(I posted under "Don King")

 

Population of Palm Beach County is about 1,200,000 and growing.

10 year growth has been 35% and growing.

Population of the City of West Palm Beach is about 84.000.

 

I don't know what population base is necessary for a stadium but growth has moved progressively from Dade to Broward and now to Palm Beach County.

Well, there is 1,700,000 people in Broward, and 2,300,000 in Dade so f*** PBC.

Personally, I would rather see a stadium in Dade county supported by the people that live there. But the reality is that wont happen. For one, the county and city refuse to help for whatever reason. Now, I am coming around on a Broward/Palm Beach county stadium. It will be more supported there - but I would hope that the Marlins keep their 'Florida' tag if that was the case. I think if the counties can put together an offer, the Marlins should take it. I for one am moving to Chicago, but I still will follow this team as it is my favorite. But to see them move from Florida or get contracted would be a grave mistake, a tragedy - and it would be EVERYONE's fault in S. Fl for allowing that to happen. Get a stadium, I dont care where.

Personally, I would rather see a stadium in Dade county supported by the people that live there. But the reality is that wont happen. For one, the county and city refuse to help for whatever reason. Now, I am coming around on a Broward/Palm Beach county stadium. It will be more supported there - but I would hope that the Marlins keep their 'Florida' tag if that was the case. I think if the counties can put together an offer, the Marlins should take it. I for one am moving to Chicago, but I still will follow this team as it is my favorite. But to see them move from Florida or get contracted would be a grave mistake, a tragedy - and it would be EVERYONE's fault in S. Fl for allowing that to happen. Get a stadium, I dont care where.

smart move sticking with the Marlins while you move to Chi-town. switching over to the Cubbies would be, as we all have seen, damning yourself to a lifetime of pain.

 

i would love a Dade county stadium too, but we can't afford to fart around on this thing. we've got a window of about 5 months maximum to get something in motion for a new stadium, or else Lowell and this team are gone. Dade has had the chance to make a new stadium work, but they don't want to make something happen, then f$*k 'em, we gotta make it happen somewhere else. Because hell - if you think that Dade county would feel neglected if the team played in Palm Beach county, how do you think they'd feel if the team played in New Orleans or North Carolina?

i'm originally from palm beach county, so i can vouch for the fact that it has one of the fastest rates of percentage growth of any metropolitan county in the country. martin and st. lucie counties are also two very fastest growing counties.

 

but one must keep in mind a few things:

 

1) percentage growth is a very deceiving figure. in terms of numerical population expansion, broward and dade counties are #1 and #2 respectively in the state of florida. one reason for palm beach's, martin's, & st. lucie's rapid rate of growth is because of their relatively small and sparsely-distributed population in an underdeveloped area. heck, the fastest growing counties in the state are osceola, sumter, and gilchrist counties.

 

2) in reality, the population density of a given metropolitan area is the biggest contributor to a stadium's attendance. palm beach's population density is much smaller than that of palm beach and broward.

 

3) the location of a stadium in mangonia park (northern palm beach county) would make it even more difficult for attendance to rely on any nearby population base. the drive from dade and broward is inordinately long, especially for weeknight games. in physical distance, boca raton is as close to mangonia park as it is to pro player stadium. in reality, a very meager population base will have to drive long distances to fill the seats.

 

4) contrary to what don king would have us believe, the population is NOT "moving north". the population in dade and broward counties continues to grow quickly.

 

5) one must keep in mind that the population growth of an area is directly related to the DENSITY and DEVELOPMENT of an area. metropolitan cities like boston and chicago have relatively low population growth, yet one couldn't possibly favor west palm over them for a ballpark.

 

7) dade county is one of the few counties in this state with a large latin american population and an urban infrastructure. it is one of the few places where a professional sports team can draw from a dense, large local population for attendance and TV viewership. why do you think ALL major pro sports teams are in urban cities?

 

if palm beach county seems like it might one day become large enough to support a financially viable (and competitive) baseball franchise, i think it would be smarter to wait until that happens before moving the team there. maybe in thirty years the team can move there, but i doubt it will ever be as large as miami-ft. lauderdale.

