Empty suits pack Marlins game

They have a rain delay, on average, in less than 8 percent of their home games since 1993. Or about seven per year.

 

The fronton I saw in Miami looked rundown and was in a borderline neighborhood. Has this part of Florida culture been lost for good?

 

But it's the threat of rain that someone else alluded to. Whether it actually rains or not is beside the point. How do you quantify "looks like it might rain" people? I don't know.

 

Steve Wulf wrote a great column on this in the early 1990s, either right after the expansion was announced or right before the team started playing. It basically said baseball in Miami would fail. I know, hindsight is 20/20, but it cited almost all these reasons.

 

As my buddy in Naples tells me, there's a rainy season along the Gulf Coast. Every afternoon between 2-4, a little shower blows in off the ocean. It rains for 30 minutes, raises the humidity 20 percent, and ends.

People in Tampa are used to it. If they wanted to go to a game, they'd know the rain would end before first pitch.

 

If you've never been to Dolphins Stadium, you won't believe it. It's in the middle of a residential neighborhood. There's one lone gas station by the park (a Hess, or at least it was in 2003)... nothing to do around the immediate few miles.

I can't blame them for wanting a new park closer to downtown. After this, though, I'm wondering if Oklahoma City, Charlotte, or Portland might not be a better place for this club.

 

Umm, the D-Rays play in a climate controlled dome. Why would Tampa fans be concerned about the rain at all?

 

Sorry, mean South Florida residents.

 

I think there are several problems, starting with the stadium. 90 degrees in Florida in AUgust, Sept, you HAVE to be indoors. Second is the population. That area I believe is a mix of natives and people from across the northeast, see NY, NJ, CT. SO there is no loyalty. A lack of Mass transit also hurts. The sports market in Miami is also very fickle. People only come out for Huge games.

Tampa is a bit of a different situation...I think it was the tampa trib (could be the ST Pete Times) that did a big 4-part series 3-4 years aog on why the Rays dont draw better. Bad ownership, terrible teams, shady neighborhood--although the other end of St Pete blew up in the last 15 years, the area by the stadium is still sketchy. Again a mixed populace, many in the Gulf Coast area are from the Midwest, Chicago, Iowa, Michigan (see contrast to Atlantic side of FLA) so lack of loyalty to any one team. The Sox and Yankees do so well because of snowbirds and because airfare from those areas is cheap and you can plan even a quick getaway on the cheap.

 

Under that theory, the Rays should draw well when the Tigers, Indians, Twins and White Sox visit down there. Add that to the Sox and Yanks always filling up the place, and you'd figure the building would be near full half the time.

 

You should be there for a mid-week afternoon game against the Royals. You can actually here the batters scratching themselves!