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marlinfan

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Posts posted by marlinfan

  1. 8 hours ago, Maroon said:

    Considering two people on this page alone used the word "floundering" to describe the Florida franchises and their attendance, how about move the Rays to Montreal and split the Marlins between St. Pete and Miami and call them the Florida Flounders. Heck, have them play a few games in Orlando and they could get licensing rights from Disney for this bad boy to appear in their logo:

     

    flounder14.png

     

    Two or three mid-week series a year in Orlando, Jacksonville, SW Florida and Tampa wouldn’t be a bad idea to build support for the team around the state.

  2. I last went to Tropicana Field in 2010ish. It looks like the bastard child of a stadium, warehouse, and an early 90s cut-rate office building if it were possible for them to procreate. The main rotunda meant to evoke Ebbets Field looks more like something you see in a dying mall. Different areas of the concourse had their own “character” which ranged from sterile concrete to drop ceilings to Joe DiMaggio in comic book form. The trimmings on the scoreboard reminded me of a cheap baseball-theme carnival funhouse. The lights inside are low so you have a constant glare. The turf looked poorly maintained and had a weird shine. I think they still had the orange leaf gradient on the walls/catwalks which evoked Rainforest Cafe.

     

    The banners in the rafters and the museum were cool though. We set in right field a few rows in front of former Marlins GM Larry Beinfest and his kids. The Marlins infield dropped an infield pop-up and when we turned around he did that thing where he knew you were looking at him but didn’t want to make eye contact.

    • Like 1
  3. I don’t see expansion happening if both Portland and Montreal gain via expansion. Going into smaller markets wouldn’t be feasible unless there is a monumental shift in MLB economics to bolster them. 

     

    Moving into Mexico, Puerto Rico, and even Cuba might be on MLB’s 2040 expansion plans due to the current problems in each region. 

  4. 2003 was my first real experience as a fan. I remember 1997 but I was too young to understand. I can still remember most of the memorable games in 2003. It’s burned into me and I relive it everytime I go to the ballpark or they play against a specific opponent. They are some of the fondest memories I have as a teenager and it’s why I still hope that the Marlins can be relevant again. 

    • Like 2
  5. 18 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

    And yet after the first fire sale they won a second world championship.  Really finding it hard to be too sympathetic about that one. 

     

    3 years after winning the championship they were also visiting Las Vegas, Portland, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City for new ballparks.

     

    @SFGiants58 summed it up pretty well. He forgot David Samson bragging at a banquet how he got taxpayers to fund the majority of the stadium AND later in an inebriated state yelling “$1.2 BILLION!” when he was booed by fans at another event after the sale.

    • Like 2
  6. 13 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

     

    Interestingly enough, after the Rays had won the AL pennant they still weren’t more popular than the Yankees in the Tampa Bay area.  Nor were they more popular than the Red Sox; one of the best teams in baseball was the third-favorite team among baseball fans in its own town.

     

    I won’t comment on where the Rays are in the pecking order since I haven’t been in Tampa long enough to get a feel for it, but the link above shows the Rays being the favorite baseball team. 

     

    I think MLB failed the Rays but not doing more to push the Yankees out of the Tampa area (to Orlando?) to allow the Rays to establish themselves.

  7. 25 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

     

    I'm really more saying "you should have had your team in the first place".

     

    Anyway, calls to move the (Devil) Rays have been happening since soon after the team got there.  And the Marlins were talked about as candidates for contraction.

     

     

     

    No way.

     

    The Giants moving out of San Francisco would have been a tragedy; and their moving from a city as great as San Francisco to Tampa Bay would have been a double insult. Through my study of baseball history, I developed an emotional attachment to this team that had originated in my city; and, as the 1992 season drew to an close, I was just sick over the fact that this historic team's move away from its longtime home was considered inevitable.

     

    And I also did not want to see the Mariners leave Seattle. When the Yankees lost to the Mariners in the first Division Series in 1995, I was not sad; this contrasted strongly with my misery after their losses in the World Series in 1976 and 1981, and in the League Championship Series in 1980. In 1995 I was not sad mainly because the Yankees, not having come in first in their division that year, did not really belong in the playoffs. (This distaste for the wild card presaged my disgust with interleague play, and my retirement as an active fan after 1996.)

     

    But another important reason that I was not sad was that it looked like this Mariners victory could keep the tean in Seattle.

     

    However, to group Tampa in with traditional baseball cities such as San Francisco and Seattle (whose histories in high-level baseball date back many decades in the Pacific Coast League, well before the arrival of their Major League teams) is quite a stretch.

     

     

     

    So you think that the Marlins are more popular than the Yankees in Miami? Earlier, Gothamite said that the Rays are the third most popular Major Lague team in Tampa. Likewise, the Marlins are, at best, the second most popular Major League team in Miami, and quite possibly the third.

     

     

     

    Certainly not. The cultural and historical factors surrounding each sport are unique to that sport. 

     

     

     

    You knew this; you just chose to ignore it. The reality is that the effect on the mindsets of Florida baseball fans of having been the spring training homes for the Northeastern teams remains strong. It's time to accept that this is the way it is. Perhaps the matter can be revisited a few generations down the line.

     

    The Marlins are more popular than the Yankees in Miami. Despite 16 years of horrible mismanagement the Marlins fans would still outdraw Yankees fans like they did in the 2003 World Series. The gap was narrowed in that time, but nothing unites Miamians more than rooting against a team from New York. This is similar with the Heat and Dolphins. Even the Cuban exiles that can remember watching the Yankees in the 40s and 50s in black and white put the Marlins before the Yankees. The rules that govern the rest of Florida do not apply in Miami. Anyone who has spent a decent enough time here fully understands.

