New Dolphins owner Stephen Ross appeared in an ad for First Republic Bank in a recent edition of The New York Times Magazine. The chairman of The Related Cos., is not an endorser, just a customer who appreciates the bank’s services, the bank says.

But the ad and word from St. Louis that the owners of the Rams have even been contemplating the idea of a sale reminded me to re-visit the issue of estate taxes.

H. Wayne Huizenga agreed to sell half the Dolphins, Dolphin Stadium and the developable land around it to Ross in February (the purchase received approval of NFL owners in March) for $550 million. Huizenga is 70 and made the decision in part for estate tax purposes. He knows his children don’t want to be controlling owners of the franchise.

I wondered why Ross at 68 would now be embarking on team ownership.

It’s a choice, of course. And a matter of financial circumstances. Ross has said that even when he looked at buying the Dolphins when Huizenga first invested in the team in 1990, “I wasn’t as financially prepared as I am today.”

Forbes puts Ross’ net worth at $4.5 billion.

“I think Wayne’s been here for 18, 19 years. I think he has a different perspective,” Ross said at the owners meeting. “I think at this stage, as they say, today’s 60s is yesterday’s 40s. I look at the fact I have a lot of energy and I look to be involved for quite a bit of time. So I think it’s just a question it’s something new for me, where Wayne has been doing this for a time. I think that’s probably the main difference.”

Ross is a fitness fanatic, who jogs and plays tennis regularly.

According to Mary Sue Donohue, a partner at Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs in Boca Raton, who specializes in wills and estates, says both men get a break by owning less than a majority of the team, even though Huizenga will maintain controlling rights for now.

And Huizenga gets a significant break on his estate taxes and more liquidity.

“He has an extra $550 million he can do something with,” Donohue said. “It’s not part of his estate. That’s cash. He could give that away to charities, that sort of thing.”

In addition, she said the less Huizenga owns of the team, the bigger his tax discount. The Robbies were forced to sell at least part of the Dolphins to pay off the late Joe Robbie’s estate taxs.

“I think Wayne Huizenga learned something significant from Joe Robbie’s experience,” Donohue said.

Ross, meanwhile, has the option of taking the value of his interest and sharing ownership of the stadium and land around it with other business entities, Donohue said.

“I don’t know if he will, [but] he could have those different pieces owned by different entities,” she said. “He could use those as techniques for handing off other pieces to other family members.”

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While the standoff between Jason Taylor and the Dolphins continues, the Office Depot Foundation is dancing to a different tune. The charitable arm of the Delray Beach office products retailer has agreed to give the Jason Taylor Foundation a $15,000 contribution for his second place finish on this season’s Dancing with the Stars.

The Office Depot Foundation, which teamed up with J.T.’s foundation in July, planned to donate $1,000 for each round Taylor advanced in the enormously popular 10-week dance competition. The foundation upped its contribution in honor of Taylor's second place finish.

The contribution will be used to support the Jason Taylor Reading Room in Miramar, which provides after school programs for inner-city middle and high school students. Last year, the Office Depot Foundation contributed $25,000 and computers, backpacks and school supplies. The foundation then donated another $11,000 -- $1,000 for each of the 11 sacks the Dolphins defensive end recorded last season.

“The entire Office Depot family congratulates Jason and his dance partner, Edyta Sliwinska, on their fantastic accomplishments,” Office Depot Foundation President Mary Wong (pictured with Taylor and Sliwinska) said in a statement. “We have been entertained by their dancing and inspired by their dedication in pursuit of their goals. With this contribution, we are delighted to assist the students at the Jason Taylor Reading Room with following their own dreams.”

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The Dolphins may still be dancing around the issue of whether they can trade Jason Taylor for another first round pick in this weekend’s NFL draft, but Taylor’s dancing is netting bucks for his foundation.

In July, the Office Depot Foundation agreed to team up with Jason Taylor’s foundation to provide college scholarships for disadvantaged children, funding for a Miramar reading center named for the Dolphins defensive end, and $1,000 for every sack Taylor recorded last season, up to $15,000.

Now that Taylor is competing on Dancing With The Stars, the Office Depot Foundation has committed $1,000 for each round Taylor advances. So far $6,000 has been donated to Taylor’s foundation. Updates on Taylor’s performance on the show can be found at officedepotfoundation.org.

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Jake Long may have a reported $57.75 million five-year contract with $30 million guaranteed with the Dolphins, but Chris Long has a deal with Subway.

University of Virginia defensive end Chris Long, who had been mentioned as a potential No. 1 pick for the Dolphins, is being paired with Subway spokesman Jared Fogle and Fox NFL reporter Jay Glazer for a series of Webisodes related to the NFL Draft. Watch interviews with Long and a series of workouts with Long and Fogle at subwayfreshbuzz.com.

