BrowardPB

I have long been of the opinion that the location, access, and parking issues (despite patchwork solutions), none of which will ever be fully remedied, will always disenfranchise spur-of-the-moment Broward, Palm Beach, and northern Dade fans, while southern Dade fans would never provide enough backfill. They didn't do much to fill the place up when it was close to them. For a while there, the team didn't give us much of a reason to do so. I got ya, your pissed the Marlins left Broward. I got cha. Can't consider a message on its merits, make a claim against the messenger. I got cha.

I have long been of the opinion that the location, access, and parking issues (despite patchwork solutions), none of which will ever be fully remedied, will always disenfranchise spur-of-the-moment Broward, Palm Beach, and northern Dade fans, while southern Dade fans would never provide enough backfill. At this point, given the ideal conditions and recent team achievements with still less-than-stellar attendance, I see no reason to believe this isn't occurring, and I see nothing to refute that.

I would have given the Marlins a design for half their fee. Oh well, their loss.

Did the Cubs or Expos do anything for Andre Dawson?

I'm gonna stick with my prediction from last September... First few weeks will draw huge crowds as people indulge in their first game at the new park. Attendance will then drop off considerably through May, stabilizing into June but maintaining a slow decline. If we're in decent shape come the AS break, attendance will continue to decline slowly through July, but then upswing late August into September if we maintain the race. However, if we fall out of the races fast before the AS break like dom2613 mentioned, expect to be able to count the heads by hand come August.

Of all the things Ozzie Guillen has said and done in Chicago, none of them have generated the furor his Castro comments did in South Florida. With several radio stadions dedicated to anti-Castro programming 24/7, I am sure this will not die any time soon. Oh, yes it will. Someone's gonna make another comment in a month, and people will be all, "Ozzie who?" That person will be Ozzie.

2012 is just another Opening Day...which happens to be in a new venue. Big deal. 1993 will never happen again. But 2012, in the sense of moving to a new venue, can. Therefore, 1993 has to be bigger. This is like saying seeing your first boobs was amazing but the second set is nothing to get crazy about since it wasn't the first time. It's more like saying seeing your first boobs was amazing and seeing the second set was amazing too, however there can always be another set to see, but there can never be a first set again. Boobs.

2012 is just another Opening Day...which happens to be in a new venue. Big deal. 1993 will never happen again. But 2012, in the sense of moving to a new venue, can. Therefore, 1993 has to be bigger.

My first reaction was: Mother of god. My second reaction was: Please let it short out and burn to the ground. (No casualties, of course.)

Wait till the low sun starts reflecting off downtown buildings during evening games and blinding the catcher.

There should be no circumstance where a family with children would need to resort to parking on some guy's lawn in not the nicest of neighborhoods. That's not acceptable in any other park in MLB and it shouldn't be acceptable in what is being labeled as the "coolest ballpark ever." This is the bottom line, right here. Now I've never been to a game at any other stadium, but I can't see how families with children being forced to transfer and wait through two or three different modes of travel would be considered acceptable, either. I can't imagine being stuck with smaller children on the outskirts of the stadium for a late trolley, then waiting on the Metrorail Civic Center platform for a train which only comes once every half hour at that time, then waiting on the open Tri-Rail/Metrorail Transfer platform for a train which may not come for another hour if you weren't lucky enough to make the 10:30pm train. Is that acceptable anywhere else? I'll be perfectly honest. Because of this mess, even with the Marlins Insider regular-season presale starting today, I haven't considered buying a single ticket other than for the exhibition game, which allowed the purchase of a parking pass. While I'm ecstatic to get to many games this season in the new park, but can't afford a ticket/parking package nor have such a set schedule that I can plan for games months in advance, I have no desire to be a guinea pig in any of this parking mess, and I'm sure I can't be alone. This will certainly have to make a dent in their early individual-game sales, whether they will outwardly recognize it or not.

I didn't buy the parking pass. That garage is going to be a mess. Walking would be better. Just bring your gat and you'll be fine. Not legally to a professional athletic event. Or were you planning on checking it at the door? :whistle

So we have a trolley system now. Do we have a place to park? I hate to think even with this, we're still no better off. But unless this is "supposed" to be a solution simply because it links up with Metrorail (and it appears riders from the stadium will have to do a massive figure-eight on the loop to get back to Metrorail, which takes time), anyone planning on taking Tri-Rail will be lucky to make the 10:30pm weekday train, most probably stuck waiting for the last train out at 11:30...if there's even room...for the mass of northern fans who had no place to park with no other option. (It's 2012...I have to park on Hernando's front lawn. Really??) And with an 11pm trolley service end time, forget extra innings. So I guess one could always park at Bayside and Metrorail/Metromover it from the trolley, but how many of these: ...are going to be available for any given weeknight and Saturday game for every single non-season ticket fan who a) doesn't live close enough to walk, and b) isn't comfortable parking and potentially getting blocked in on some shady dude's lawn? All it takes is that one person behind you staying late at the Clevelander or one of these other places open late, and you're screwwwed. Worse, you won't even know for how long you're screwed. Certainly not a horror story I want to be caught up in. This trolley is a piece to the solution, but we still don't have the solution without a real place to park.

