There it was, worthy of a 15 second spot on NBC Nightly News: a wide angle view of the Florida Marlins playing the Washington Nationals to an empty stadium. Correction: there were 200 fans.
OK. In case you missed that: TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE were at Dolphin Stadium, or Joe Robbie, or whatever you want to call it, the day before yesterday.
Now the reason this is worthy of note (not yet on the Marlins website, though), is that reams of newsprint that have been devoted to the great expectation that a new baseball stadium, at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, will materialize somewhere, somehow, in downtown Miami or, say, the Orange Bowl.
Compared to suburban sprawl, traffic, global warming: the pages of The Miami Herald are filled with the news of the prospective attention of legislators--in Tallahassee or locally.
It must be so captivating, that you would think at least half of the attendance at Dolphin Stadium the other day, was Miami Herald editors.
I'm teasing, of course. But what does an audience of 200 fans tell the rest of us who may be on the hook for a multi-hundred million dollar stadium in downtown Miami?
For one, it has been really really hot in the afternoon. No one in their right mind, in my humble opinion, is going to an outdoor baseball game in Miami in this weather.
Two, braving the traffic and the cost is simply not a high priority for -- apparently--more than 200 people in Miami.
Most parents, for instance, struggle just to get their kids to karate practice, or a soccer field. Take me out to the ballgame, by helicopter, whether the Marlins stadium is at the Orange Bowl or northwest Miami Dade.
But I think there is a bigger issue at work here.
As USA Today noted on 9/12 in Miami, "more than one of every four homeowners with mortgages spends half or more of their income on housing."
Factor in commuting costs to work, including time stuck in traffic, plus all those home equity lines of credit borrowed against the shrinking value of a home, and there are a few more reasons only 200 people are at an afternoon baseball game in Miami.
But hey, it's not all bad news. Thanks to God that the US dollar is at record lows compared to the Euro, making Miami an attractive destination for baseball loving visitors from abroad.
7 comments:
200 fans? I wonder how many received comp tickets? Bear in mind the Marlins cuurent location is well located to attract wealthy Broward and Palm Beach County baseball lovers. If any existed.
Politicians have to be brain dead to give taxpayer money to privately owned baseball teams, especially baseball teams with no paying ticket holders.
By the way, a new baseball stadium with a retracable roof will cost $850 Mil, not $500 Mil, as the Marlins PR people suggest. If there are no fans, no parking and overly expensive tickets then who would attend? Who will pay the debt service? Who will pay for the cost overruns?
Let's not miss the point, what politicians really want by supporting another losing cause is to be able to go to the stadium and watch the game inside their luxurious accommodations (boxes) provided by the Marlins' owners but paid for by us irrelevant taxpayers.
Our robotic politicians will support anything that will produce a benefit for themselves and their families -screw the taxpayers!!!
It's the Washington Nationals not Senators. A new stadium would be great for the Marlins. If we build it, they will come.
People forget that before Shaq, the AAA was empty. The Dolphins can't sellout a playoff game and the Panthers also can't sell seats.
But what happens when these teams are winning? Everyone becomes a fan, seats are full, tickets can only be found on eBay.
If a new stadium for the fish is built, tickets will sell. I pay taxes and want my money to go to a stadium
I changed, from the Senators to the Nationals...
If we have to give money to these teams why cant we own the teams? Why must we have to give this money to people who already have billions? Why do we get stuck with paying the mortgage but never get to own the home and whats inside? The players are free agents why must the city be an indentured servant?
No one with an IQ over 93 would advocate wasting taxpayer money on a privately owned money losing business that employs contract employees making $2 Mil per year. Contract employees who do even live in Miami.
The City and County are trying to trim $300 Mil to $400 Mil off their budgets for 2007-2008. 2009 might be worse. How can anyone advocate for giving money away? $850 Mil for a stadium? Please.
And what about the many all-American baseball loving fans who live in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Think they will fight the rush hour traffic to watch baseball in Miami?
Academic studies show that stadiums for professional sports teams (owned by rich private non-local owners primarily) have a negative economic impact on cities. They take up very valuable land that would otherwise be used by actual tax paying employers. They generate few well paying jobs. They hire predominately low paying part-time labor. They leave City's with expensive debt service obligations which prevent many causes from getting funding. Stadiums are rarely used during the day and the vast majority of the time they sit empty and useless.
Post a Comment