Salguero: Dolphins still struggling to sell tickets

They just renovated their stadium, beautifully I might add, the fans absolutely love it. They say its because the renovation gest them closer to the action.

 

Dude. I don't set fire to my tickets.

Somebody is always sitting in my seats.

I am the BEST fan to have

 

Better to watch at home and the stadium experience
Id terrible

 

What?

You choose to stay at home because you don't like the experience at the stadium?

 

no..... home is better

 

I was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Kansas. There are no local teams. It's why I can say my favorite football team is the Dolphins, my basketball team is the Lakers, my baseball team is the Mariners, and my hockey team is the Aves.

 

I agree the only dolphin game i was glad to go to was one of the preseason games vs the redskins got to see sean taylor live before he died

 

I don't understand what your point is. I'm not from Michigan, so even were I inclined to that form of provincialism I wouldn't be a Lions fan. And the Lions do sell tickets, otherwise they never would have been able to afford funding any part of Ford Field.

 

Well, that sucks Sec...for the team, and the fans.

 

3 sports teams (not including the Panthers) are vying for revenue.
Between those teams,the Economy and the lower income that comes with living there. It's no wonder they would have a hard time with selling tix.
If it weren't for the opposing teams fans (snow birds) not living there,or traveling to go to a game in SFlorida(weather) ,it would be worse.

 

I'm a few more hours away than I used to be. But honestly, spending Sunday at my leisure, watching the games from my recliner on the big screen, in the A/C, with affordable food and drink is tough to beat.

It's a lot more convenient, comfortable, cost-effective and I haven't blown my entire day on it.

Doesn't make me a bad fan. It makes me exactly what the NFL wanted when they began offering Sunday Ticket. They put the games on in HD for a reason. And I pay for the privilege.

It's an interesting competition for our entertainment dollars. Either you go to the games (benefiting the owner) or you take advantage of the watch-from-home product (benefiting all 32 owners), which they aggressively market and continuously enhance each year.

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That's what happens when you get rich people paying for lower bowl season ticket seats. (Heat games)

 

I hate to agree but I live about 15 min from philly and the fans are pricks up be here but the eagles stadium is always packed even in the 70s and 80s when they sucked.I went to buffalo to see the phins the last couple of years and you could not find an empty seat in that **** hole of a stadium.
2006 was the last time I saw the dolphins and I was shocked because half the stadium was packer fans.Hell I was staying in fortlauderdale and I could not believe they had an eagles bar,steelers bar and pats bar all within walking distance of my hotel.If you tried that in philly you would be shutdown real quick.

 

Have to agree with you on that, I can go see any Denver Broncos game that I want, but I choose to stay home. Hate the stadium experience. I'm not a crowds type of guy.

 

I think it benefits more than just the owners to go to the games Muck..

I don't get it, if you live in the town where your team plays, and money is not an issue, choosing not to go to the Games hurts the franchise, the culture, and the atmoshere obviously imo..not directed at you personally.

 

Not really. Section at a Dolphin game sucks for everyone else, what with the cigar smoke, back hair and the distracting way the sun shines off the stripper glitter still on his forehead from earlier that morning.

 

Going by that standard, how many good football markets are there?

 

What baseball BS?

 

At most, 20.

 

Pro football does a superb job on TV Presentation. Better than all other sports, IMO. Hence you LOSE something by being at the game.

 

So, you believe that Miami is one of the 12 worst fan bases in the NFL?

Didn't Miami sell out every game up until the 1-15 season?

 

Half the people in South Florida either moved here from somewhere else, or are tourists visiting for a few days. We have attractions for those people so they spend their money, so we can collect taxes, so we can pay for stadium renovations that out of towners on this board complain about.

Getting Eagles, Steelers, and Patriots fans to pay for a stadium just by virtue of taking a vacation here is a pretty good deal.

 

But Miami is made up with 74% of its population born somewhere else than Miami, yet you don't want to give them the same leeway.

And dude, you can't have a good memory, if you don't remember the empty seats at Pontiac Stadium. I'm not sure if the Lions ever sold out Pontiac Stadium even one time when they played there. Most of the time it was half empty.

And they had trouble selling tickets at Ford Field until the last 2 or 3 years.

 

These last two are HUGE factors, and unpopular to believe on this board, but people need to stop putting their heads in the sand. Whether they deserve it or not (and I believe they do) the vast majority of Dolphin Fans really do dislike the owner, and despise the GM. And it is a factor in that many of them have said on radio and such other media outlets, that until Ireland is gone, they won't go. You can believe it or not, you can shake your head at it all you want, but I think you see the results with the empty seats.

 

True, but public perception shouldn't impact the way you do business. Frankly I'd say the majority of people in the world are fairly unintelligent. If they want to not attend games and scream for change that is fine...but if your goal is to win you do what you believe is right.

 

They were in the top 10 most years in capacity % until a few years ago - averaging over 90% capacity every year. People just want to use a hyperbole because it makes them feel better.

But really it gets me when people from other cities that are Dolphin fans complain, yet they sit in another city and don't bother with that team, yet don't give that benefit of the doubt to those that live in Miami. It's just easier to pile on the folks down here.

 

Well most businessmen that ignore their customers as much as the Dolphins have for the last few years run into the same problems you are seeing now. Fans have choices now, and they are definitely exercising their right to spend their money where they want. Right now its not with the Dolphins or Marlins.

 

Okay, I'm going to make this real simple for you. When, as children, we decide what sports teams we want to support, some of us aren't motivated by something like simple provincialism. So, when we live a long ways away from our teams, we are rather disgusted by how the local fans take their team for granted.

tl;dr: I'm a Dolphins fan, not a fan of Miami sports. There is a difference.

