Miami Marlins bring in celebrities to games this season

There is a lot of reasons to go to loanDepot Park this season. Personally, I'm very excited to attend a lot of games this year myself. The more tickets the Miami Marlins sell, the more pressure it might put on Bruce Sherman to spend. I'm not naive enough to think that Sherman is going to spend in a big market way, but if the ticket sales are high it's harder to justify low spending.

Brazilian soccer star Neymar was in loanDepot Park for Miami Marlins Opening Day.

Personally, I've become a pretty big "Futbol" fan on the side. I do much prefer Lionel Messi, Argentina and Inter Miami to Neymar, Brazil and his current Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal. That said, it was nice to see Neymar show up for Opening Day back on Friday. He actually threw the first pitch in the game and seemed to be having a lot of fun there.

On a side note, the oft-injured Neymar used to be Lionel Messi's teammate in Barcelona. They were successful together, winning the Spanish League and the UEFA Champions League (equivalent of World Series). Neymar left the club to go to Paris St. Germain, with whom he did not have the same level of success.

Neymar in particular seems to like Miami, as he also attended the Miami Open tennis tournament with the Miami Heat's Jimmy Butler. It makes sense for The Fish to encourage celebrities to attend the team's games. This creates an image for the team where loanDepot Park is the destination to be in Miami. That is likely a goal for the team anyway, though probably not one actively pursued.

Obviously for attendance to continue to improve, the team has to win more games, which once again goes on Bruce Sherman's shoulders. I do like the idea of playing up to Miami being such an important entertainment hub, and bringing in more celebrities and entertainers to promote that vibe around the team. I would hope that Lionel Messi himself throws the first pitch at some point as well, since he plays for Inter Miami.