Jeffrey Loria

Jeffrey Harold Loria (born November 20, 1940) is an American entrepreneur, author, and the former owner of the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) and Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball.

Loria was born and raised in a Jewish family in Manhattan, the son of Ruth (Ost) and Walter J. Loria, a lawyer.

Loria took an early interest in baseball, attending his first New York Yankees game in the late 1940s.

Loria attended New York City's Stuyvesant High School and Yale University, where he initially took pre-med courses.

With a requirement to take a history class, Loria chose art history.

After college, he worked in a newly established art-buying program for Sears, launched with the help of actor Vincent Price.

In 1965, at the age of 24, he opened his business, Jeffrey H. Loria & Co., on Manhattan's Upper East Side and wrote a book, Collecting Original Art.

He specializes in 20th-century masters, and his collection includes works by Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore.

Loria graduated from Columbia Business School in 1968 and published his second book, What's It All About Charlie Brown?.

Co-written with Pat K. Lynch, it is a look at life through The Peanuts comic strip.

In 1989, Loria purchased the Oklahoma City 89ers, then a Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

He'd initially considered buying the team in 1991 from founding owner Charles Bronfman, but Bronfman balked at Loria's demand for a controlling interest and the team was subsequently sold to then-team president Claude Brochu instead.

Loria headed an ownership group that included the city of Montreal, several Montreal businesses, and Stephen Bronfman, Charles' son.

When a series of cash calls over the next two years went unanswered, Loria ended up with 93 percent of the team at a valuation of US$50 million.

One of Loria's first acts was to reiterate demands for a new park for the Expos to replace Olympic Stadium, of which he bluntly said, "We cannot stay here."

The team won the American Association championship in 1992.

Loria sold the team in 1993 and began looking to buy a Major League team.

He lost out to Peter Angelos in his bid to purchase the Baltimore Orioles in 1994.

On December 9, 1999, he bought a 24 percent stake in the Montreal Expos for $18 million CAD (approximately $12 million USD) and became the managing general partner.

He lost a considerable amount of goodwill with Expos fans when the team was not able to reach an agreement for television and English-speaking radio coverage during the 2000 season, as the Expos tried to increase their revenue from broadcast rights.

He also sought more public funding for a planned downtown ballpark, Labatt Park.

However, the provincial and municipal governments balked at committing more money to the project.

Premier Lucien Bouchard said that he could not support using public funds to build ballparks when the province was being forced to shut down hospitals.

In 2002, as part of an orchestrated move with Bud Selig and then-Marlins owner John W. Henry, Loria sold the Expos to a partnership of the other 29 major league clubs for $120million.

In effect, the Expos were sold to the commissioner's office (being owned by the league).

Henry then sold the Marlins to Loria for $158.5million, including a $38.5million no-interest loan from MLB.

The deal was approved by the other owners before Loria and Henry signed the contract, and paved the way for Henry to buy the Boston Red Sox.

Loria moved the Expos' entire front office staff, on-field staff, office equipment and computer equipment to Florida.

MLB's plans to contract the Expos and Minnesota Twins failed, as the Twins were compelled to fulfill the terms of their lease at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

Loria's partners in the Expos ownership consortium filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit against Loria and Major League Baseball, eventually going to arbitration, with the arbitration panel finding in favor of Loria.

The Expos were ultimately transferred to Washington, D.C., as the Nationals.

While the move was welcomed by baseball fans in Washington, it has led to many bitter feelings among Montreal – as well as Canadian – baseball fans.

Many speculate that Loria never intended to keep the team in Montreal.

The feelings among some Canadian baseball fans are so strong that when Loria chose Remembrance Day to announce his team's new name and stadium, Richard Griffin, a well-known Canadian baseball columnist wrote:

Shortly after selling the Expos, Loria officially became owner of the Marlins on February 12, 2002.

Loria won his first World Series as an owner in his second full season in Florida, as the Marlins beat the Yankees four games to two in the World Series.

Additionally, Bouchard did not like that Olympic Stadium still had not been paid for 25 years after being built, and ultimately wouldn't be paid for until 2006.

As of May 12, 2009, the Marlins were 569–564 under Loria.

On November 11, 2011, the Florida Marlins officially rebranded themselves the Miami Marlins with a new logo, uniform, and color scheme.

In 2013, Forbes evaluated the current value for the Miami Marlins at around $520 million.