Kevin Clements

Hi I found the forum here when I went searching for a fan forum for Everton. I read on our message board http://www.finheaven.com/forums/ that our owner of the Miami Dolphins is thinking of buying your team. I wanted to see what you guys thought about it, so I Googled and found you guys. Now, make me an Everton fan

Thanks Rubecula. I shall try to understand soccer, but I really am more of a rugby fan. We get to see selected matches every week on Fox Soccer Plus, in the Premiership, Pro-12 (used to be Magners) and the Super 15, as well as on BBC America they show us Six nations, usually with England or Scotland playing. We also did get to see selected matches (all of the USA matches) at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand on Universal Sports. I sometimes see some of the UEFA matches on ESPN 2 or Fox Soccer, Fox Soccer Plus or Fox Sports Florida. I used to like Wayne Rooney and don't really know too many soccer players. I do know of Landon Donovan, does he play for Everton ?

You're welcome my brother !

The Colts problems show just how important the play of the quarterback is. Its a league predicated on good to great QB play. With that comes wins. Its a passing league now and not a running attack league. Its changed over the last 20 years significantly. Peyton Manning is out for this season, and the Colts have become a joke known by a lot of fans as the Dolts. However under Ross' mismanagement, the Dolphins season ticket holders have dropped from 61,000 in 2009 to about 45,000 this year, and if he doesn't get the fan base excited with a big name coach and drafting a young franchise QB he can expect more season ticket holders to drop their tickets. Its a tough economy, and people will just find other ways to spend their money. In many NFL cities by this time of the year there is not much else to do because of the cold weather. In Miami that is not a problem and people do have other options, including buying tickets for the Miami Heat (pro basketball) and with the Miami Marlins opening their new baseball ballpark in April, fans money is being fought over.

Ross denied he was pursuing Jim Harbaugh last year until it was proven he was in northern California and he was forced to concede he was indeed talking to Harbaugh.......masters of misinformation.

Hello to you Everton fans. This is being talked about on our message board (http://www.finheaven.com/forums/showthread.php?310851-Interesting-Rumor-Ross-Looking-to-buy-Everton) and I thought I would do a google search for a Everton board and it brought me here . As for Stephen Ross, I would be wary if I were you guys. His ownership in Miami has been mediocre so far at best, and he has shown either stupidity or just plain naïvity. As for the time line discussed earlier in this thread. Yes Ross bought 100 % of the team & stadium in January of 2009, but he had bought 50% of the team in Jan 2008 I believe. His final purchase price for the team & stadium was $ 1.1 billion. The stadium is one of the oldest now in the NFL and was originally built by the late (1st) owner of the Dolphins, Joe Robbie in 1987. He couldn't get the locals to pay for it (Miami-Dade County, City of Miami or Broward County or City of Ft. Lauderdale) and us taxpayers to pay for it, so he built it on his own for $ 100 million. The team was sold to pay death taxes in 1990 to H. Wayne Huizenga (former Blockbuster Video Chairman and present Waste Management chair). Wayne put in about $ 250 million in improvements in 2005 but the stadium needs BIG improvements if we want to host the Super Bowl again (the NFL didn't like that it rained on the patrons in Super Bowl 41 in Jan 2008). They have told us we need to cover the patrons and fix up the stadium to get another one. That will cost about $ 300 million. Stephen Ross didn't want to open his wallet again, and had his CEO Mike Dees put out there that we won't get another SB unless we (the taxpayers) pay for it. F*ck that sh*t is what most of us taxpayers have said. That is a privately owned stadium, that the owner gets to keep all of his concessions earnings (beer money, sodas, hot dogs, etc.) and parking fees (it costs about $ 90 for a ticket, $ 7 for a beer and $ 4 for a hot dog - so a family of four it costs over $ 500 a game to go to). They have gotten a property tax break worth hundreds of millions over the years (Ross and previous owners only pay $ 1 a year on 160 acres of the Lake Lucerne property at the Miami Gardens stadium - it was a concession to get the stadium built and keep the team in South Fla). So Ross wants us to pay for that, instead of putting his money into it. Now as for his motives, yes he does want to win. But he has hurt himself and his team more than anyone could have suspected. It was just downright dumb what he did last year. Going off to court Jim Harbaugh (who took the 49er's job instead of our team) while he still had Tony Sparano as his head coach is a no-no in the world of NFL coaching. It made him look bad to others and many have said they would never work for him. He was forced to come back to Miami with out a new head coach and then he gave Sparano a 2 year extention. Then he fired him not after a 0-7 start to the season, but a few hours after Kansas City had fired their coach. It looked awful and just reactionary - very arbitrary. He had allowed Sparano to give his 11am Monday morning press conference and then fired him 2 hours later. Just very bad form and a lot of coaches will look at that and shake their heads. Then you have our General Manager Jeff Ireland. He's another story altogether, he once asked a prospective draft pick if his mother was a prostitute. I kid you not.....he did. He also used to be best friends with Sparano, but he didn't hesitate to get on that plane with Ross and go out to San Francisco to recruit Harbaugh for the job here in Miami (Harbaugh was a college coach with Stanford University at the time). That was back stabbing at its worse, and Sparano and Ireland's relationship has been strained since then, and it showed on the team, as Ireland and Sparano are supposed to work together, but that was nearly impossible this year and it resulted with a 0-7 start for the team. I know this has been long and I thank you if you have read it all. Bottom line, I would be wary if I were a fan of Everton. Ross could be good, but his history with owning our Dolphins has been shaky at best so far. P.S. - Owning an NFL team by the way is a guaranteed money maker - you have a salary cap of $ 120 million and the TV contracts alone give each team $ 150 million a year. So with TV and radio rights fees, sales of jerseys, and other paraphinalia you are making money hand over fist every year. Not sure how it goes in your sport of soccer.