I find the attendance issue ridiculous. There’s a reason why the Marlins built a stadium that will only hold 37,000. South Florida isn’t a mecca for baseball, or for that matter, any pro sport. It is an event-driven town. If the Miami Heat didn’t have Lebron James they’d have crowds similar to those of the NHL’s Florida Panthers. How do I know? I was there before the Heat became an “attraction.” If the Marlins play well they’ll draw crowds. If not, they’ll still draw bigger crowds than they did before. It’s a win-win for ownership. The announced attendance at yesterday’s day game was 23,168; very respectable when most of us were in school and at work. Take a look at the some of the supposed baseball towns in MLB and check out the numbers. The Chicago White Sox had a crowd of 11,836, the then 10-3 Washington Nationals drew 18,045, the loaded Detroit Tigers drew 30,029 for a game against the best team in the league; the Texas Rangers. The Toronto Blue Jays drew 18,976 against the Tampa Rays. The list goes on. Take a look at some of the New York Yankees home games so far this year and see the 10-12k empty seats for their games.

MLB has seen a decline in attendance specifically in those places where new stadiums have driven up the prices to the point where only the corporations can afford them. Here, however, the Marlins experience is very affordable, and now we see a game in the comfort of a retractable roof stadium with a view of downtown Miami.

The Marlins never thought they were going to sell out every game. The goal is 2.5 million coming through the gates in 2012. They’ve sold around 15,000 season tickets. MLB counts tickets sold, not actual turnstile entrants. If they average 25,000 per game that will bring in 2,025,000; a much higher number than in years past. With games against the Yanks, Red Sox, and other baseball powers, they will blow through that number and come close to their goal. Through seven home games the Marlins have drawn 206,096 with an average of almost 30,000. Of course the new park has a lot to do with it, but wasn’t that the point? Mind you, six of these games were played against the horrible Houston Astros, and a bad Chicago Cubs team.

To all of the media who still complain about the lukewarm pro sports market here in Florida, get over it! The Marlins did it right, and as long as they sell merchandise, concessions, and parking, they will be flush with money for years to come. My goal isn’t to make Loria a richer man, but it is to take my son to baseball games here in FL until the day I no longer frequent the planet.

What do you do to an elephant with three balls?

Image Courtesy of LarryBrownSports.com

You walk him and pitch to the Rhino.

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March 19, 2012; Jupiter FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher

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The Marlins finished with the second-worst home record in 2011, besting the woeful Houston Astros by only 1.5 games. The 31-47 mark at Sun Life Stadium was second only to the 31-50 mark posted by the ’98 team. That was the fire sale season after the first World Series championship. Even the ’93 expansion team was more successful at home in what was then Joe Robbie Stadium. Only Ozzie Guillen’s Chicago White Sox matched the Marlins in being seven games better on the road than at home.

March 8, 2012; Port St Lucie, FL, USA; Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen (center) talks with third baseman Hanley Ramirez (left) during a pitching change in the second inning of a spring training game against the New York Mets at Digital Domain Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Winning 45 games at home, something the Marlins have managed several times in the last decade, would have kept the team in contention for a wild card until the final week of the season. The hope is that the new ballpark will bring a lot more fans to the ballpark, more excitement from the fans, and give the Marlins players a home field advantage again that may have seemed lacking for many years.

Don’t think the Marlins have struggled at home most years, however. Despite ranking at or near the bottom in attendance in the cavernous Sun Life Stadium, Florida only had one other losing season at home since 2000, when the ’07 team went 36-45.

Twice in team history, the Marlins have led the majors in home victories – the championship years of ’97 and ’03. If Miami will be a contender in the new ballpark, it will have to start with turning around last season’s home performance. Will a bigger, more enthusiastic crowd help? It remains to be seen exactly what kind of attendance the Marlins will generate this year, but the team already expects to blow recent attendance out of the water.

According to USA Today:

Team president David Samson said the team will have at least 15,000 season ticket holders in 2012, which will be a franchise record.

The Marlins have only once drawn 3 million fans (the inaugural season of 1993), and to do so this season would be the high end of optimistic projecions. To do anywhere near that would be to double the average season attendance of the last 10 years. Still, it is a pretty safe bet the team will be over 2 million fans in attendance for only the third time ever. You have to figure that attendance boost, the noise when the roof is closed, and the intimate feel of the park will give players a shot of adrenaline this season.

Recent speculation about Marlins Park has centered around how it will play during the season – as a pitcher-friendly or hitter-friendly park. It is also important to consider what the attendance and new field will do to help the Marlins become successful again at home. More home success ought to keep the team contending late into the season for a playoff berth. It won’t guarantee success beyond that – ask the 2008 Chicago Cubs (among others), swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Dodgers despite the best home record that season.

Marlins’ Home Record
Year
2011 31-47
2010 41-40
2009 43-38
2008 45-36
2007 36-45
2006 42-39
2005 45-36
2004 42-38
2003 53-28
2002 46-35
2001 46-34
2000 43-38
1999 35-45
1998 31-50
1997 52-29
1996 52-29
1995 37-34
1994 35-34
1993 35-46

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That’s what I usually scream when I’m at an Ozzy (notice the spelling) Osbourne concert. You get the feeling that we’ll be yelling that phrase as it pertains to new Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen; for better or worse. The Marlins have been eyeing Guillen for a couple of years now. They were waiting for him to either be fired, or for his contract to end. They are probably as amazed as we are are that Guillen lasted that long with the White Sox. His brash style sat well in Chicago; a city where the White Sox are the red-headed step child of the more famous, or infamous, Cubs. Ozzie’s rants gave the White Sox the chance to grab headlines away from the Cubs, similar to what the Jets did with Rex Ryan. That didn’t work out so well, at least not this past season as the Giants made the Jets look ridiculous.

Mar 7, 2012; Jupiter, FL. USA; Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen (13) jokes with his players in the dugout before the game against the New York Mets at Roger Dean Stadium. The Mets defeated the Marlins 7-0. Mandatory Credit: Scott Rovak-US PRESSWIRE

We can see the marriage of Guillen and Marlins brass coming, but it was hard to imagine that this arrangement would work here in Miami. Unless Jeffrey Loria has totally changed his personality this marriage will end in a nasty divorce. Loria is a strange guy who loves control. He won’t be able to control Ozzie, and Ozzie won’t be able to control himself. We will get great quotes all year, along with terrific tirades directed at anyone who’ll listen. It’s a great time to be a beat reporter for the Marlins. Ozzie is journalism gold!

The rebranding of the team has no doubt been amazing. These Marlins are nothing like we’ve had in the past. New Stadium, star power, national buzz, risky hires and signings; this organization went both feet in without testing the waters. For that I applaud them. This is either an ingenious move or the biggest disaster in MLB history.