"Marlins win, but fans fail to fill seats" reads The Miami Herald headline. Rain risk, climate and weather, are the first reasons cited in the report. Lack of fan trust. County commissioner Joe Martinez gives an unintelligible response, "... Miami is a what-will-you-do-for-me-tomorrow kind of town." Duh, what?
The closer answer is what politicians like Joe Martinez did for Miami, yesterday, as to reasons why fans don't go to Marlins' games: approving so much low density housing, failing to make sure transportation kept pace, bending to the will of lobbyists for the development industry. Miami City Commissioner Tomas Regalado calls it, "... economics" without assigning blame where it belongs.
Regalado gets warm, though: "City of Miami people are mostly poor, retired people and cannot afford a whole package of games and parking."
The Herald report ends by going outside the box, interviewing an opposing player (instead of an opposing critic of the economic elite, like Eyeonmiami.)
''I don't know why the fan base isn't good here,'' Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Webb said during a May visit. "It's quite odd. It's not a real good baseball environment."
So let me drive this fastball delivered by a good Herald story up the middle over the seats. Having raised a few children here in Miami and sworn never to attend another baseball game again, I'll give The Miami Herald the first and last reason the Marlins' attendance is in the pits: traffic.
Readers know I am no fan of the profligate business of professional sports, that casts an end-of-empire over the whole of the American enterprise in its current configuration. The bottom line is, The Miami Herald story needs to explain its glaring omission: traffic.
Since the Herald didn't, let me try.
As one of the wage earners who spends a mind-numbing amount of time in my car commuting with everyone else, my lifestyle choices are defined by the incremental amount of time I have to spend in South Florida traffic beyond what is required for my work. Period. The Performing Arts Center? Fuggedaboutit: that one exit ramp, funneling thousands of cars into a single lane off 395 from US 95, is a non-starter.
As for the Pee-Pee Stadium or whatever it is now called, I can't put a price on my time for sitting on flooded roadways to the stadium. Add the weather, the heat and humidity, to the traffic and it's a disaster.
That's why the Marlins don't draw, and until mass transit is funded and implemented to serve existing commuters (and not Joe Martinez' CSX to Parkland), the Marlins will be stuck drawing the fewest paid customers in the Major Leagues. I can't let Joe Martinez off the hook: as a county commissioner who represents the bone-headed leadership that is wrecking Miami-Dade he should be packed off to North Carolina to help Steve Shiver fix his broken amusement park. North Carolina, please: take the unreformable majority, all!
It would be nice if the Herald would connect these issues, but that would beg the question: why did the Herald and the Growth Machine support all the unsustainable growth of South Florida in the first place?
8 comments:
There are a couple of things I would like to add.
First, The management of the Marlins have shown us time and again that as soon as a player gets good, they trade them away failing to "build a franchise" in this market. Once they are good and fans can become loyal to players who stick around a while, their fan base grows.
Second, these are the Florida Marlins, not the Miami Marlin or the Broward Marlins. Had they been the Miami Marlins home to thousands of baseball fans from Cuba, they probably would have done better.
Finally, MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING. I, personally, don't remember seeing any advertising or hearing it on the radio on the stations I listen to. They also need to grow the business by getting kids in the area more involved. They should "paper the house" with little leagues, church groups, schools, camps, etc. Kids get hooked and grow up to buy tickets or ask their parents to go. They should focus on filling seats to build the energy. Going to a game in that empty stadium is bad!
I completely agree that traffic is a factor. In Atlanta, for example, Braves games draw quite a crowd. Before and after the game, thousands of fans ride buses and trains to and from the stadium. This, of course, requires that bus and train routes actually service the stadium. The city actually schedules extra service on game days to transport fans. This leaves the roads much less clogged for those who still want to drive to the game. It's actually quite pleasant to take MARTA or to drive.
Yankee stadium has the subway!
DC has the metro right outside the stadium now. But the team sucks so noone goes.
Even though the Orange Bowl wasn't perfectly situated, Transit had a shuttle bus from the Culmer Metro station which was way better than parking in someone's back yard for 20 bux at UM games and being stuck after the game until the ten cars jammed in front of you left.
The shuttle only cost $1.25 for the round trip. I could jump on the train with my kids at one of the Dadeland stations, catch the shuttle at Culmer and be at the game in no time. The trick was catching the highly infrequent weekend trains, but now you can see when the next train is coming online which is helpful. Of course the OB is a pile of rubble now.
The proposed site is decent for that reason. What is indecent is asking taxpayers to fund the stadium. I could live with the land donation and maybe a couple traffic improvements for a new stadium, but the fish should build it and run it on their own.
i went to saturday's marlins game. according to ESPN, attendance was 26.520 (lower level was full, upper level not so much though) but i didn't have any problems with the traffic coming to and leaving dolphin stadium.
what i'm missing is bars and stuff around the stadium. something to go after of before the game with friends. same situation for the bankatlantic center (florida panthers).
With the 7th highest tv ratings theres no lack of fans its the whole situation the team is in. Football stadium, hot humid, rain, traffic, and bad management. Im in full support of the stadium, management showed a brightspot signing Hanley Ramirez and hopefully if things go through with the stadium we'll se a more concrete team and not a bypassing team that lasts 2 years and stars leave once they become too good.
With the 7th highest tv ratings theres no lack of fans its the whole situation the team is in. Football stadium, hot humid, rain, traffic, and bad management. Im in full support of the stadium, management showed a brightspot signing Hanley Ramirez and hopefully if things go through with the stadium we'll se a more concrete team and not a bypassing team that lasts 2 years and stars leave once they become too good.
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