January 23, 200422 yr IN MY OPINION What must Marlins do to win over fickle fans? Why think fans would show at a new Marlins stadium? DAN LE BATARD dlebatard@herald.com Dan Le Batard The Marlins might be good enough to visit the White House today, but they're evidently still not quite good enough for you. President David Samson said Thursday his team hasn't sold even 5,000 season tickets yet. This is depressing, unfathomable, inexplicable, damning and probably without precedent in major American sports. As a fan base, we continue to lead the league in awful. Our baseball team may be the best in the majors, but this town remains minor-league. You will not find a sports city in North America, not one, that would treat a defending baseball champion with this kind of yawn. Sure, the Marlins won the World Series a couple of months ago, but what have they done for us lately? Some numbers provided by major-league officials in various cities Thursday: The Tigers, coming off the second-worst season in the history of baseball, have somehow sold more season tickets than the Marlins. The Brewers have, too, despite 11 consecutive losing seasons. The Sacramento River Cats, Dayton Devils and Buffalo Bisons -- all minor-league teams -- sell more season tickets annually than these Marlins. All around baseball Thursday, disbelieving people in sales were stunned the Marlins had sold so few tickets. What more would you like this team to do, South Florida? The Marlins were just crowned the best team in the world (can't do much better than that, right?) They abandoned their philosophy of giving only one-year contracts by making commitments to Luis Castillo and Mike Lowell to keep their core intact even while losing money. They stole Armando Benitez, re-signed their amazing young arms, made a quiet run at Vladimir Guerrero and offered Ivan Rodriguez more than he was worth at his age. Bandwagon South Florida would have been real quick to start whimpering if the Marlins had dismantled again, but where are the rewards for not doing so? This market, it seems, cares only enough to complain. The Cubs do a little winning last season and their season-ticket base jumps from 16,000 to 28,000. The Angels win the World Series in what has never been a sports town and their base immediately jumps by 8,000 to 21,000. The Red Sox, with by far the most expensive seat in the sport, have a waiting list for season tickets that is longer than Florida's entire list, period. IMPROVING IMAGE ''It's hard to compare any other city to here because of the ill will that was here when we arrived,'' Samson said. ``We were hated for stuff that we didn't even do. The environment was the worst, and people thought we were a joke as recently as six months ago. We thought winning the World Series would be great but knew it wouldn't cure all that ails the Marlins. We're still trying to recover. The World Series didn't heal us. It just expedited the recovery process.'' Samson, to his credit, tries to put a positive spin on his predicament. He points out the team has sold more season tickets than it had last year at this time, which is like saying being in a coma is better than being dead. And he expects sales to increase now that Florida's broadcasters and select players are calling season-ticket holders personally and asking them to renew. Hey, maybe begging will work. Winning certainly hasn't. ''There are only two directions every team is going, and we're going in a good one,'' Samson says. ``We just have to keep improving our relationship with our fans. We're just trying to get the feelings from negative to neutral.'' MOVE STILL POSSIBLE Not to be alarmist, but there remains the very real risk the Marlins won't be here much longer. If a stadium doesn't get built, management is going to have to think about moving the team. An example of why: The lease is so bad that the one making about 90 percent of the money on those bulging World Series suites that went for $20,000 a pop was H. Wayne Huizenga. What are the chances of relocation? ''I don't want to talk about that,'' Samson said. 'We're not saying `or else.' We're not saying 10,000 season-ticket holders or else. Or new stadium or else. We're not going the threat route. But the day we announce the stadium deal is the day the Florida Marlins are here forever. We wouldn't invest in the team this way and try so hard for a stadium if we didn't believe the market would respond.'' Ah, yes, the stadium as cure-all. New stadiums in Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Detroit have done little for consistent attendance, and now Milwaukee is betraying its fan base, trading away its best player (Richie Sexson) and cutting payroll after suckering the city into a stadium deal. There is nothing to stop the Marlins from doing the same, and past betrayals have eaten up South Florida's trust, but now you have to ask yourself this, too: If a champion can't appreciably increase and sustain interest, why would a new building? Well he does have a point on how us fans still havent gone out their and bought any season tickets but I would like to see the number of season tickets sold after Fanfest to come to a real conclusion. My Dad plans to buy at least a 20 game package this year and we probably we still go to some other select games. Also where are all the so called true Marlins fans that say they arent bandwagoners? I wanna see if they actually show up this year. Article
January 23, 200422 yr They are true DaGreatOne. This town is horrible. I love all the bandwagoners who took the best seats in the playoffs don't show up because "Another firesale after Lee was traded." Ed Kaplan and Big O on QAM are the only guys on their besides Joe Rose, Boog Sciambi, and Dave Van Horn, that are really fans of the Marlins. And they have stated the fickality of the fans down here and how they don't deserve to have a team the way they treat them...
January 23, 200422 yr Author They are true DaGreatOne. This town is horrible. I love all the bandwagoners who took the best seats in the playoffs don't show up because "Another firesale after Lee was traded." Ed Kaplan and Big O on QAM are the only guys on their besides Joe Rose, Boog Sciambi, and Dave Van Horn, that are really fans of the Marlins. And they have stated the fickality of the fans down here and how they don't deserve to have a team the way they treat them... Yeah I know thats what pissed me off, all the bandwagoners taking all the good seats while I ended up in the upper deck outfield during the WS and now they dont even show for the regular season. Its hopeless down here. :banghead
January 23, 200422 yr Well if hes numbers are true then yes I do. If the numbers are true we should all pay attention. 5000 season tickets for a World Series champ? Disgraceful. Those 41 ticket flex plans are dirt cheap. There's no excuse. :headscratch
January 23, 200422 yr They are true DaGreatOne. This town is horrible. I love all the bandwagoners who took the best seats in the playoffs don't show up because "Another firesale after Lee was traded." Ed Kaplan and Big O on QAM are the only guys on their besides Joe Rose, Boog Sciambi, and Dave Van Horn, that are really fans of the Marlins. And they have stated the fickality of the fans down here and how they don't deserve to have a team the way they treat them... Yeah I know thats what pissed me off, all the bandwagoners taking all the good seats while I ended up in the upper deck outfield during the WS and now they dont even show for the regular season. Its hopeless down here. :banghead There are people in my school, like LCastillo was the only one to where Marlins shirts ever at the school (I didn't have any, grew out of them) and was the only person to talk about the Marlins. And all of a sudden, out of the blue, all these Pinecrest bandwagoners get the ticks to the World Series with many in my school who probably didn't even know two licks about the Marlins after 97' and before September. :thumbdown
January 23, 200422 yr how is he ripping the marlins? seems like lebatard is ripping the fans not the marlins.... your hatred for the man clouds your views tremendously.
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