Went to the game today, I was disappointed with the crowd although it got much better throughout. at the start of the game it was horrid.

 

I bought a 20 game plan thinking I wasn't going to find cheap tickets at all. sigh :/

 

I really hope this city turns it around and starts filling out. This team is for real.

You've also really gotta realize the situations with schooling around Miami schools and colleges and such. Elementary-high schools have FCAT these next couple of days, plus college students have their finals coming up in a couple of weeks, do they not? That's going to put a damper on the attendance if a lot of the younger crowds can't show up.

 

Not trying to make excuses, but that's definitely a legitimate reason, I would imagine.

 

 

I would say this is a pretty good point... lets hope it turns around

Attendance may recover if we can get a few more wins. Castrogate has also not fully died out. I'm still running into a few Cubans who are bitter about the whole Ozzie thing, but most are starting to put that even behind them. Maybe in a few days with a few more wins, people will forget everything about Castrogate and go back to embracing the Marlins.

 

I don't recall people caring when they started off 11-1.

 

Doubt just "a few more wins" is gonna do it.

Well, the idea is that the response will be different now that they're in the new stadium such that any previous start or win streak wouldn't be analogous.

I agree that the case I brought up wasn't completely analogous to the situation at hand. The point I was trying to drive home is that the Marlins won't fill up the seats unless they really prove they're a winning team-and "just a few more wins" isn't going to do it.

Great game today. bats played well pitching was great. awesome night.

Another thing to consider is that the Panthers had another playoff game tonight. You probably lose a few people who wanted to be able to stay home and flip between channels. There will probably be a similar effect for Heat playoff games.

Not really liking any of these "excuses" for the drop in attendance so much...

Here's a Jayson Stary article that discusses the attendance issue. I just barely skimmed it, though, so I don't really know what it says.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7825757/mlb-guillen-back-still-ozzie

Here's a Jayson Stary article that discusses the attendance issue. I just barely skimmed it, though, so I don't really know what it says.

http://espn.go.com/m...ack-still-ozzie

 

Um, I don't think that article discusses the attendance...

Here's a Jayson Stary article that discusses the attendance issue. I just barely skimmed it, though, so I don't really know what it says.

http://espn.go.com/m...ack-still-ozzie

 

Um, I don't think that article discusses the attendance...

"Just a normal night," he said.

 

Inside the park, there wasn't a sign, a banner or a 3-by-5 card that would have let you know anything was different about this night than any other night.

 

Marlins president David Samson said the club had heard from only 13 season-ticket holders who wanted to give back their tickets. He then called all 13 personally, "and 12 of the 13 were quite satisfied," he reported. The 13th still wasn't happy -- but kept her tickets anyway. Or so he said.

 

Samson said not a single sponsor or advertiser had renounced its interest in sponsoring or advertising with the team since Guillen's remarks. Two Cuban-American-owned companies did change their signs inside the park, from touting their own brand to promoting a local charity, the Liga Contra el Cancer. But if there was some sort of massive backlash brewing, it wasn't just latent, it was undetectable.

 

Oh, there was no hiding the fact that, for the first time in the five-game history of Marlins Park, the stands were only half-full. (The announced attendance was 24,544.) But even that, Samson said, was expected.

 

Weeknight ticket sales before school lets out have been slow. Weekends not so slow. Average attendance before this night was more than 33,000. The team still expects, based on sales so far, to average at least 30,000. So anyone trying to connect the dots between "I love Fidel Castro" and the empty seats on Tuesday was looking way too hard for conspiracy theories.

 

But just because this night didn't play out the way Hollywood would have scripted it, or even the way most of us would have imagined a week ago, we would be fools to think life was somehow "normal" again for this team or its manager.

There, butthead.

How is 24,544 "expected"?

Lol Mystikol...The article doesn't discuss the drop in attendance, which is what were discussing.

Lol Mystikol...The article doesn't discuss the drop in attendance, which is what were discussing.

 

Let me make this easy for you:

Oh, there was no hiding the fact that, for the first time in the five-game history of Marlins Park, the stands were only half-full. (The announced attendance was 24,544.) But even that, Samson said, was expected.

 

Weeknight ticket sales before school lets out have been slow. Weekends not so slow. Average attendance before this night was more than 33,000. The team still expects, based on sales so far, to average at least 30,000. So anyone trying to connect the dots between "I love Fidel Castro" and the empty seats on Tuesday was looking way too hard for conspiracy theories.

