Per PFt: Dolphins struggling to keep season-ticket base at 30,000

That's what happens when you have a team that hasn't been good in a while in a market that has the Miami Heat, Miami Marlins, and now the Florida Panthers. Only so much money to go around an I guess people are realizing that they would rather spend their money on a team that is decent. It doesn't help that the fins have been horrible at home. As someone that had front row season tickets and drive from Orlando to Miami to watch the games, a 3.5 hour drive sucks after a loss.

 

For many years after Shula left as head coach, the Dolphins remained the one sports team in South Florida which drew fans, no matter if they were a playoff team or not. In recent years though, these fans have seen the other sports franchises in the market win titles and put competitive teams on the field or in the arena. The Dolphins have instead continued to decline on the field and at the box office.

With the Heat have one of the best pro basketball teams in the NBA, the Marlins now spending money and playing in the newest ballpark in the majors, and the Panthers finally making the playoffs after years of being an also ran in the NHL, and the Miami Hurricane football team also remaining competition for the sports fans dollars. The Dolphins are now in more severe competition for the limits dollars fans can afford to spend on attending games in person.

South Florida has ALWAYS been an area in which a team must win if it expects fans to attend the games. For years the Dolphins were able to maintain a relatively high season ticket base due to all the good will established during the Shula years. This is no longer the case and now the Dolphins are viewed just like every other sports franchise in the South Florida. If they want fans to attend the games now, they have to put a winning product on the field. It is as simple as that and even if some on here think the fans are wrong in not supporting the team at home. The fact is that nearly half the former season ticket holder have given up their tickets over the last decade and there doesn't seem to be the interest from the new Dolphin fans to purchase these tickets.

I know I gave up my season tickets two years ago after attending home games for over forty years. I was told at the time that I would regret it and that the Dolphins would have an easy time finding someone to purchase the four tickets I no longer was buying. It appears though that the Dolphins not only are having a hard time selling my tickets, but they are also having a hard time selling the other nearly 30,000 season tickets which are no longer being sold to former season ticket holder.

I feel that I supported the Dolphins financially for over forty years. I also traveled to nearly 30 away games during this period. I don't feel that I owe the Dolphins anymore of my money until they show me that they actually know how to put a winning product on the field again. Until then, perhaps some of the younger fans who have berated me for refusing to renew my season tickets should start attending games in person if they are truly upset about the lack of fan support in the stadium.

 

The fans don't care, not really, this does not create more pressure on the regime to win IMO...Blackout city baby..relocation next, keep talking your boycott sh$$, fan base...maybe you wont have a team to ***** about one day..with this type of display you surely don't deserve one regardless.

 

This is ridulous bro.. I am not renewing my season tickets because I'm tired of spending money in a tightening economy on a team that hasn't won squat in my lifetime.. Doesn't mean I don't love the Dolphins with all my heart, it just means that in the grand scheme of things, my dollars can go elsewhere where I can get more enjoyment.

The Dolphins are a byproduct of their performance.. Heck if it wasn't for Marino or Shula, this would have happened a long time ago. Fans were riding on their coattails for far to long.

 

I got mad respect for you, and I respect the fact that you didn't renew because you couldn't afford that, but, that's the only reason I respect, nothing else..

The mentality of people not going to the games to support their team until they win is what's ridiculous, lame, and undeserving of a team..

Let's just get it all out on the now, Might as well, the fans here don't care enough...If y'all think not going to games creates more pressure to win, I disagree, I think it shows apathy, which is cancer for a culture...

 

Disagree Deej, the market is what it is, put out an inferior product, expect people to pay for it, don't be surprised when they stop paying for it.

Dolphins have no divine right to season ticket holders if anything this should speak loud and clearly to Ross about what fans think about the direction of the team has been.

You traded away your star Wr, you did not land Peyton Manning, and you stocked the rest of the team with "Parcells guys" who are as exciting as watching water hyacinths floating in a canal.

What you expect?

 

Fact of the matter is, when Saban was here, we had 60k season tix holders, when he left, that dropped down to 50k, nose dived in 08 after 1-15, bumped up to 50k for 09 and has been declining ever since.

Miami is already a blasse' sports town jammed to the rafters with front runner types, you start out 11 at 0-6 and subtracted your Star Wr.

Things are so poorly run a fan daren't buy a Dolphins player jersey b/c you do not know if they will be there for more then 2 yrs.

 

yup,the market is what it is, my point exactly..

You know something, been wanting to say this for a long time, what were talking about right now, players and coaches hearing this crap, seeing how much people don't care, that's the dirty cycle that were in right now..

Maybe Ozzy's is right, maybe those 30,000 fans that show up to the stadium and buy their season tickets will inspire the team,Those are thee best fans we've got, the ones that think boycotting their team is the right thing to do (not for finacial reasons)are not worth my time, and can go screw themselves..

Ozzy, I'd like to pay your way to a game one day..