 

this is truly how I feel about it. you ever been on the other side of a stadium when a turnover happens on the opposite goal line? Unless you got binoculars you have no idea what happened until its declared by the ref. woo...

 

If they're not Dolphins fans, I don't care. I do care that local fans aren't packing the stadium and making it the most intimidating place to play in the NFL. I remember during a Phins-Chiefs game when the stadium was rocking so hard the team got flagged because nobody on the field could hear a damned thing.

I was born in '85. I didn't move to Michigan until '99. And were I a Lions fan from halfway across the country, I would feel the same way I do about that as I do about the half empty JRS now.

Again, I only ever went to one game there, but the place was packed.

 

It is what it is.

It's the 21st century and the home viewing experience is very good. That is what the team is competing against. And it's on them to make their customers want to be there.

Money is one aspect and time is another. I think a lot of people put a value on their time and don't necessarily want to deal with the traffic, the parking, etc.

To me, the sooner they can shade the fans and get them closer to the action, the better. The prospect of frying in the heat with the sun beating down grows less attractive by the year.

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I am not shocked the team can't sell tickets. Any old fan is very frustrated. This team has not been in a Super Bowl in almost 30 years.

 

That view holds true for me. The Braves should be the team I rooted for before the Marlins existed, but I have a been Yankees fan since I was a small child. Those old black and white films cemented my love for that team.

 

Having lived in South Florida for over 50 years, I have accepted that the majority of the residents in the area will only support a team when it is winning. I have seen it happen with the Miami Hurricanes, the Marlins , the Heat, and now with the Dolphins.

People can complain all they want about the fans in South Florida, but winning is all this area has ever been about. In the 1970's the University of Miami almost stopped playing football because of low attendance. It wasn't until the Hurricanes started winning on a consistent basis and became one of the top college football programs in the 1980's that fans started attending games in large numbers.
As the football team has struggled on the field in recent years, attendance has declined.

Last year the Marlins had the lowest attendance in major league baseball history for a team playing in a brand new station. Of course the Marlins also had one of the worst baseball teams in major league baseball in 2012. Fans turned out to see the team early in the season, but once the Marlins showed they weren't very good, attendance declined as the season progressed. This year the Marlins have lost over 50% of their season ticket holders from 2012.

Prior to LeBron James coming to the Heat, the arena was barely three quarters filled for Heat games. In fact the Heat often covered seats with tarps in the upper areas of the arena so all the empty seats wouldn't be shown on TV. The Heat signed James and Bosh and won the NBA championship in 2012. For the last two years, Heat tickets have been hot items and the stands are full for Heat games. South Florida fans love winners and they have the money to purchase tickets for winning organizations.

The Dolphins have not been a winning team in recent years and many South Florida fans are taking a wait and see approach concerning the 2013 season. These fans want to see wins on the field before they start forking over the hundreds of dollars it cost to attend the games in person. Especially when all the home games in recent years have been shown on local TV.

People can complain all they want to about how bad the local fans are in supporting their local teams, but the reality is that this has always been how the fan base has been in South Florida. People living in South Florida have many options of how to spend their entertainment dollars. If local teams put a consistent winning product on the field, people will spend these dollars to go to the game. If the team is consistently losing, these same people will find other places to spend these dollars.

So if you want to bit** and complain about the South Florida fans, go ahead. Just understand that it isn't going to change the the attitude of the South Florida fans at all. If the Dolphins want to sell more tickets to their games, they need to start winning more games than they lose. Signing big name free agents and drafting a QB in the first round isn't going to sell more tickets. What will sell more tickets is if these free agents and the QB turn this team into a winner.

 

So basically it all derives from fairweather fanhood?

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Unfortunately that is the attitude for many local fans. Personally I think Ross has made a serious error in recent years by buying up the seats to ensure the game would be on local TV. Last year the Dolphins had the lowest TV ratings for an NFL team in its local area. They also had one of the lowest stadium attendance in the NFL.

If Ross wants to get more fans into the stadium. First he needs to put a winning product on the field. Next he needs to stop buying up all the seats which are not sold the week of each home game. This will force fans to either purchase seats to see the game or miss the game entirely. The attitude of many fans is that there is no reason to go to the games when they can just sit in their comfortable chair at home, in the air condition and watch it. Why spend hundreds of dollars going to a game when Ross will buy up the tickets and they can stay home and watch it for FREE?

 

Call it what you want. It is what it is and no amount of complaining about the local fan base is going change the fact that this area is about one thing only and that thing is, WINNING.

 

As opposed to the fanbases that aren't about winning?

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Obviously every fan base is about winning. Yet in many areas, fans still continue to turn out in large numbers when their team isn't winning. That is not the case here in South Florida and it never has been.

As a Miami Dolphin fan since 1966 and a season ticket holder for over 35 years, I would love to see the stadium filled each week. I just have lived here long enough to understand that many fans are not going to spend the money to attend games unless the team is a consistent winner. The Dolphins have a hard core group of fans who will show up no matter what the teams record is. Unfortunately this hard core group will only fill up a little less than two thirds of the stadium each week, while the opposing team usually has a large following inside the stadium. Especially if it is a team from New York, New England, Chicago, or Philly.

I just find it rather ridiculous that some people on here complain about the Miami fan base when this has been the same type of fan base local teams have been dealing with for decades. I think much of this is due to the fact that many of these people complaining about the South Florida fans don't live down here and they have no real knowledge of the history of South Florida fans. Many of these people root for the Dolphins, but they live in parts of the country where they see local fans providing better support for their teams, whether they are winning or not. For most of us who live in the area, we just accept that it is what it is and it isn't going to change by complaining about the fair weather fans in the local area. These fans certainly don't care about what we might say about them. They are too busy spending their money on all the other activities they can enjoy in beautiful South Florida.