Billionaire owners of Miami Marlins claims the team is actually based in Virgin Islands in tax scam

The Miami Marlins have been one of the most loathed franchises in American professional sports for a long time.

The team soaked taxpayers for a $2 billion ballpark—the team is only worth $1.2 billion—and stripped the roster down to minor league quality. Fans have responded with aggressive indifference. They just set a record with an announced attendance of 7,003, the smallest for any major league team in a decade.

And now the owners are trying to save on taxes by claiming to be based in the Virgin Islands, according to documents obtained by the Miami Herald.

Miami-Dade County is suing the team to get the money former owner Jeffrey Loria owes after making a half-billion-dollar profit by selling the team to a group led by former Yankees star Derek Jeter.

Jeter's team's counter-argument: The baseball team has a legal owner that is legally based in the British Virgin Islands, not Florida, and so a federal judge should hear the case instead of a local one.