We all know that Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is rich man. And that is why some of us are having a hard time swallowing this idea to pour at least $350 million and possibly up to $400 million in public funds into his private stadium.
No matter how much the community benefits from the proposed roof and other upgrades at Sun Life Stadium, Ladra and quite a few others believe that Ross — who lives in a $30-million Palm Beach house a few doors from the country club — benefits quite a bit as well.
After all, he didn’t buy the Miami Dolphins, paying $1.1 billion for the NFL team, for nothin’.
One of those others is attorney Steve Cody, who has become quite the author with top 20 political thriller on Amazon and children’s books. Now, Cody has turned his creative eye toward video production and posted a pretty straight-forward one-minute, 18-second clip that puts the billionaire’s purse in perspective.
“Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is a wealthy guy. Really wealthy,” the summary to Cody’s piece, titled “4 Billion Dollar Man,” reads. “But he wants Miami-Dade County voters to approve a tax hike to help cover $350 million of the cost of putting a fabric roof on Sun Life Stadium. Let’s put his wealth in perspective as we decide whether to approve the tax or not.”
Just how rich is Ross? If you take his $4.4 billion worth — as reported by Forbes magazine, which says he is one of the 100 richest men in the U.S. — and laid dollar along side dollar, it would wrap around the Earth 17 times, Cody’s video explains. Or stretch to the moon and almost back.
“I was just sitting in my office and I read the Herald article and then I saw the press conference with H.T. Smith and Jorge Arizurieta,” Cody said, referring to the announcement last week of the Miami First Coalition campaign.
“And it ocurred to me, the one question nobody is asking: ‘Does he need the money? Not does he want it? Does he need it?'”
Like Ladra, Cody’s video — complete with the clownish ballpark accordion music — suggests he does not.
It had 27 views when I saw it Monday afternoon, just after he posted it. Let’s help it go viral.
Quick, someone call Norman Braman. Maybe he can buy some TV air time for it.