Put it in Hialeah! Hialeah Marlins!

Put it in Hialeah! Hialeah Marlins!

I wouldn't mind Hialeah as long as they got a better transportation system and roads. I know they have metrorail through there, but frankly, Hialeah is worse then Canes games with driving and parking in Little Havana.

Hialeah has horrible traffic problems. A stadium makes it a nightmare.

I'm leaning towards Broward. Northern Broward. If I remember correctly, there is a lot of vacant land on both sides of the Saw Grass Expressway, and that road connects directly to all major South Florida arteries.

I'm leaning towards Broward. Northern Broward. If I remember correctly, there is a lot of vacant land on both sides of the Saw Grass Expressway, and that road connects directly to all major South Florida arteries.

I would rather it be on a waterfront, personally, I wouldn't mind it in Broward, but that works...

I'm leaning towards Broward. Northern Broward. If I remember correctly, there is a lot of vacant land on both sides of the Saw Grass Expressway, and that road connects directly to all major South Florida arteries.

I would rather it be on a waterfront, personally, I wouldn't mind it in Broward, but that works... What waterfront property? There's none left to build on, and we need to build a stadium anywhere. They're not going to by a piece of waterfront property.

Put it in Hialeah! Hialeah Marlins!

I wouldn't mind Hialeah as long as they got a better transportation system and roads. I know they have metrorail through there, but frankly, Hialeah is worse then Canes games with driving and parking in Little Havana. city of hialeah cant even afford garbage trucks!

And how many of those people in West Palm Beach are senile old men pissing themselves in nursing homes? Wait...isnt that who we want to attract to baseball games

Washington DC Marlins? Hmm, I like the sound of that. Sign me up! Only if they then move to Lancaster in a few years and then back to Miami when I grow old.

 

Nevermind. Just buy me the Extra Innings package.

Put it in Hialeah! Hialeah Marlins!

I wouldn't mind Hialeah as long as they got a better transportation system and roads. I know they have metrorail through there, but frankly, Hialeah is worse then Canes games with driving and parking in Little Havana. city of hialeah cant even afford garbage trucks! :lol

A few ideas...

 

1) The area where Lockhart Stadium is. Lockhart was used for the Fusion and Ft. Lauderdale is just for the Orioles spring training. Couldn't they buy the land?

 

2) Could they buy the land where Dania Jai-Alai is now? It's almost always empty, the Dania location just doesn't draw anymore...

i think the team ownership is pretty dead-set on putting the stadium in dade county. if you think about it in terms of potential, it lets them capitalize on a much larger potential fanbase (hispanics) in dade county.

 

in terms of driving, a stadium in downtown miami would drastically cut down on the driving time for the bulk of the populace in south and west dade, while only adding another 15 minutes for those coming from the north. of course, we've already beat this point to death, so i'll stop there.

 

but i'm convinced the marlins have 0 interest in relocating to broward, especially after the panthers fiasco. if i owned the team, i'd probably feel the same way because of dade's much greater baseball-friendly upside (hispanics).

i think the team ownership is pretty dead-set on putting the stadium in dade county. if you think about it in terms of potential, it lets them capitalize on a much larger potential fanbase (hispanics) in dade county.

 

in terms of driving, a stadium in downtown miami would drastically cut down on the driving time for the bulk of the populace in south and west dade, while only adding another 15 minutes for those coming from the north. of course, we've already beat this point to death, so i'll stop there.

 

but i'm convinced the marlins have 0 interest in relocating to broward, especially after the panthers fiasco. if i owned the team, i'd probably feel the same way because of dade's much greater baseball-friendly upside (hispanics).

The team will be dead set on Dade up until the point when they determine that they won't be able to get the money that's necessary out of MDC. If that happens then they'll be dead-set on another county.

 

Please don't drag the Hispanic fan demographic out and parade it around, either. Fact is people don't go to games now, regardless of their ethnicity. This Hispanic angle has been trumped up since the very moment an MLB team was thought of as a possibility in South Florida, and it turns out Hispanics are just like everybody else...They don't go.