I see it now. I'm an idiot. The article does "discuss" the attendance drop-though the "excuses" are pretty lame.

 

Thanks for enlarging the text for me.

Np, sir.

The Twins sold out almost every game of the first season at Target Field. There's really no good reason for why the Marlins haven't been drawing 34,000+ for every game on this homestand.

The Twins sold out almost every game of the first season at Target Field. There's really no good reason why the Marlins haven't been drawing 34,000+ for every game on this homestand.

 

 

This.

 

Even with the new park I was and still am skeptical of the team's ability to draw large crowds on a consistent basis. There really aren't any excuses at this point that could be valid. Sorry, but school finals, FCAT's or whatever is a terrible reason. Are there no children in any of the other cities that do well? MAYBE it would be valid a few years down the road but a brand new park and exciting team should be THE ticket in town for entertainment regardless of season. It was really disheartening but not wholly unexpected from my view to see how barren the park looked especially the first few innings.

Dempster on the 24k reported attendance: "It's 20,000 more than they used to get. I think that's what they're looking for."

 

What an @$$. He better get shelled next time we face him for that comment.

Very solid win even though I could only watch the last two innings.

 

Nice to see Hanley become clutch again and for some nice improvements with Johnson and bell.

Also, pretty bad attendance fail tonight. Paid attendance was less than 25,000, which means that there was certainly less than that in the park.

 

If things don't pick up soon, it's going to be hard to imagine the Marlins averaging 30,000+, which would be a pretty big embarrassment.

 

 

They wont average that much.

 

Chicago is actually a pretty popular draw too.... imagine the nights when its Tuesday and the Padres or Rockies are in town.....

 

I think I was being overly optimistic when I said they would do real well this year but have a big drop off next year. Noticed it first last Saturday. Hard to put a finger on it, but the "feel" just wasn't there. More like most were there because it is currently the place to be seen, so they come for the party. It's rather disheartening. A friend has been calling the place Loria's Titanic. Would hate to think he is right.

I'll be at the game tonight. Dreading the drive and parking situation, but I'm going to tough it out.

I'll be at the game tonight. Dreading the drive and parking situation, but I'm going to tough it out.

 

 

I think you will find it's not as bad as some make it out to be. Just stay away from 836. Last time we took the air port exit and got off at 22nd Ave. No traffic til just a few blocks from the stadium on 7th Street. There you will see residents with signs for parking. The closer to the stadium, the higher the price.

 

But that was a Saturday game. No idea how 22nd will be at rush hour during the week.

The Twins sold out almost every game of the first season at Target Field. There's really no good reason for why the Marlins haven't been drawing 34,000+ for every game on this homestand.

 

 

You can't compare Miami to Minnesota. The Twins weren't coming off decades of drawing basically nobody to their games. They had an existing fanbase. They had drawn over 2 million fans to the Metrodome 5 straight years prior to moving to Target Field. The Marlins are basically starting from scratch in terms of people attending games (plenty are used to just watching on TV). It's hard to go from no attendnace to sold out every night, especially on a school night during the week.

 

And the fact that it's a weeknight with school the next day certainly is a factor....it's a factor everywhere in baseball with few exceptions. Weeknight attendance is lower early in the year and gets better during the summer. Washington is in first place and they had 17,000 last night. Atlanta had 18,000, Arizona had 19,000. Even the Yankees had just over 40,000 (78% of their capacity) tonight. The point is, people need to stop over analyzing attendance at the new park. The fact that is we drew 24,000 on a night we used to draw 4,000. That's progress.

I'll be at the game tonight. Dreading the drive and parking situation, but I'm going to tough it out.

 

 

I've gone to 3 games already. parked free every time just a few blocks away. its not a dread at all.

Dempster on the 24k reported attendance: "It's 20,000 more than they used to get. I think that's what they're looking for."

 

What an @$$. He better get shelled next time we face him for that comment.

 

 

Wow Dempster is a spoiled piece of s***

I agree with some of the above posters and I haven't even been to a game at the new park yet but will be soon. You can even tell on TV, it's quite most of the game then Hanley hits a bomb and it goes nuts haha. One thing to consider is the new ballpark people walking around checking out all of the new features and what not. Could be another factor in why it looks empty at first and fills up towards the 2nd and 3rd