Marlins Park Construction

[marlins739]

I wonder if those are the original Orange Bowl letters from the sign on the old stadium.



Where are those pictures from?

[stumpmerrill]

I read that those letters are the letters from the OB sign. i forget where I read it but if i find the article I'll post the link.

[threeyoda]

I got them from stadiumpage.com

[Paul W]

those letters really say - "we got you to pay for this, suckers!"

[rantanamo]

I think it looks great. Glad to see a few stadiums that aren't following the traditional brick designs. Especially in areas where it isn't really traditional to that area.

[Mattingly85MVP]

Does anyone know what these letters are for and what they're supposed to say? I also found a pretty cool picture, which is the last one.

looks like a huricane scrambled them, maybe that's the idea

[marlins739]

The first roof track beam was lifted into place today on the north side. It gives you a nice cross-section view of the stands behind the plate now too.

[Twins91871977]

Major league baseball wanted them to use the name Florida so that they would be followed thru the whole state. I thought it was ridiculous, and it really became ridiculous when they put a team in Tampa Bay.

Hey, I too really like Uggla. He is not always the best fielder, but he is adequte, and he sure can hit.

So why are the Rangers still called the Texas Ranger instead of the Dallas Rangers. There already is a Houston Team there, that's probably more popullar in the state of Texas.

[marlins739]

How are the "Florida Marlins" any worse than the "Minnesota Twins" or "Arizona Diamondbacks" or "Colorado Rockies"? There was no guarantee that another team would ever show up in Tampa. And if so, our name is no worse than the "California Angels", who had no hope of converting the entire state, much less their own market. The Texas Rangers are like the Buffalo Bills, in that the entire name is necessary to make it make sense.

[DJ Starion]

There's always the Los Angeles Lakers, which made more sense in Minneapolis. LOL

[BigMac1212]

So why are the Rangers still called the Texas Ranger instead of the Dallas Rangers. There already is a Houston Team there, that's probably more popullar in the state of Texas.

There's a group of marshalls calld the Texas Rangers. Remember Walker, Texas Ranger?

[BigMac1212]

BTW, I reallylike the outfield dimensions. The deep outfield should make this ballpark a pticher's haven.

[dabigyankeeman]

BTW, I reallylike the outfield dimensions. The deep outfield should make this ballpark a pticher's haven.

Thats gonna ultimately hurt attendance, people love home runs, homers are one of the things that brings people out to the ballpark. Check out Mets fans threads on forums and you will see all the complaining about the fact that the new stadium is much harder to hit home runs in. Just my opinion, we all like different things. But 64 balls were hit in the new park of the Mets this year that would have been homers in Shea but were not homers in this park, thats a really high figure, almost one a game since they play 81 home games.

As to the state name instead of a city name, thats fine in a state thats basically one big city, but not in a place like Florida where you have a ton of well known cities with major attractions. Also, once a second team gets in a state, any team with a state name should switch to a city name.

[marlins739]

There's always the Los Angeles Lakers, which made more sense in Minneapolis. LOL

Same with the Utah Jazz, which worked much better in New Orleans. Too late to change it now. At least we don't have the Texas or Minnesota Senators or Colorado Nordiques. I always interpreted "New York Islanders" to refer to the state since they don't play in the city. How do people feel about the New York Giants and Jets, who don't even play in the same state? At least the Nets and Devils are honest about where they play.

As for the dimensions of the new ballpark, the idea was to closely mirror the playing field at the Dolph. A quick search shows that the Dolph is right in the middle of the pack for home runs given up in the NL. In 2008, it was in 8th place in the National League. We don't know how the new park will deal with winds with the roof and outfield panels open, but with the roof closed, it should play like the Dolph in that regard. The front office has long tried to build the team around pitching because of the spacious outfield at the Dolph, and that will probably continue.

[Paul W]

MARLINS OWNER STARTS THE SQUEEZE THE TAXPAYER/FANS...

more reality from "field of schemes" http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/a...s_prez_bu.html

Marlins prez: Buy tickets now, before they're partly gone!

The new Florida Marlins stadium is 22% complete, team president David Samson announced yesterday, which is apparently the magic number for trying to scare people into grabbing up season tickets before they're all gone. This is admittedly tricky when your season ticket base is only 5,000 fans, but Samson still gave it the old college try:

"The response has been, 'well, listen, I know I'm going to get in the area I want, so there's no rush'," Samson said. "What I'm telling them is 'listen, some of these areas are going to be sold out before you have a chance.' So for example, I've had people who want to buy the front row in our new batter's box we haven't announced what the name is but it's coming. The front row is sold out, it's done. Front row behind the dugout, those areas are sold out.
"If you don't have your place in line, the seats you think you're going to get aren't going to be available. I think the urgency will come. There was a far greater, like with the Twins, a far greater increase the year before [the new ballpark opened] than two years before. So I think we're still a year away from the big bump," Samson said. "I still expect more fans this year, we have a good team that's worth supporting, we have a ballpark that's coming up, there is no more excuse, other than no roof and no air conditioning."
I can see it now: "Come see your 2010 Marlins! Or else you might have to sit in the second row in 2012! Also, the players union made us actually re-sign some of our players this year!"

Joking aside, this will actually be an interesting test of whether the Marlins' legendary attendance woes are the result of a bad stadium, as team execs insisted, or of a fan base that has better things to do on summer evenings. (Not to mention a slight shortage of spending money.) If I'm the Tampa Bay Rays, I'd want to time my big stadium push for 2012, when the Marlins' stadium honeymoon is in full effect, because if other small-market teams' experience holds true, it might not be long before attendance falls back to pre-new-stadium

MORE SQUEEZING TO COME...