South Florida Shows No Appreciation for Marlins

Jeffrey Loria bought the Expos in 1999 in an attempt to revive baseball in Montreal and getting a new stadium. He could not make it work over there after he alienated those folks for failing to get TV and radio rights of the Expos in the 2000 season.

Loria saw his Expos play in front of maybe 25 people in his tenure, and he knew it was never going to get better, so he wanted to own another MLB team.

Bud Selig arranged a deal for Loria to own the Marlins after then-Marlins owner John Henry brought the Red Sox in 2002.

Loria thought the days of seeing his team play in front of empty seats was over after he brought the Marlins. How wrong was he?

The Marlins played to empty seats at Land Shark Stadium since then-Marlins owner Wayne Huzienga orchestrated a fire sale in 1997 after the team won their first World Series championship.

In the recent homestand, the Marlins drew 12,000 per game. On Friday night, they drew 15,965 in a crucial three-game series between couple of Wild-Card contenders that featured Marlins ace Josh Johnson starting in that game.

It's understandable when teams don't draw well when they stink, yet with the Marlins competing year after year, no one shows up.

What's wrong with this picture?

It's a privilege to have Major League Baseball in a city during the spring and summer.  Cities such as Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toronto, and Baltimore would love to have their teams operate as well as the Marlins.

Those towns are good baseball towns that deserve better than what their ownership and their management are giving to them.

If Jeffrey Loria, David Samson and Larry Beinfest ran those teams that play in those towns, the stadiums would be filled at every night.

Only in Miami, this does not happen.

What's the excuse for not showing up?

Miamians talk about the fire sale all the time, but that's ancient history. At some point, it's time to get over it and move on.

Under Loria's ownership, the Marlins have done a remarkable job of competing with a lower budget year after year. Maybe they fall short of the playoffs or they have a bad season, but it does not resonate why attendance is awful.

Everyone ripped Loria for having a fire sale in the 2005 off-season. Guess what? That's bound to happen when owner is not making a profit while trying to keep his team together after winning a World Series championship in 2003.

It's unfair to use that reasoning to not go to the games.

Tickets are affordable for anyone that has a family of four to go. If folks want to talk about expensive tickets, they should go view the prices at the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, and then when they compare it to those prices at Land Shark Stadium, and they will realize how ridiculous it sounds.

People want to talk about how far it is to go to Land Shark Stadium by car, but it sure does not stop them from going to see a Dolphins game.

The weather excuse is convenient for people. Sure it rains often at Land Shark Stadium, but from watching the Marlins home games, there are not many rainouts with the exception of Saturday night, when the Rockies/Marlins contest was postponed.

The bottom line is it's getting old to see this. Is it too much to ask to have a stadium at least be half-full or at least see the attendance at 26,000 at best?

The Marlins have done all they could to satisfy the people of South Florida.

The franchise promoted their players all over town, and they offer discounts for games and do promotional stuff such as Super Saturdays, but that's not good enough.

Winning apparently is not good enough either.

The Marlins generate good TV ratings, and we see Marlins fans at other stadiums when Fox Sports Florida or Sun Sports' cameras focus on them before the inning starts.

That's a good thing, but it would be better when there is a home-field advantage for the home team.

It does not speak well to the South Florida folks when the Marlins talk about being excited to play in hostile places such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other places.

Sure, players love playing in those legitimate baseball cities because  of the energy it produces for the players to get into the game, but players are talking about how it's not a good situation to play at home, and that should never be the case.

The only time Land Shark Stadium fills up for a baseball game is when the Mets come to town, and don't expect Mets fans to show up this year since the Mets stink so the place will be dead.

Even if the Marlins make the playoffs, one wonders if fans will show up considering they haven't showed up these last few months.

It's shame, and it's hard to believe this column will inspire anyone to show up.

Just for those people's reward for not caring, they get rewarded a new stadium.

This is hilarious. What town in America can be rewarded a new stadium and a great team when there is no passion for that town's team?

Maybe Loria and David Samson should have focused on sealing a stadium deal in San Antonio or rekindled talks about getting a new stadium in Montreal with this Marlins team over there.

The latter would be something.