Sometime in the next 5-10 years I know I'll be moving to Florida, hopefully. To get a head start, at the beginning of this season, I started following the Marlins. I obviously can't follow the Rays because there rivals with NYY and I love the National League so I went with the Marlins, plus I love their uni's. I started a franchise with them on my baseball video game which is actually a great way to learn the rosters and minor league players. I added them to my Sport Center app and it's been fun following another team beside NYY.
They started really strong, faded hard, and are now back at .500 thanks to McKeon. 16 games behind the Phillies and 8 back from the Braves and the Wild Card, the have had an up and down season but their team is packed with young guys and great pitching. Once they trade that jerk Hanley and Josh Johnson gets healthy they could contend. It's been so fun following them and watching them on TV every once and a while. Especially Mike Stanton who crushes the ball on the reg...22 years old.
The biggest problem is that their fans suck and no one goes to games. Everyone down their is obsessed with the Miami Heat and college sports. I've devised there are a couple reasons why fans don't go along with the distractions of the Heat and Hurricans. With 2 World Series in their first 18 years you'd think they would have great fans but I think the biggest problem is how they dumped their players after both of their great seasons. They always seem to rebuild and get their fans back and then they dump and trade everyone, kind of like the Pirates. They got a new owner, started holding onto players, and now have a great manager so things are looking up.
Another reason their fans suck is their stadium. Its a football stadium, with hardly any good seats and it has no roof. So sitting at a ball game in 95% humidity while its 97 degrees out isn't ideal. Also, their stadium is in the ghetto and their isn't a lot of parking. It works for the Dolphins because they play in the fall when it's paradise and they only play once a week, 8 times a year. The good thing is the Marlins are opening a new park next season opening with 2 games against NYY which will pack their new stadium. The new park is sick. State of the art, roof plan similar to the Dbacks, near the water. Its also the 3rd smallest stadium in MLB so it only takes 30,000 people to show up to sell out haha.
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| New stadium opening April 2012 |
Anywho, just wanted to relate to pulling for these small market teams. I hope teams like the Dbacks, Marlins, Pirates, and Royals keep holding on to their young guns and develope a winning team. Idealy, it would be so cool if all the teams in MLB would be around .500 and have crazy pennant races in every division, every year.
30,000 sellout? that's crazy. They were talking about this on sports 620 the other day...the Dbacks are killing it in TV ratings and god aweful in attendance...I bet the game last night didn't even have 15,000 people and it was easily one of the coolest endings all year (not that you know that when you head in).
ReplyDeleteSo, is the future of baseball stadiums going to have to tone it down to an "arena" size seating? maxing out at 40K seats?
The way TV makes it so damn desirable to watch baseball(sports) now on my 50" LCD screen with replays, commentary, pause live tv option, free beer in my fridge, etc. it's no wonder why people have opted for this.
Don't get me wrong, I love going to games, and will always go to games. There's something about that first glance you get of a big \league ballpark that makes the trip worth every dollar. But let's face it, we're a society of convenience. And ESPN, Fox, and MLB Network are making it more convenient than ever to watch every game you want from from your couch.
and yes I realize this is a bit of a tangent from your Marlins post, but this is more interesting to me...thank you.