 

As for the Fish not having interest in Broward. I bet if a couple of months pass and Dade hasn't offered the team any hope they are going to start developing a lot of interest in Broward.

Broward would be ideal as it is geographically centered WRT to the fan base. The Dania Jai Alai site sounds like a great idea. How about Pompano where the Goodyear blimp is housed?

but we can't afford to fart around on this thing.

LMAO, thats Granados line :lol (inside joke)

Let's be honest here, now that we know Miami-Dade won't give the Marlins land and won't fund it, what makes it more attractive? The Hispanic fan base? I don't buy it, sorry. As Fillet said, the ethnicity doesn't matter. Buying a site like Dania Jai-Alai which is easily accessable from US1, A1A, 595, the turnpike and the Sawgrass, would seem to be feasable.

 

Lockhart is a little more difficult to access but could be made easier.

Please don't drag the Hispanic fan demographic out and parade it around, either. Fact is people don't go to games now, regardless of their ethnicity. This Hispanic angle has been trumped up since the very moment an MLB team was thought of as a possibility in South Florida, and it turns out Hispanics are just like everybody else...They don't go.

 

As for the Fish not having interest in Broward. I bet if a couple of months pass and Dade hasn't offered the team any hope they are going to start developing a lot of interest in Broward.

IMO Best Demographics Perspective is above.

 

 

 

IMO Best location ideas focus on Broward, including:

 

Dania Jai Alai

 

Along Saw Grass Expressway

 

Pompano (Goodyear Blimp site)

 

Bottom-Line... we must keep Florida Marlins in SOUTH Florida.

A few ideas...

 

1) The area where Lockhart Stadium is. Lockhart was used for the Fusion and Ft. Lauderdale is just for the Orioles spring training. Couldn't they buy the land?

 

2) Could they buy the land where Dania Jai-Alai is now? It's almost always empty, the Dania location just doesn't draw anymore...

The Lockhart / Ft. Lauderdale stadium site is almost large enough, but you would need about 8 Dania Jai-Alai properties to build a stadium.

Are you sure about the Jai-Alai? There would be a definate need for extra land for parking but I don't think that much extra land. Can anyone find out how much land the Dania Jai-Alai complex is built on?

 

And the Lockhart stadium area, they could always maybe buy out the Executive Airport if necessary, but remember we're talking about two stadiums and two stadium parking lots already in existence. Although now that I think about it, it may be necessary to buy the airport anyway, even if the land is large enough.

Please don't drag the Hispanic fan demographic out and parade it around, either. Fact is people don't go to games now, regardless of their ethnicity. This Hispanic angle has been trumped up since the very moment an MLB team was thought of as a possibility in South Florida, and it turns out Hispanics are just like everybody else...They don't go.

i'm almost positive you live in broward. okay, i just checked, you actually live in palm beach county (boca).

 

people who aren't from dade county don't realize that this stadium is essentially NOT in dade county and is NOT capitalizing on the bulk of the populace in the south and west. people who aren't from dade don't realize how traffic works during weekday evenings in dade county.

 

pro player stadium is a good location for sunday dolphins games, but it's not suitable for weeknight evening baseball games.

 

you probably didn't know this, but driving from south miami to PPS takes LONGER than driving from boca raton for a weeknight evening game.

 

how ridiculous does that sound to you? the places where the MAJORITY of dade citizens live (kendall, the south, and the southwest) are so far situated from the stadium that people from boca could get there more quickly. these areas of the county are HEAVILY hispanic.

 

i'm not dragging the hispanic fan demographic out and parading it, i'm explaining to you the logic in why the team has ZERO interest in moving north. the "trumped up" "hispanic angle" could never be a factor for a stadium that, for all intents and purposes, is already located in broward county.

 

look at the world series celebrations. compare the 7000 who showed up for the evening rally in ft. lauderdale with the 100,000+ who showed up in the middle of a weekday for the two miami rallies.

 

if it takes longer for a family in heavily-populated south miami to drive to the stadium than it does for a family in boca, you know there's something wrong.