Sad, sad, sad......

[marmar]

I was watching highlights from a Marlins game on Baseball Tonight last night ...... there were like 15 people in that massive stadium. Each person in attendance had their own color-coded section to themselves. That's got to be awfully dispiriting.

[joeybee12]

1. Seriously?

They've won 2 WS-es not so long ago...you'd think people would start warming up to them.

[marmar]

2. And you'd think S. Florida would be a good baseball market.....

.....but perhaps the high number of transplants affects attendance for the "home" team.

[joeybee12]

5. Yeah, and most of the citizens are too busy getting the early bird

dinner special, if you get my drift.

[marmar]

7. .....

:)

[Jack from Charlotte]

19. I've been to several game there.....

as I have family that lives very close by Landshark Beer-Underware-Robbie Dolphin stadium. The do two-fer-Tuesdays where you get two tix for the price of one. We spend $18 for a 3rd baseline seat and moved even closer....say ten rows from the field. All for $9 per ticket.

[LisaM]

3. When we first moved to Seattle it was that way at Mariners' games

They practically paid you to go. One year you could get a free ticket if you turned in ten Heath bar wrappers. Then they build a new stadium and it got better (well, they'd started winning; that helped too).

[El Supremo]

10. The M's will be in Denver next month.

The last time I saw them was at the King Dome with Junior. Things come around. I'll be there.

[flvegan]

4. I noticed the same thing at the Rays games the last couple nights.

Vast, open expanses of unsold seats.

[joeybee12]

6. And after last year...one would assume. n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

12. Crappy weather, mid week game, the Oakland A's and Scott Kazmir.

If it were an AL east team or just about any team from east of the Mississippi there might have been a better turn out. And Scott Kazmir is not a player that people look forward to seeing pitch nowadays. He's really stinking it up this year. They're going to let him have his next start and if he can't pull it together he'll likely be replaced and benched.

[cboy4]

16. You'd think coming off of the WS appearance would boost

attendance more than it has.

[trumad]

8. They are building a new stadium --- a baseball stadium where the Orange Bowl use to be..

right in the heart of Miami...

This should help considerably.

[El Supremo]

9. I don't think so.

The Fish and the Rox came to be in the same year. The Rox have had millions more fans attend games and have no World Series rings to show for it.

Florida sucks for Summer Baseball. And it always will.

[madinmaryland]

13. Well, doubling your attendance from 60 to 120 fans is not that impressive.

[cboy4]

15. Nice spin. I've seen a number of games at Joe Robbie Stadium,

and you can play baseball there.

I'm not saying Florida shouldn't be playing in an all baseball venue.

But the bottom line is winning. The years the Marlins did very well, people didn't complain about the stadium while they were watching Florida win.

What's even more excusable is the night games are beautiful. I wonder how many more people would show up in San Francisco on a Tuesday night if it wasn't 56 degrees at game time?

For many teams, new stadims only help so much if the product is bad. Look at beautiful Petco in San Diego and PNC in Pittsburgh. They're drawing in the teens in SD and fewer than that in Western Pennsylvania.

Finally, building in the heart of Miami isn't necessarily a plus. Seems to me the current location is better because it's closer to Ft. Lauderdale where yhere are a number of Marlins fans who would be closer to home.

How abour Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati? They don't draw shit in that new stadium.

So no. Building a new stadium in Miami will not help "considerably" over time itme.

[Ganja Ninja]

11. Miami's problem has a lot to do with Miami's traffic.

It's bad all the time but especially during rush hour and rush hour is right when people have to travel to the park. If I lived down there I would just be relieved to get home and I wouldn't look forward to going out again. And with HD TV if your a baseball fan you don't need to deal with all the hassle. You can sit home and watch in comfort.

[cboy4]

18. Oh horsehit. If the stadium was off of nightmare 95, that would

be one thing perhaps.

The times I've gone when I've been down there on business have been anything but the lame excuses Miami fans love to come up with.

Not saying the Marlins shouldn't be playing in a baseball stadium...

But never hear the complaining -- or at least this much -- when the Marlins are playoff bound.

[LisaM]

14. The parks will probably be packed THIS weekend

Since it's a holiday - spring attendance is often spotty that way.

Though I DID notice that the Tiges seemed to have a full house yesterday - during the day!

[Capt. America]

17. Why can't south Florida sell baseball to Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Cubans

both in Miami and by sending the broadcast to the islands?

[ProfessorGAC]

20. I Saw That Too

There was a home run hit and that huge left field seating area had ONE GUY, who was going after the ball. ONE GUY!

That's pretty hard to imagine!
GAC

[Onceuponalife]

21. It gets worse

The minnows are losing something like a zillion to nothing right now to Tampa Bay.