Long is also expected to make appearances for the restaurant. His partnership with Subway follows deals between the restaurant chain and other NFL first-round picks, New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush and Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn, who the Dolphins passed on picking in the first round last year.

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OK…of course, there was the outcome, but for me the blues have to do with missing the game altogether. I know – I get paid to attend, but there’s just something about Opening Day, even if the home team loses. I haven’t missed an opener in eight years.

Instead, I was at the NFL owners meeting in Palm Beach, where the owners unanimously approved the sale of 50 percent of the Dolphins to real estate mogul and part-time Palm Beach resident Stephen M. Ross. It’s no surprise Ross, chairman of the Related Cos., was approved, except perhaps the dispatch with which owners made the decision on Monday morning.

Ross, who’s tried to purchase a team in the past, said he's been in discussions with Huizenga for several years about investing in the team. Ross is interested in team ownership for the challenge.

"This is a great opportunity to get in because there's nowhere to go but up," Ross said of the franchise, which finished the 2007 season 1-15, prompting a shakeup to the front office and coaching staff. "And what better place to own a team than South Florida."

Meanwhile, did you attend Opening Day? How was it? What did you think of the new entertainment…the Marlins Minnows, the new youth dance team, and the Marlins Manatees, the heavy men’s dance troupe that’s been getting more media attention than the team?

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Do you really need a New Orleans Saints pizza cutter that plays When the Saints Go Marching In? How about that Indianapolis Colts figurine soap dispenser? A super ball that plays the Monday Night Football theme song when bounced?

Or Footjoy’s new line of golf shoes – with or without spikes – in NFL team colors with logos that you can even print your name on? That’ll cost you $155 to $200 a pair, starting in April.

NFL licensees certainly hope so. The NFL Hardlines VI Trade Show – featuring 86 NFL licensees showing off hundreds of non-apparel items at Dolphin Stadium Tuesday – was a football fan’s smorgasbord of items you never knew you needed. But it was just for the industry, so the league and its 32 teams can pick out items to sell at stadiums, outfit suites and give as season ticket renewal gifts this year.

Talk about creative: Dolphins recliners complete with cup holders; Dolphins pool tables, bar stools and Tiffany lamps. A computer mouse. A collapsible table with four chairs attached that pops open easily for your tailgate. Candles and air fresheners. Sippy cups with little team mascots on top.

And even Forest Faces with team caps. That’s right – those resin faces that you nail into a tree will begin coming out with NFL team caps come May 1 for $19.95. “You animate the tree,” says Mike Sockel, senior vice president of Team Sports America, which makes the NFL Forest Face.

The show started six years ago in Green Bay as a way to showcase innovative products. Previously the NFL had been attending sports industry-wide shows that either disbanded or were held during football season when many officials couldn’t attend, said Leo Kane, league vice president of consumer products.

“We decided we wanted to control the message as well,” Kane said. “We talk about the NFL and our 32 clubs, as opposed to other sports. As important to us is that we see the new product and it’s important that all our licensing partners know where we’re going with Super Bowl logos and season-long themes.”

Of particular interest this year, Kane said, are women’s and children’s products. But there’s something for everyone, he said.

“Hopefully there’s something new in every booth,” he said. “New product innovation is really the lifeblood. We want all of our licensees, new and existing, to reinvent themselves every year, because that’s what the fans have come to expect from us. If you build it they will come.”

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It’s a long shot for sure, but Stan D’Alo, a Dolphins season ticket holder from Coral Springs, is trying to gauge fan interest in purchasing stock in the team.

He’s launched buythefins.com, a Web site where fans can indicate their interest in purchasing a piece of the Dolphins. He’s estimating 10 million shares at $120 to $130 apiece. No one would be allowed to own more than 2 percent of the total shares.

“We’re going to ask people 'if stock was offered in the team would you buy it?',” D’Alo said. “Basically I want to organize people and see how much interest there is.”

D’Alo was inspired to launch the site after word leaked last month that Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga was in talks to potentially sell the team for at least $1 billion. D’Alo figured it’d be worth trying to make the team a community asset, like the Green Bay Packers.

The Packers, who face the New York Giants in Sunday's NFC Championship game, have been publicly owned since 1923. According to the team's Web site, 112,015 stockholders own more than 4.75 million shares, but the stock doesn’t appreciate and shareholders don’t receive dividends. No one is allowed to own more than 200,000 shares. The company is overseen by a board of directors and an executive committee.

The team is so popular that stock sales have helped the Packers out of financial trouble on four occasions, including as recently as 1997, when fans spent $200 a share to raise $24 million for Lambeau Field renovations.

So far, D’Alo says he has about 20 people on the stock-request waiting list. That’s after he held up a sign at the Dolphins final home game last month. He’s encouraging others to talk up the idea and print out fliers to post at their offices.

“The league doesn’t want to have this kind of ownership,” said D’Alo, a season ticket holder for nine years. “[But] If they want the kind of money they will ask for franchises in the future they aren’t going find a lot of people who are going to be able to lay out that kind of money. It’s going to take corporations to buy teams in the future.”

Corporate ownership is prohibited in the NFL.

“I believe that if people want something they should gather and communicate with others who have the same interest and figure out a way to pay for it with private dollars. That is what my Web site is about,” D’Alo said.

“I leave this up to public debate and let the people decide if they would like to take part in communicating with our organization to make this happen.”

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OK, so not everything’s up for sale. The city of Miami, which owns the 70-year-old Orange Bowl, is keeping the turf, which it plans to put in a park. It’s also hanging onto one set of goalposts, the murals, the giant Miami Orange Bowl letters on the outside of the stadium and the Welcome to the Orange Bowl sign inside the venue.

Gary Fabrikant, the assistant director of Miami's Department of Capital Improvements, says the city is also keeping the scoreboard.

But virtually everything else is up for grabs: seats, light fixtures, trees, urinals, two sets of goalposts, turnstiles, ticket booths, the tunnel Hurricanes players ran through to get to the field. You can order a specific seat on a first-come, first-served basis until Jan. 20, but those will cost you extra. There are a limited number of chairs with backs, including those two rows of white ones that sat closest to the field on the sidelines, the ones that bear an LA Dodgers logo. The thought is that those seats, referred to as the “Dodgers seats,” were installed in the early 1960s when Dodger Stadium was being built.

Sunrise-based Mounted Memories, a division of Dreams Inc. of Plantation, was awarded the salvage contract by the city last month in part because of its track record for producing uniquely packaged products. Orange seats will bear autographs and can be framed or installed in a display case; panoramic photos are paired with a piece of concrete.

Seats uncovered in the west endzone that were installed in 1966 and bear an orange and a seat number are being included in a shadow box frame with a copy of a black and white photo that shows those seats being installed for a price of $199. A set of four of those seats is being fashioned into small benches for $495 each. The company is also going to receive a piece or two of the lattice work from the outside of the stadium that it plans to package with other souvenirs.

On Jan. 26, Mounted Memories is hosting a Farewell to the Orange Bowl from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a flag football game between Dolphins and Hurricanes greats, a small auction and an opportunity to get autographs. Tickets are $20 at Field of Dreams stores and at tickemaster.com. An auction will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 9 at the Orange Bowl for the larger, one-of-a-kind items: the urinals, goalposts, trees, light fixtures. For more information, visit: orangebowlstadium.com

Ross Tannenbaum, president and CEO of Dreams Inc., and Fabrikant said they hope to raise about $1 million for the city to help pay for the stadium's demolition. Fabrikant said the stadium will be turned over Jan. 28 to DEMCO, a New York firm, that will spend the next five months pulling down the stadium for a cost of $1.9 million.

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Following a trend in the sports industry, the Heat will test a limited number of “all-you-can-eat” seats at three games this month.

The seats, which cost $45 piece, are on the 400 level at AmericanAirlines Arena and come with a chance to pick up four items from a very narrow list of options – regular hot dog, regular nachos and cheese, small popcorn, peanuts, small soft drink and bottled water - on an unlimited number of trips to the concession stand. Fans are required to buy at least two tickets to qualify for the promotion.

Fans with season tickets in the designated area can get the food for an extra $10 per seat per game. The games are Dec. 13 versus the Washington Wizards, Dec. 17 versus the Minnesota Timberwolves and Dec. 20 against the New Jersey Nets.

The Heat is trying out the promotion earlier than anticipated. Team officials told me earlier this fall they were developing a food included ticket option for the 2008-09 season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers helped spawn the growth of tickets with food when they designated 3,000 bleacher seats as the All-You-Can-Eat Right Field Pavilion last season. The food included Dodger dogs, peanuts, popcorn and soft drinks and ran $20 for group tickets to $40. They sold 70 percent of capacity for the season and a half dozen other MLB teams have since added all-you-can-eat sections.

Meanwhile, the Panthers and Dolphins have created higher-end seating options that come with upscale food. The ADT Club at BankAtlantic Center offers fans who spend $7,500 to $9,000 a year, depending on the length of the contract, to get a seat and fancy food for every hockey game and every concert in the building for a minimum of 75 events. The idea is to create the exclusiviity of a suite, but at a more affordable price. A hockey-only option on the 400 level with sports bar style food averages $2,000 a season.

The Dolphins offer a couple of higher-end options with food, including 10-person suites in the east endzone of Dolphin Stadium that include food in a common area shared by three others suites, and run $80,000 a season.

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