Win or Lose, Marlins Will Entertain ...The season-ticket holders.

They're building a nudie bar at the stadium?

This just in! Craig Minervini named MVP of the Pro Bowl. :arms :cheers :clapping

Wait I'm confused. So are we letting women into the ballpark or not? Only the Mermaids. Maybe.

I wish somebody that has a far better understanding of this would explain exactly how this works. Confuses me a bit. Example..... Although federal law gave women the right to vote long before, the Florida constitution wasn't amended to do it until 1969. Yet some counties were allowing it before that. (Information taken from a 3 volumn set entitled "Florida's Past", "Florida's Past," published by Pineapple Press, Sarasota, Florida. I can't help you with the legal stuff, but I can give you a better understanding that commas actually go inside quotation marks. You're never too old to learn. The title of the three-volume set is: Florida's Past The title of the three-volume set is not: Florida's Past, Therefore, to include the comma inside the quotation marks would be to incorrectly quote the title of the set.

The teams have to pay for the necessary accommodations The law says nothing about teams being responsible for the accommodations. It only states that "any professional sports facility constructed with financial assistance from the State of Florida shall be designated as a shelter site"..."in accordance with the criteria of locally existing homeless shelter programs." Miami-Dade county both establishes their criteria, and runs them with taxpayer money. Nothing in the law changes that with regard to who usually uses the property. 288.1166 Professional sports facility; designation as shelter site for the homeless; establishment of local programs.—Any professional sports facility constructed with financial assistance from the State of Florida shall be designated as a shelter site for the homeless in accordance with the criteria of locally existing homeless shelter programs, except when the facility is otherwise contractually obligated for a specific event or activity. Should a local program not be in existence in the facility’s area, such program shall be established in accordance with normally accepted criteria as defined by the county or its designee.

I think you're exaggerating. Anyways, desperate times call for desperate measures. There's a lot of homeless nowadays, and in modern society, they should be able to have a place to sleep besides a park bench. This is a cheap solution to an unfortunate problem. Is it? Who's going to pay to keep the lights on, the food warm, the a/c cold, and the water running? Who's going to pay the service workers and extra security details (in addition to regular nightly patrols when unoccupied)? Who's going to pay for the cleanup before each game? This is all well-intentioned with undoubtedly unintended consequences. They proclaim it should be a homeless shelter because it accepted taxpayer money, yet they'll end up putting out even more taxpayer money to make it happen. Should I have to allow the homeless into my residence because I received the First-Time Homebuyer Credit?

Use the stadium in the off-season and when the season starts switch to another stadium. I'm sure they'll gladly oblige. You gonna pick up the tab to move them, or are they? Besides, it'll take the whole season to get the urine smell out. (Respirator Day giveaway, anyone? )

Can't wait.

And they're going to do what with them when it's game time? Oh that's right, herd them out so they can stand outside the fence and beg for money from all the non-season ticket fans who have to walk from wherever. The thought of the new Miami Marlins experience is just getting better by the day. :boxed

I thought it was really nice, the pacing was good, great to see all those old faces. Did anyone else notice that Niner was wearing his WS ring when taking the flags down, BUT not wearing it when he raised the flags?!?!? Not calling BS, but I noticed that immediately last night. C'mon, would you have taken that thing into Little Havana? I also noticed that it was completely dark at the new stadium, which it was not at that time. I am pretty sure the Conine @ the new ballpark was taped ahead of time. Maybe cause of the roof being closed. Never know. Where are the flag poles at the new stadium? They need to update the webcam. I want to know whats going on. They appeared to be outside a construction trailer with floodlights:

What a great night. Perfect weather, everybody getting along, and I only heard one idiot cheering for the Nats. The Wave officially made it around the park *twice* in the 7th until Petersen hit the infield single advancing Gaby to third. Oh, and I was shocked...SHOCKED...to see it only took 19 years for the entire crowd to get the Addams Family clap right. For one last time: Charlie: Curtain call before the game. Someone *ahem* had to pay a visit... Can you believe this is a Marlins game in 2011? No hiding the...unwelcomeness...on the field: The final pitch in Florida Marlins history. So, let the ceremonies begin... Nervous? LOL The Man Himself... Your FLORIDA MARLINS! http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/6332/img8330i.jpg http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3373/img8338p.jpg Just a rock and a few flags under the arm... http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/5956/img8340s.jpg ...Never to be seen here again. http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/2253/img8343u.jpg And of course, all good things must come to an end. The final moment for this glorious team. http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/248/img8344g.jpg Goodbye Florida Marlins. :tissue: