Florida Marlins Editorial
Remember last year when gas prices were up to and often over four dollars a gallon? Gas still is not as cheap as it has been in the earlier half of the twenty-first century, but at least prices have significantly dwindled from those of last spring.
Of course it is hard to disregard that so many people have been laid off from work in this economic disaster of a half of a year, but I can’t help but feeling that this recent, debatably drastic, fluctuation in gas prices may have misled Miami commissioners into forgetting that the United States is still in a fairly serious recession. I am not completely opposed to the idea of building a separate stadium for South Florida’s only Major League Baseball team, but now is certainly not the time to do so.
Talk of building a new stadium had arisen even before the Florida Marlins won the 2003 World Series, along with changing the team’s name to the Miami Marlins. Considering that the Marlins are not the only MLB team in Florida and that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays still keep their city’s namesake, I was always indifferent to a name change as long as the team’s surname keeps fans “doing the fish”.
Do not get me wrong; I completely understand how annoying it must be for a major league team to have to share their only home stadium (which is even named after the other team they share it with). I just cannot say that if I lived in Miami, that it would give me piece of mind to know that the taxes I’m struggling to pay nowadays are being factored in to the 347 million dollars that are being contributed by Dade County.
I can not seem to find a definite price tag on the stadium, though the figures I have looked into put it in a range between five and six hundred million dollars, according to the stadium’s Wikipedia article and local news respectively. Though its cost seems to still be up in the air, at least its completion date seems to be agreed upon to be, being spring of 2012.
So many of my friends who are diehard Marlins fans think that with the team doing as well as they have been this season, (as of April 24, they are 11-4) the fish may be due for another shot at a world series victory. The numbers, especially those earlier this season, make it hard to disprove the fact that this year’s team is one to keep an eye on, but this completely irrelevant as far as I am concerned.
Players get drafted, contracts expire; how do we know that this is going to be the same lineup of players that is going to walk onto the field on opening day and claim the park as their home field? I honestly would not be surprised if between now and the time the stadium opens, that the Marlins walk away with a World Series victory, but I would be as unfazed if their lucky streak ends after a couple of years and only two trophies are brought to the team’s new home.
The future of any professional sports team is not easy to predict, so the only thing that I can assure some of my friends is that the reason for the park’s construction is not solely because the Marlins may be making a comeback.
I remember back in 2003, how I, as I am sure many others were, was called out as not being a true fish fan, as I started following the local team just as I realized they had a legitimate shot at going all the way in the season. Prior to then, Marlins tickets were almost exclusively promoted for starting at only five dollars, and the decision was almost unanimous amongst non-diehards like myself, not to waste an afternoon at a boring game, regardless of the cost.
Would I have paid twenty dollars for those same seats to see an early season game in 2004 though? Probably. By no means am I an avid sports fan, but if I am going to see a baseball game, I wouldn’t mind seeing a team with a reputation.
It is not hard to understand this mentality, and with it in mind, I feel that commissioners should have suggested big, red ‘build the stadium buttons’ tucked under their desks, hidden behind glass marked ‘break in case of world series victory’. Of course it would take years to build the stadium regardless, but I can not help but feeling that the average person with nothing to do on a Saturday night may feel more inclined to see what the new Marlins ballpark is all about if they knew that a team with at least a recent Series victory was playing there.
In our country’s recession, people are not investing in leisure activities as much as they had been; money is tight for most of us. I am not completely opposed to a new stadium for our Florida Marlins, but the time to start building is not now. Commissioners should have put their reveries of a field of dreams on halt and realized that “if you build it they will come,” but only if ‘they’ have money left over from the tax increases used to build ‘it’.
Remember last year when gas prices were up to and often over four dollars a gallon? Gas still is not as cheap as it has been in the earlier half of the twenty-first century, but at least prices have significantly dwindled from those of last spring.
Of course it is hard to disregard that so many people have been laid off from work in this economic disaster of a half of a year, but I can’t help but feeling that this recent, debatably drastic, fluctuation in gas prices may have misled Miami commissioners into forgetting that the United States is still in a fairly serious recession. I am not completely opposed to the idea of building a separate stadium for South Florida’s only Major League Baseball team, but now is certainly not the time to do so.
Talk of building a new stadium had arisen even before the Florida Marlins won the 2003 World Series, along with changing the team’s name to the Miami Marlins. Considering that the Marlins are not the only MLB team in Florida and that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays still keep their city’s namesake, I was always indifferent to a name change as long as the team’s surname keeps fans “doing the fish”.
Do not get me wrong; I completely understand how annoying it must be for a major league team to have to share their only home stadium (which is even named after the other team they share it with). I just cannot say that if I lived in Miami, that it would give me piece of mind to know that the taxes I’m struggling to pay nowadays are being factored in to the 347 million dollars that are being contributed by Dade County.
I can not seem to find a definite price tag on the stadium, though the figures I have looked into put it in a range between five and six hundred million dollars, according to the stadium’s Wikipedia article and local news respectively. Though its cost seems to still be up in the air, at least its completion date seems to be agreed upon to be, being spring of 2012.
So many of my friends who are diehard Marlins fans think that with the team doing as well as they have been this season, (as of April 24, they are 11-4) the fish may be due for another shot at a world series victory. The numbers, especially those earlier this season, make it hard to disprove the fact that this year’s team is one to keep an eye on, but this completely irrelevant as far as I am concerned.
Players get drafted, contracts expire; how do we know that this is going to be the same lineup of players that is going to walk onto the field on opening day and claim the park as their home field? I honestly would not be surprised if between now and the time the stadium opens, that the Marlins walk away with a World Series victory, but I would be as unfazed if their lucky streak ends after a couple of years and only two trophies are brought to the team’s new home.
The future of any professional sports team is not easy to predict, so the only thing that I can assure some of my friends is that the reason for the park’s construction is not solely because the Marlins may be making a comeback.
I remember back in 2003, how I, as I am sure many others were, was called out as not being a true fish fan, as I started following the local team just as I realized they had a legitimate shot at going all the way in the season. Prior to then, Marlins tickets were almost exclusively promoted for starting at only five dollars, and the decision was almost unanimous amongst non-diehards like myself, not to waste an afternoon at a boring game, regardless of the cost.
Would I have paid twenty dollars for those same seats to see an early season game in 2004 though? Probably. By no means am I an avid sports fan, but if I am going to see a baseball game, I wouldn’t mind seeing a team with a reputation.
It is not hard to understand this mentality, and with it in mind, I feel that commissioners should have suggested big, red ‘build the stadium buttons’ tucked under their desks, hidden behind glass marked ‘break in case of world series victory’. Of course it would take years to build the stadium regardless, but I can not help but feeling that the average person with nothing to do on a Saturday night may feel more inclined to see what the new Marlins ballpark is all about if they knew that a team with at least a recent Series victory was playing there.
In our country’s recession, people are not investing in leisure activities as much as they had been; money is tight for most of us. I am not completely opposed to a new stadium for our Florida Marlins, but the time to start building is not now. Commissioners should have put their reveries of a field of dreams on halt and realized that “if you build it they will come,” but only if ‘they’ have money left over from the tax increases used to build ‘it’.