The Marlins have finally decided to address the issues raised by the media when their financials were released last week- and they chose to speak directly to their fans.  Here is that message taken from Joe Frisaro’s piece:

A Message To Our Fans:

While it is impossible to respond individually to all the misleading information and rumors contained in media reports related to your Marlins, the recent reports about the team’s financial statements are so misleading that the record needs to be set straight.

Financial statements of the team were recently released and have been widely misunderstood and inappropriately analyzed. We would much rather have you debate the merits of our team on the field, root for wins, bemoan losses and analyze on-field strategies.

That said, attempting to draw conclusions of a baseball team’s financial health is very hard to do by only taking a cursory look at a two-year snapshot. Worse, a small sample size gives one little perspective on circumstances surrounding other and prior years of operation. Therefore, examining such a small sample can be very misleading.

The messages that we delivered for years are all confirmed in these statements. The team had net income of roughly $33 million for the two years 2008-2009. This number does not include many cash expenses incurred by the team, so it is not the amount of cash held in a bank account at the end of this two-year period. The statements clearly show that of the $31 million of cash generated by the operation of the team, $24 million was spent on the new ballpark and the rest was used to reduce our team’s debt.

Some of the team’s debt is held by banks, some by Major League Baseball and some by the owner. Reducing the debt was and remains critical so that we can fulfill our contribution to the new ballpark, which is currently being built on time and on budget in Miami. To prepare and to be in position to pay a substantial portion of construction costs, the team had to execute a plan many years in advance. That plan was to stop incurring debt, actually reduce debt, and manage the team so that the banks, Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami would agree to do business with us.

The reduction of debt was a critical component of the team’s operation, because losses from previous years had led to excessive debt balances. This large amount of debt would have made it impossible to contribute to the ballpark’s construction and would have put baseball in Miami in jeopardy.

The promises made during the ballpark negotiations have all been met, and in fact, surpassed. There are currently 800 people working on the ballpark’s construction, over 60 percent from Miami-Dade, with over 33 percent of those workers residing in the City of Miami. Both of these figures exceed the goals set by the county and city. We could go on, but the reality is that construction is proceeding very well as everyone can see by either going to our webcam online or in person.

In April 2012, there will be a first pitch thrown in an air-conditioned, retractable-roof state-of-the-art ballpark. Our partners are Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami, and most importantly, you, our fans. We will continue to do our best to ensure that the only thing you are worried about related to baseball is our yearly win total and our efforts to add to the two World Series championships that this young franchise and great city have to its credit.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Your Florida Marlins

Its a good, up front way to approach the conversation.  They could certainly release some more financial numbers to back up their case- but MLB would definitely frown on that.  Good for the Marlins for figuring out that if you speak directly to us, we will understand.