New "Florida" Marlin Ballpark

[Warning Track Power]

After reading up and looking at the renderings of the new ballpark in Miami, I couldn't help but think of the monstrosity that has become of Soldier Field. Nothing is as bad as Joe Robbie, Pro Player, LandShark or whatever its called now but man this place just reeks corporate office building and not a ballpark. I hope I am wrong once the stadium is finished but it doesn't look good from my outsiders perspective.

 

Take a look

[trwi7]

This place looks pretty awesome on the inside to me.

http://www.seats3d.com/mlb/florida_marlins/

[dadofandrew]

With the many levels, reminds me of MP.

[pingman]

where's the roof?

[TooLiveBrew]

It's there, ping, just follow the lead post's link.

 

 

This place looks pretty awesome on the inside to me.

 

I agree, in fact, I think it looks amazing overall.

[Dragonbait]

It does have that Miller Park look to it a bit... at least the mail seating bowl and the side walls in the outfield...

[owbc]

I just drove by it on Sunday--it is only about 10 minutes from my apartment :-)

 

There is a long, long list of problems/concerns with this ballpark, but aesthetics is not one of them.

 

The seating bowl is done and they are currently installing the roof. It has a square, sliding roof like Houston. The exterior is definitely modern. None of the styling is done but it is going to match the Miami skyline. There are really no "old" looking buildings here, so it looks fine. The coolest feature will be live fish tanks in the backdrop behind home plate (with really thick glass).

 

Ok, now on to the negative:

 

People in Miami are not really interested in the Marlins. There are plenty of baseball fans here, but most have allegiances to other teams. I'm not sure that a new stadium is going to change that.

 

It's built on the old Orange Bowl site. The destruction of the Orange Bowl has contributed to the decline of the UM football program, since everyone now has to drive 45 minutes to reach the football stadium. The second issue with the Orange Bowl site is that it is in the middle of Little Havana. It is a working class neighborhood with relatively low crime, but it isn't exactly a place where suburbanites and/or people with money for and MLB game would tend to congregate. English is the second language in that area. It's also terribly ugly. To add to that concern, it is not adjacent to a highway. It has no advantage for commuting whatsoever, it was only chosen because the county already owned it. It is relatively close to a highway--the Dolphin Expressway--which is notorious for having the worst traffic in the city of Miami (not to mention it has tolls also). There is no highway interchange being built for the stadium, people will be expected to get off at the nearest exit and go through normal urban city streets. There is not enough parking being built on the site, so many people will be on their own in a dense neighborhood.

 

To further compound the problem, there is no public transportation available to access the stadium. Miami has a nice new Metrorail, but it does not run anywhere near the ballpark. Furthermore, plans to expand the public transportation (which is desperately needed) were put on hold because the county spent all its money on the new Marlins Ballpark. But at least they convinced Loria to change the name to the "Miami Marlins". Basically, going to a weeknight game is going to be a disaster, and I doubt they will do any better than 15,000 fans on weeknights after the first season.

 

The new ballpark is also located about 30-40 minutes away from the old stadium. That is a long distance, especially in a city with traffic problems. It's like moving Miller Park to Oconomowoc. They are counting on a new group of people to start supporting the Marlins that currently does not go to games. I'm sure they will do better than the old place because of the roof, but it is going to do little to help the Marlins as a franchise.

 

Miami-Dade County is cash-strapped and they have a long list of issues that need resolving--and they are spending an astounding $350 million on this stadium--which will balloon to a billion dollars because most of the debt does not have to be repaid until the 2030s. It's just a horrible, horrible deal and it will someday be a model of poor fiscal planning.

 

If people knew what they do now about the Marlins' finances, this would never have been approved.

[Invader3K]

It's also probably going to result in the Rays leaving Florida eventually. Marlins have a new stadium so they are safe, but the Rays can't seem to get one done.

[owbc]

If anything, the Marlins stadium will help the Rays. By moving the stadium into the heart of Miami and changing the name to the "Miami Marlins", Loria and Miami-Dade County have asserted that the Marlins are the property of Miami and not necessarily the surrounding regions.

 

Dolphins Stadium (or whatever it is currently called) is located near the border of Miami-Dade and Broward County. There are 1.7 million people in Broward County (about the whole population of the Milwaukee Metro) that has easy access to Marlins games and will soon have to drive 30-60 minutes to reach the new stadium. There are another 1.2 million people in Palm Beach County that could get to Dolphins Stadium in about an hour that will soon need 1.5-2.5 hours+ to reach the new stadium. Furthermore, most people in Broward and Palm Beach are English-only speaking. Miami-Dade is mostly Latino and has a distinctly different culture than the counties to the north.

 

By moving the ballpark to the heart of Miami, the Marlins have decided to go after the 2.4 million people in Miami-Dade County and not worry about the ~3 million people to the north. It's not necessarily a bad decision by itself--the area is way too spread out to appeal to everyone. However, it specifically associates the Marlins with the Latin American culture base and not the Northeast US migrants that make up a decent portion of Broward and Palm Beach. The Marlins already have been doing this--you will hear music in Spanish at Marlins games and not just on "Los Marlins" night. Basically, there is no incentive for anyone who moved to South Florida from elsewhere to change their allegiance or even care at all about the Marlins. Cable TV has the Rays and the Marlins on, so there is really no reason to prefer one team over the other. The Marlins are trying to become Miami's team, which leaves the Rays to have the rest of Florida that doesn't like the Yankees, Mets, or Red Sox.

[pitchleague]

I don't think I ever knew that about the old Orange Bowl site. For those that have been to Maryvale for Spring Training, this Miami situation sounds just like what Maryvale would be like if they put Chase Field there. No easy highway access; in the middle of a "semi-questionable" area of town; nothing to do there; hardly any parking. Just a mess.

 

I, personally, love Maryvale and have no issue with it for the many times I've been there. But I couldn't imagine putting a big-league park there.

[owbc]

I have talked to people here who went to games at the Orange Bowl and they said it was a complete disaster to get there and park. Most people parked on people's lawns since there were no parking garages or lots. The Orange Bowl held 75,000 people, but the games were on weekends and it didn't always sell out.

 

They obviously considered parking when getting the stadium approved, but there's only so much you can do with a small piece of land. They are building a parking garage that is costing $100 million and holding 5,700 cars. The thought of 5,700 cars in one parking garage is terrifying. For comparison, the Miller Park lots hold 12,500 cars. So imagine crowding half of the Miller Park lots into one parking garage. I'm sure the Marlins fans will end up getting a bad rap for leaving early, but that parking garage is going to be the real reason.

 

I should add that I am excited to check out the new ballpark when it opens next year. I'll buy my tickets for a Sunday afternoon game though.

[sveumrules]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6065119

 

Wow. Only in Florida.

[owbc]

The Marlins should just be thankful that they get to have any home games at all this year. Their lease at Dolphin Stadium ended in 2010 and the Dolphins were not obligated to extend it. From the Dolphins perspective, the concert is certainly more profitable than the 30,000 fans that will show up for a 3-game series.

[ELCABALLO45]

I like it actually. And to me it looks like a lot of different parts of each stadium, but I can defiantly see the Miller Park part.