 

CHEERS to those 30,000 real fans...I hope you will be as loud and crazy as you all can be, start your own movement, calls yourselves "The Crazy 30 K", sell tshirts, hats, banners, go freakin loco man, start it up and I will buy 1 of everything..

 

Pardre is absolutly right why spend money to go and see a crappy offense that has not talent except for Reggie Bush the dolphins wont win anything with the kind of players Ireland brings in the Pats have welker and Brady and the two tightends , the jets have Tebow who will sell more jerseys than our entire offensive players combine.

If i was Ross I would can Ireland ifwe havea no star draft or if we have a bad season next year.

i have confidence in Philbin but i have zero respect for Ireland

 

My new chant Iam gonna trademark it..

"30 K 30K 30K!!!!!! The best fans in the world."

 

Eggxactly Bro, really ugly cycle with very little optimism for 2012.

Think about this Deej, our two highest paid players, really don't make highlight plays.

Fans aren't football junies Deej, they go to be entertained, watching Jake Long block a passrusher just is not that entertaining.

There are reasons why I hold the "big man's game" theory in so much contempt, why not call it what it is?

Bore fans to death whilst speaking of "good football moves"? or "we don't have stars, we have rather boring blue collar players that only people who break down film can possibly appreciate"?

The fact that we peddled Brandon Marshall for the least likely to do squat thing possible, and once again "we need new offensive lineman" and Ireland being to incompetent to realize these things have an effect on fans is among the many failings we have suffered through under his control.

 

I was at almost every game in 2007, even though we were horrible I was still out there screaming.

 

We haven't won playoff game in 12 years.
We've had like 16 starting quarterbacks since 2000.

Seriously, what do you expect? It's been a poorly run organization that has made countless bad decisions that have led them to this point. Get it straight DJ, this is not the fans' fault. This is the Miami Dolphins fault.

You wouldn't pay to see a movie you knew was going to be bad, would you? Would you spend 60 bucks to go to a concert if you knew it was going to be bad music?

 

you are the sh&$ my friend..

I have a request for the mods, any way we can get our prestigious 30 k some sort of banner, I'd like to know who they are..I'll tell ya what they are Imo, better than every other football fan I've ever known, and Iam dead serious..The shi&& their gonna have to go through next year, rooting at the very first neutral site stadium in the league, I hope they catch the attention of our team, and our team can play for them, recognize them, and all come together...

30K baby, get the tshirts printed out, someone will make some money...

 

Not a good comparison for me Eop, Iam not attached to a movie, I could care less about the outcome, I love my fuc&ing team, Iam gonna go and root for THEM, regardless of how I feel about some other issues, Iam gonna continue to nurture our culture so it doesn't get worse than it already is..Iam gonna think before I criticize, put thinks into proper context and perspective, but never will I punish my team with my actions, as along as they play their hardest and toughest, I will never waver in my support, don't know why you should be any different than me.

 

Well, we don't know that we will be a bad team this year, what we do have to go on is Ireland's past history.

We have Misi and Jerry, instead of any of a host of Td scoring Te's, both are likely going to be replaced, we subtracted our best Wr, and added a third rd draft pick and history tells us that rookie Wr's rarely have success initially. We are in cap purgatory, and the guys Ireland did draft who can play like Davis have their contracts expiring at the end of the year meaning we can lose them as well.

On the plus side:

-New Hc who runs a very different offense then any other team in the division which is usually a good thing
-added Garrard who is a fairly good, proven Vet Qb
-relatively weak schedule

What scares the heck out of me is Ireland does what he usually does, slavishly follows Parcells failed blue print and we take some linemen with our first rd pick, the exact same thing he did when he took Pouncey, literally the highest drafted center in the history of the modern draft. Why not double down on the strategy and take DeCastro that way we can have the most highly drafted LT (tied with Stl and MN) the most highly drafted Center and the second highest a LG has ever been drafted?

 

This is what happens when you fire Sparano one year too late and retain Jeff Ireland and also miss every big name pursuit in the process. The fans lose interest. We can sit here and talk about real fans and ra ra this or that but the fact of the matter is it's supply and demand. And there's just not much demand for Dolphins football right now. It's different for those of us on this board. We will always be interested. But to the general population it's really not that hard to fathom why the tickets aren't selling. Most fans are fair weather fans. They show up when the team wins.

 

I feel ya Deej, it is up to the team to earn back the lost interest in them, no other way to say it.

 

For the record, I make it down from Jersey at least once a year. Sometimes twice a year to catch a game.

But I can't say I blame a season ticket holder for not renewing their plans when there seems to be no light at the end of this proverbial mediocrity tunnel, especially in the midst of what is appearing to be a rebuild.

We're talking about thousands of dollars here. But I get what you're saying. You support the players that put on the Dolphins jerseys no matter what. But those season ticket holders are not necessarily protesting. They've just had enough of shelling out thousands of dollars to be disappointed year in year out. And I don't think it's that they can't afford it. It's that they'd rather spend their money on something they will enjoy.

 

Sure we don't know for certain we'll be bad or mediocre this season. And sure, we could make the playoffs.

