Remember when the Miami Marlins sued Jonathan Vilma because he moved his barbecue restaurant out of the stadium after the Marlins screwed up his food and failed to deliver on their promise of a packed house and booming business? Well, now the Marlins are suing even more people who had the audacity to ask the team to deliver what was paid for.
The Miami New Times has a big story about nine season ticket holders and luxury suite owners the team has sued since 2013. These are people who backed out of their season ticket contracts with the team, largely because the amenities that were supposed to be included in their ticket packages were done away with. The story focuses on one such fan, 59-year-old Mickey Axelband, who paid $24,000 for a two-seat package that was supposed to come with first-floor parking, access to a private lounge with a pre- and postgame buffet, and a private entrance. Those perks didn’t last long:
But Marlins Park wasn’t the success the team had hoped for. By midseason, crowds had dwindled to near Dolphin Stadium levels, and the team began slashing expenses. Those nearby parking spaces? Gone. The private entrance? Closed to save money on the extra usher manning the door. The buffet was stocked with the same bland panini for every game. Soon the team shut it down in the sixth inning.
These all might seem like small details, but “that’s exactly what we paid all the extra money for,” he says. Worst of all, Axelband says when he wrote the team to complain, the Fish weren’t sympathetic. “I didn’t want my money back or anything, but I said, ‘Please give me back the stuff you promised.’ The answer I got back was basically, ‘Yeah, we know we took it all away, but tough shit.’”
Axelband wrote the team a letter informing them that he wouldn’t be paying for the second season of his package, and that they could have the tickets back. A year later, the Marlins sued him.
Now is a good time to remember that the Marlins lied to the public about their financial situation so that they could steal $500 million from Dade County to build a gross and bad baseball stadium that nobody wants to go to, and that the team is owned by a disgusting rich man who singlehandedly put his city $2.4 billion in debt. Fuck everything about the Marlins.