The Marlins, as you may have heard, have a new presenting sponsor. The team’s stadium naming rights deal with loanDepot was met with widespread mockery upon its announcement earlier this week, though David Samson, who served as Marlins president for over a decade before his firing in 2017, perceived it as a victory for a franchise that has struggled financially for much of its existence. “It’s a match made in Heaven with [Derek] Jeter and loanDepot,” said Samson during his appearance Thursday on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “It’s extra money, extra revenue and it’s a really good job that they got it done.”
LoanDepot Park may not roll off the tongue, but for a team as cash-strapped as the chronically underfunded Marlins, any amount of sponsorship dollars, regardless of its origin, would have to be considered a net positive. Moral ambiguity comes with the territory in the cutthroat world of Major League Baseball, a sport that’s been bled dry in recent years by dwindling television ratings, an aging fan base and a decidedly-lackluster viewing experience for fans with the trend toward launch angle and infield shifts polluting the game’s on-field product.
Le Batard joked he was half-surprised the Marlins didn’t sell their naming rights to an internet porn site. While it never came to that during his time as team president, Samson said he wouldn’t have been opposed if the money was right. “They said you can name it whatever you want, you keep all the money. But it can’t be pornography and it can’t be tobacco,” said Samson, detailing an agreement the Marlins had with Miami-Dade County. “I fought that, because I wanted everything open to me.”
Not exactly family friendly, but it would have paid the bills. Though it never materialized, Samson remembers seeking out a local strip club to sponsor the team’s foul poles, seeing it as a win-win for both parties. “I wanted a local strip club to be a sponsor of the foul poles because I thought that was a good match and I thought we could get more than what we had budgeted because they wanted to have mainstream advertising.” Predictably, Samson’s boss, owner Jeffrey Loria, was none too pleased with that proposal.
“I got screamed at by Jeffrey for being the most inappropriate team president. I said, ‘Jeffrey, I’m trying to help you with money!’” said Samson, very much a believer in the adage “beggars can’t be choosers.” “He lost his mind. I thought it was perfect and I would have done that in one second.”
Samson’s willingness to get in bed (no pun intended) with porn outlets, strip clubs and other NSFW business endeavors may explain why he’s no longer employed in MLB, though the former Marlins exec presents an eye-opening window into the fascinating landscape of corporate sponsorships, a morally-bankrupt sector fueled by profit and desperation.
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