But there's a reason we're 50-1 to win the Super Bowl. The Miami Dolphins being 9-7 or less is a safe bet.

And before I get the "do you have a crystal ball" responses. No, I don't have one. I'm going by the talent on the roster, the players at the QB position and the recent past as my basis. Padre basically summed it up in his post

 

Possible, we can win ten games, or win 6, winning and losing in the NFL generally comes down to playmakers, or fourth qtr performance of a given unit.

We could win several squekers and wind up with ten wins, or we could be dreadful on offense and win five games, I really do think subtracting Marshall will hurt us more then serious dolfans are ready to admit, we finished 23rd in offense with him, we are very likely to do worse without him.

 

football is fun man, winning and losing is all part of it, fans who don't renew because they want other entertainment that pleases them, can stay gone forever..It's the 30K that is what it's all about, they get it...

 

I don't really see this as a big deal. We're talking about $10M-$12M max in revenue losses for this season, assuming they only sell half the seats available. Make that 75% of tickets sold, and you are only looking at $5M in lost revenue, which is rather small an amount for an NFL organization. Economically, Stephen Ross has a lot bigger fish to fry regarding the team.

 

the season after coming off our lowest point as a franchise was the best season I ever had...you never waver in your support as long as your team is playing hard..and let me tell ya, that team wasn't anything special from a talent perspective.

 

Accountability.

 

Going to hit blackout related revenues and stadium sponsorships as well, typically they are tied to attendance or TV availability of the team.

Which totally is..not my problem, the bigger fish to fry over all of this is losing a generation of Dolphins fans.

 

Well then, I'm a lot different from you.

I do not have fun when the Dolphins lose. And the moments and days following a Dolphins loss are even less fun. I know I'm at fault for taking it too serious, but that's just the way I am.

And unfortunately for the Dolphins, it's been much more losing that winning the past decade. Winning playoff games has not been part of it for Dolphin fans, as you say, and that' the reason for the record low ticket sales

 

Judging by the night club put in the stadium, the celebrity owners, fan vision, and various other publicity stunts, I'd venture to guess that selling tickets is a lot more important to Stephen Ross than you think

 

Me too, iam pissed for days after, so your wrong, your not different than me.

 

Its like that in most cities not just miami.I live 15min of philly and until about 5 years ago you could drive too the stadium on any night and get tickets at the gate for the phillies.Now good luck.Whats the difference?The phillies started winning.When the dolphins start winning again the stadium will be packed again with our fans.

 

It's emblematic of Dolphins fans, more than anything.

This team is not in a particularly bad position now, nor has it been in whatever frame of time you'd like to put it in.

I'd be shocked if teams that were genuinely bad, for a prolonged period of time had these same kind of problems.

 

He's trying to sell tickets because the freakin stadium is half full of our fans as it is..

 

cool, time for a new breed of fan to come into the picture, that's why this 30K can not only inspire a team, but new fans as well...

I can see it now, our team goes around the field and hands out 30,000 Clyde gates tshirts to all the ones that show up opening day..

 

It would be more helpful if Clyde runs a ball into the EZ for a couple of Td's Deej.

 

Completely wrong Padre, its the current fan base. Lets take one example out of many and if you like I will take some time and list many more examples. AZ Cardinals started to improve in 2008 but still sold out the stadium in 2005 2006 and 2007 with the below records. With Warner in 2008 and 2009 they improved immensely, stadium sold out. they dropped off in 2010, stadiium sold out. Point is, prior to Warner coming there in 2008 the AZ Cardinals were literally doormats of the NFL and they still sold the stadiium out once they built a new one with AC.

Personally, the make up of the fan base has changed considerably since Marino last played down there. Rams are no different, no sellouts but consistently sucked from 2002 to present and still averaged over 54,000 per game even during a period of 9 wins and 45 losses.

Its two fold. Football in South Florida blows when its hot. Yes I go but fact remains, it blows sitting in that swamp hole way into October. Second, as I said, fan base has changed considerably. There are many teams around the league that have completely sucked and still either sellout or have packed stadiiums.

I pray daily Ross picks this team up and moves it out here to LA. Would be good for the team, great for me and even better for the NFL. S Florida in short, sucks for football.

Lets look at the Cardinals
2005
5-11
2006
5-11
2007
8-8
2008
9-7
2009
10-6
2010
5-11
2011
8-8

 

Broadening the revenue streams is what's important. Club LIV isnt there to sell tickets, its there to sell bottles of liquor at 1000% markup.

Fan Vision was actually out ahead as a product, and helped push the NFLs current mobile offerings. The reality is that fans in general have much better options for consuming the NFL than they did 5 years ago. It's a lot more attractive to stay home and watch multiple games simultaneously in HD, plus RedZone channel, with your laptop on so you can look at your fantasy match. Selling tickets is just a small part of a teams revenue base, and they've decidedly taken measures to make it smaller.

 

Which teams stink, have not had recent playoff sucess, and still sellout?