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The Fire Sale Begins: Florida Marlins Fans Need To Show More Support

by Josh Cagliani
12/09/2007

The fire sale has started again in Miami.

The Florida Marlins have finalized a deal that will send their two most recognizable players, Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera, to the Detroit Tigers.

After trading away Willis and Cabrera, the Marlins will be younger and more inexperienced than ever.

In return the Marlins will receive six players: Andrew Miller, Cameron Maybin, Mike Rabelo, Burke Badenhop, Eulogio De La Cruz and Dallas Trahern.

How many times can the Marlins sell off their best players and have their fans return the following year? Oh wait, I forgot one thing. The Marlins don’t have any fans, even with Willis and Cabrera on the team.

The Marlins average attendance in 2007 was 16,919, which was last in Major League Baseball, according to ESPN. Since 2001, the Marlins have ranked 26th or worst in average attendance, out of 30 teams.

Dolphin Stadium, the home of the Marlins, seats 36,331 fans for baseball. This means the Marlins average attendance is less than half of the stadium’s seating capacity.

Compare that to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, which seats 36,525 fans according to ESPN. The average attendance at Fenway Park is 36,675. That leaves standing room only in the stadium.

So what does all that mean? It means that the Marlins should get up and leave town, based on attendance levels.

The Marlins obviously have no fan base in Miami and there are other cities in America more deserving of a professional team.

When the Marlins are winning, which is a rarity, they still can’t fill up a stadium. The Marlins won the World Series in 1997 and 2003, but the average attendance was only 2,364,387 and 1,303,215 in those years. Even though 2,364,387 is a good average attendance, it still only ranked 11th in MLB.

I know the Marlins currently have a terrible owner in Jeffrey Loria, but the Marlins should still be supported. Loria single-handedly cost Montreal their team and he may be on his way to doing the same thing to Miami.

How do you think the players feel when they look into the stadium and all they see are empty stands? The Miami area has a huge market and there is no reason why the Marlins shouldn’t have more support. If the Marlins leave they will have no reason to look back.

There are numerous cities just waiting for the opportunity to have a professional team move to their city: San Antonio, Nashville and Charlotte. Marlins fans need to recognize a good thing when they see it and save their team from a departure in Miami.

Miami is in the minority when it comes to having a professional baseball team. Only 30 cities have the honor of saying they have a MLB team.

I understand the Marlins have only been in the League since 1993, but that is more than enough time to develop a fan base and that hasn’t happened. The Colorado Rockies entered the league in the same year and they have had over three million visitors nine times, compared to only once for the Marlins. To make matters worse, the Rockies aren’t a two-time World Series Champion like the Marlins.

For the Marlins, the biggest problem with their stadium is the seating. The park was built for football and baseball followed. The fans sit a good distance from the field, unlike many of the newer stadiums in the country, and the field itself is not conducive to good baseball with its huge alleys and incredible amount of foul territory.

The only way I can see the Marlins staying in Miami in the future is if a new stadium is built. The stadium will have to be equipped with a retractable roof to make the summer heat bearable. The team will either need more private or state money in order to make the stadium a reality.

I am not a fan of the Marlins, but I think it would be a shame to lose a team in that area of the country. Marlins fans should stand up and show some support for their team, no matter what kind of team is on the field. That would be a step towards keeping the Marlins from heading towards seemingly greener pastures.

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