I don't see what this has to do with a stadium, but it's a nice puff piece at least...

 

link

 

With Marlins' glass half full, is stadium next?

 

After years of icy disillusionment, fans are warming to a 49-46 team thinking playoffs

By CLARK SPENCER

cspencer@herald.com

 

Enrique Rosende isn't unlike many baseball fans in South Florida. When ownership put the team through the shredder after the 1997 Marlins won the World Series, Rosende pretty much did the same with his tickets.

 

''I put my heart and soul into them,'' Rosende lamented. ``When they got rid of everybody, it ruined it.''? Disgusted, Rosende stopped going to all but two or three games a season.? Until now.

 

Perceiving ''positive steps'' taken by the franchise to put a winning product on the diamond -- from deciding not to unload All-Star third baseman Mike Lowell to trading for proven reliever Ugueth Urbina -- the Miramar resident is heading out to the park again.

 

As the surging Marlins prepared to open a three-game homestand tonight against Sammy Sosa and the Chicago Cubs, Rosende was in line Thursday at Pro Player Stadium to order tickets for Sunday's game. He said it would be his 11th game of the season and he intends to go to more.

 

''If they're going to make an effort, we're going to come out,'' he said.

 

All of a sudden, after years of fan disillusionment that has fed out-and-out abandonment, attendance and TV ratings are on the upswing. So are the Marlins, whose 49-46 record entering the second half of the season puts them on the outer fringe of contention.

 

The Marlins won 30 of their past 47 games going into the All-Star break, topped only by Arizona's 31-17 mark during the same period.

 

Toss into the mix 21-year-old rookie pitching phenom Dontrelle Willis and 72-year-old cigar-chomping manager Jack McKeon, and the Marlins have discovered a recipe that has baseball folks talking in and out of South Florida.

 

''People are talking about it at the water cooler,'' Marlins president David Samson said. ``The No. 1 leading indicator is when season-ticket holders call our office saying they want to order extra tickets. Last year, they called saying they couldn't get rid of their tickets.''

 

Last season's Marlins, as Samson put it, ''bottomed out'' at the gate.

 

Only by the good graces of an anonymous ''good Samaritan'' who bought thousands of tickets on the season's final day did the Marlins avoid posting the worst attendance in the majors, barely eclipsing the hapless Montreal Expos -- the lame-duck club Jeffrey Loria sold to buy the Marlins. That the Marlins never revealed the buyer's name only fueled speculation they shelled out for the seats to avoid embarrassment.

 

Whatever the case, all signs point to increased interest.

 

Ed Kaplan, who hosts WQAM's late-night sports-talk show, knows he has a busy night ahead when the Marlins play -- especially when they win.

 

''The combination of the team playing pretty well and mostly the excitement created by Dontrelle Willis, who is one of those phenomenons that come along once in a while and sort of captivate everyone's imagination, has got fans interested,'' Kaplan said. ``Especially when the Marlins win in general, and when Willis is the pitcher, it's almost exclusively Marlins calls. I've never gotten quite as much a buzz as I have this year.''

 

Nonetheless, the Marlins are averaging fewer than 14,000 fans per home game, which places them near the bottom in the majors. The club -- despite the presence of the Cubs, several enticing pitching matchups (including Kerry Wood vs. Willis on Sunday) and a couple of giveaways (floppy hats Saturday and a Jeff Conine bobblehead doll Sunday) -- are expecting about 50,000 to show up for the entire weekend series.

 

By contrast, about twice that number turned out to watch the Cubs face the Marlins at Wrigley Field in a weekday series before the break. And the Cubs have a worse record than the Marlins.

 

''The north side of Chicago, along with maybe Boston and St. Louis and the Dodgers -- those are places where baseball draws even if you're not going to make the postseason,'' Kaplan reasoned. ``That's not true in most cities, and I think Miami is more like the rest of the cities. I think it's going to take winning. That's the bottom line.''

 

The Marlins have had but one winning season -- 1997 -- since the team's inception in 1993. And their current winning record is no guarantee they will end up on the plus side come season's end.

 

Just look at the 2000 and '02 Marlins, who also emerged from the break with winning record. Both teams ended up in the red in the won-lost column.

 

Still, signs point to better things for the 2003 club.

 

''There are a lot of baseball fans down here, and I think they're just dying to have a winning team,'' Kaplan said. ``At least in the short run, fans are excited and they're just hoping they'll have a fun summer.

 

'I think the fans, at least from the reaction I get, [are saying], `We don't know what's going to happen in the future, but they're showing some positive stuff now.' My perception is that fans want so much to have a winner that they're embracing them . . . and hoping the shoe doesn't fall later.''

 

Reasoned Rosende, tickets in hand: ``Why should we give something to them if they're not going to give anything back? At least they're making an effort this year, and they have to be applauded.''

I read this article, its pretty good. Theres another offering midseason grades for the Marlins which is good as well.