Is Miami a major league city?

FairWarning · Sep 7, 2006

Watching the Marlins-DBacks game last night (yes I had money on it), and there were 6000 people at it. If the Dolphins were playing, the place would be full. Why does MLB let this city have a team? Miami teams (except the Dolphins) are poor-drawing unless they win. Hect the Heat put white shirts on the seats in the Bulls series because they were worried about how the empty seats looked on tv.

So Miami fans - explain why you are a major-league city.

earl · Sep 7, 2006

a rare no hitter ,,,,,,, too bad it was not seen by many people.

Boxslayer · Sep 7, 2006

FairWarning said:
Hect the Heat put white shirts on the seats in the Bulls series because they were worried about how the empty seats looked on tv.

This is just a flat-out lie that you made up to support your post.

WVU · Sep 7, 2006

Boxslayer32 said:
This is just a flat-out lie that you made up to support your post.

no it's true. I was there. There were not that many empty seats though. It was part of the Heat's "White Hot" campaign.

viking611 · Sep 7, 2006

WVU said:
no it's true. I was there. There were not that many empty seats though. It was part of the Heat's "White Hot" campaign.

almost alll new NBA arenas have different colored seats instead of having them all the same color so they appear to have someone sitting in them when the camera is panning by quickly. Usually deep reds, purples, etc.

Brock Landers · Sep 7, 2006

the Dolphins don't draw all that great either...not hard ot get tickets when i was down there, and i saw they don't have a consecutive sell out streak of any kind going.

WVU · Sep 7, 2006

these were not different colored seats. They installed cloth on top of the seat backs and cushions

ClipJoint · Sep 7, 2006

Miami is anything but worthy of their teams. I can't believe they keep either of those MLB teams down there. It is ridiculous.

I know Spreadbeater is a die hard fan...but there are very few of them in Miami. Their home attendance has always been a joke.

WVU · Sep 7, 2006

but we do have 2 titles and 4 no hitters.

I guess you don't need fans to win championships

simpleton · Sep 7, 2006

Hispanic people are supposed to love baseball and bringing a team to South Florida sounded like a good idea on paper, but they simply will not support the team. Let's face it....for the most part it's white people that support Major League baseball teams, and they are in short supply here in South Florida. Miami-Dade has always been hugely Hispanic, and Broward was 75% caucasian 15 years ago, yet now amazingly is less than 50%.

They will sell out if they make the playoffs, just as they did in 2003 when they came from nowhere and won the Series. But it is truly pathetic to see the daily attendance numbers, especially since this team is on an historic run. So the answer is "No", this town doesn't deserve a baseball team. Football support is lukewarm at best.

Boxslayer · Sep 7, 2006

WVU said:
no it's true. I was there. There were not that many empty seats though. It was part of the Heat's "White Hot" campaign.

But he's saying they put white shirts on the seats to make it look like people were sitting in them. Exactly as you put, it was part of the Heats White Hot Playoff Run. It was a marketing thing and to create a home court advantage intimidation kind of thing.

WVU · Sep 7, 2006

Boxslayer32 said:
But he's saying they put white shirts on the seats to make it look like people were sitting in them. Exactly as you put, it was part of the Heats White Hot Playoff Run. It was a marketing thing and to create a home court advantage intimidation kind of thing.

they kinda were shirtlike cloths put on the seats and they did make the arena look full when it wasn't. He is at least partially right.

Boxslayer · Sep 7, 2006

Miami is a football city. They love, love, love the Dolphins.

Why? Tradition. Super Bowls. The Perfect Season. People, when they are young, learn to be fans of certain teams. And the Dolphins were winning in the 70's and 80's, people grew up and love them. My family has been a Dolphin season ticket holder for 15 years.

Then everything was expansion. With expansion comes no tradition. You need to breed the young fans by winning so as they grow older, they remember those days of winning and hope for them again. The Heat never won anything so no young fans grew up to be a fan of them. People are obviously coming around now, but it is the young generation, the impressionable kids, that will grow up and be Heat die hards now. The Marlins won something, but then had a firesale and killed any momentum they had going.

But besides that, the stadium is absolutely garbage for baseball. I mean it is a football stadium, plain and simple. When you go to the ballpark, you want to have a baseball experience, and that stadium doesnt offer it.

The weather is a big issue. especially when you consider where the stadium is located. It's located in the middle of nowhere. This is fine for football, because its once a week and not in the rainy months. But when you need to travel 40 mins to get to the game from all directions, and there is a huge chance of rain, and the stadium sucks for baseball anyway, and the team sells you out and firesales off the team everytime, and you dont have young diehard fans that have grown up with the Marlins, it is tough to draw fans.

Miami is a place with A LOT of things to do. And in order to make the ballpark a good experience, it needs to be surrounded with bars, restaurants, nightlife, something so that people can make a day out of it. Right now, you go to the yard and it is surrounded by a huge parking lot and houses. In Boston, you have restaurants, bars, whatever right around the stadium. You have a mode of public transportation. Its located in the city.

Overall, if the Marlins build a stadium closer to downtown, so it has some nightlife or restaurants around it, and they put a retractable roof on the stadium so if it rains, people dont waste their time, and they commit to winning and stop with the firesales, people will begin to like to this, especially the younger generation and be fans of them.

Boxslayer · Sep 7, 2006

Speaking of which Wayne Huizenga is starting to build the Dolphin Experience, or whatever he is calling it.

He has plans to host a lot of the Super Bowls with this huge bars, nightlife, restaurants all around the stadium in a campus type atmosphere, that would be able to be the ultimate experience for Super Bowls, etc.

He is on the right track.

The Dolphins also installed HDTV Jumbo Trons that are supposed to be awesome.

CY18 · Sep 7, 2006

Well said Box. There is a party on every street and so many other things to do for your entertainment buck in this city. People will go to college and pro football games probably before baseball. During the weekends you get a good crowd, but during the week you aren't going to.

I watch them on TV, but I am not going to go more then a few times a year to see them. There is just too many other things to do.

This is a big party and entertainment town over sports.

Chris

vermonthorseplayer · Sep 7, 2006

I personally would not sit in 90+ degree/100% humidity to watch a baseball game.

CY18 · Sep 7, 2006

This city is not like every other American city that's for sure.

Chris

HinesWard86 · Sep 7, 2006

whoa, what? If I remember right, Miami is the only city in the past 20 years not to sell out a home NFL PLAYOFF game. The game where Lamar Smith rushed for 200 yards on the Colts wasn't a sell-out. How can you be called a football town if you can't sell-out a playoff game?

Most southern cities suck....Atlanta, Miami, Jacksonville, New Orleans (before the hurricane), the Oilers left Houston......its something about the South

Boxslayer · Sep 7, 2006

HinesWard86 said:
whoa, what? If I remember right, Miami is the only city in the past 20 years not to sell out a home NFL PLAYOFF game. The game where Lamar Smith rushed for 200 yards on the Colts wasn't a sell-out. How can you be called a football town if you can't sell-out a playoff game?

Most southern cities suck....Atlanta, Miami, Jacksonville, New Orleans (before the hurricane), the Oilers left Houston......its something about the South

so one year, one game wasnt a sellout and the whole city sucks for football? am i following this logic correctly?

HinesWard86 · Sep 7, 2006

dude, they are the ONLY team in the past 20 years not to sell out a home playoff game. that is EMBARASSING. miami is a party town, not a football town. as is atlanta and new orleans. Let's just be real here....there are only a FEW southeastern teams with real support:

Tampa Bay Bucs
Tampa Bay Lightning
Carolina Panthers

That's the list.

Sure the Heat are selling out now but that place was a ghost town before Shaq and D Wade. Same with Vick and the Falcons. The south just doesn't support professional sports. Many more Floridians are Seminoles, Hurricanes, and Gators than Dolphins, Bucs, or Jags....it's just the truth