link to the full article to read more