     

    This map from 2014 shows this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/24/upshot/facebook-baseball-map.html#7,26.015,-81.360

     

    You can continue to repeat your line about Northeasterners in Florida, but it ignores  facts: 1) 53% of Miami-Dade was not even born in this country and 2) That Miami is a full generation removed from spring training baseball.

    • Like 6
  8. 12 hours ago, AstroBull21 said:

    Miami is a bad measuring stick because while the Marlins got a brand new stadium, it's location still hinders it much like Tropicana Field and the Rays.

     

    The population (and money) in the Miami area is a little bit north in Broward County so if Marlins Park was built a little further north and optimized it's location that may have helped overall.

     

    Miami-Dade has 2.6 million people to Broward's 1.9 million. Adding Palm Beach's population to Broward's is unrealistic because no one in their right mind will consistently drive 20 miles down to downtown Fort Lauderdale. The Marlins basically tried being in the geographic center of a metro area 70 miles long and it did not work out. The Marlins made the right move in moving closer to the urban core of Miami-Dade County. Downtown Miami is the largest and fastest growing of the three urban cores in South Fla. Redevelopment is already pushing up the river and into Little Havana a couple blocks from where the stadium is. There was a time in the 90s that many believed downtown Fort Lauderdale would overtake Miami as the most important urban hub. I think that argument is dead and buried.

  9. Yikes. I didn't want to use this year's attendance to back up my statement, but this situation isn't going to clean up.

    So, you didn't want to use relevant facts to back up something you said. Makes sense.

    Well the relevant facts are these:

    1. Marlins Park is 1 year old

    2. Loria cannot sell the team until 2015 without giving a chunk of it back to the city of Miami.

    I don't think that Loria is even leasing the stadium... I cannot find any information on lease terms for the stadium. In either case, Loria is pocketing literally every dollar than comes into the park. It's not as if he's going to get a sweeter deal anywhere else. The Marlins are staying put for the foreseeable future.

    He's leasing the stadium and keeping every dollar it generates. He pays rent on the stadium, rent on the parking garage, and into an account that makes improvements to the stadium.

    It's on Miami Dade County's website. You can google miami dade baseball stadium agreement.

    http://www.miamidade.gov/internalservices/ballpark-resolutions.asp

  10. Two and a half teams are turning a profit. How does this league still exist?

    EDIT: That is to say that only a handful of teams are doing well. And, by my count, 13 are running deficits. Seriously, why aren't we seeing wholesale contraction?

    I suspect many of these losses are only dramatic on paper. The team itself could be losing money, but the parent company is turning a profit. It's any easy way to hide money from the tax man.

    For example, the Florida Panthers are owned by Sunrise Sports and Entertainment. I guarantee arena related revenues from advertising, concerts, expos and graduations stay with the parent company. Meanwhile, the only revenues on the Panthers' books are hockey related. SSE could also be "charging" the Panthers rent, maintenance and service fees for using "their" facility.

    Great example of this were the Huizenga owned Marlins. He justified the 1997-98 firesale because the Marlins were "losing" $30 million a year. The team was "losing" this money but only because premium seat revenue and luxury box revenue generated during Marlins games was being put in the revenue column of the stadium's management company, Huizenga Holdings.

    Someone earlier mentioned the Blues control all arena revenue, I wouldn't be surprised if this were another great example of this.

    The Red Sox and Yankees have been in the "minus" column for years because NESN/YES do not fall under the franchise's umbrella.

    I'm not saying the NHL is 100% profitable either.

  11. I just saw this photo in the New York Times today...

    What's with the Heat putting up banners for Olympic participation? It's not even affiliated with the team!

    Also, whats that banner on the far right? The pic in the times is clearer, but it looks like it says "Ron Culp - NCAA Athletic Trainer" - What???

    Looking for explanations...

    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/113484686/Getty-Images-Sport

    They also have not one, but two 'LEED certified' banners.

    I know the person who has the banners that hung in the Orange Bowl. When he found out that university was going to let them die with the building, he got permission to go in and take them down. They currently hang in his warehouse.

    I know the Marlins were leaning towards having arena-style banners for the two championships and HOFers Dave Van Horne and Felo Ramirez at the new ballpark. There is talk that #5 may be unretired.

  12. MLB 2050

    American League

    Northeast

    New York

    Boston

    Baltimore

    Toronto

    South

    Charlotte

    San Antonio

    Texas

    Central Florida (Orlando-TB metros merge)

    Midwest

    Chicago

    Cleveland

    Minnesota

    Kansas City

    West

    Los Angeles

    Vancouver

    San Jose

    Las Vegas

    Seattle

    Pacific

    Tokyo #1

    Tokyo #2

    Osaka

    Yokohama

    Nagoya

    National League

    Northeast

    New York

    Brooklyn

    Philadelphia

    Washington

    South

    Cincinnati

    Atlanta

    Houston

    Pittsburgh

    Midwest

    St. Louis

    Chicago

    Milwaukee

    Colorado

    West

    Los Angeles

    San Diego

    Portland

    Riverside

    Arizona

    Caribbean

    Miami

    Havana

    Mexico City

    Caracas

    San Juan

    5 Division winners

    3 Wild Cards per league

    Special Note: Detroit Tigers move to Vancouver in 2028 after Detroit voters approve referendum to demolish the entire city of Detroit.

    MLB still can't seem to get rid of the AL/NL alignments.

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