It will be difficult to capture the impact on the city. They'll give it a big shot but it cant be enough.
In occasional posts I've tried to describe what it was like. Heading to school you knew the home room teacher would comment on the Dolphins game, particularly if it were Monday following a game and Friday preceding. You wondered what was wrong with him if he didn't throw in a mention at least once on Tuesday through Thursday. Sitting at the counter at a Royal Castle it was inevitable the people surrounding you would comment on the Dolphins, along with the burger flipper. Once he nearly forgot my birch beer while arguing with the guy next to us. I think it was about Hubert Ginn's penchant for fumbling, and whether Mercury Morris should replace him as kickoff return specialist.
The city would be in an uproar if we weren't featured on halftime highlights of Monday Night Football. And I have to laugh when these local radio stations announce that sports talk began on their station in 1986, or whatever. It may not have been labeled sports talk but every AM talk show was flooded with Dolphins chat in the early to mid '70s. I promise you. I participated, even as my voice was changing. In fact, I'd get ribbed about that by certain hosts and callers. There was a regular group of recognizable callers for years, on WIOD, WKAT and everywhere. It's ridiculous when the current generation thinks no information was available in those years, or that nobody knew anything about the draft prospects, etc. It was 1972, not 1492.
Regarding how it impacted modern Miami, not much. The demographics have shifted severely. Very difficult to find locals who remember that team. Not impossible, but sliding, far beyond what the 40 years should have meant in that regard. My friends who cherished that era with me are now in Tampa or Pennsylvania or Charlotte or you get the picture.
And we obviously didn't learn any lessons from those early '70s teams, not with a disastrous stadium in a disastrous location. I read a long related thread a week or so ago. Some posters took exception with the stadium labeled bad and the location labeled bad. Unbelievable. That's the primary variable that can't be captured in a film or documentary or whatever you want to label it, the overpowering impact of the Orange Bowl on a visiting team when the home team was sturdy. You almost couldn't measure it in standard terms. I had that discussion many times with head Las Vegas oddsmaker Michael Roxborough. It wasn't a field goal or even a touchdown. It was formality. Hardly a coincidence that the same stadium was responsible for the longest pro and college winning streaks. Do the probability on that.
Nowadays we've got the brain dead thinking that a compromise location is ideal. I saw that in one of the threads, that the Panthers spot is sensible. Sure, we're 15 miles from a pulse instead of 30 miles from that guy and 10 miles from that guy, so let's break ribbons and start digging. Wayne Huizenga unfortunately shared that ignorant viewpoint. That's why I don't want a businessman. I didn't want the 47% businessman and I don't want anybody who believes compromise is the spot for a stadium, instead of smack in a big city with all the passion and intimidation that brings. The Heat built on the water. They know what they are doing, at every turn. Rings followed. The Panthers set up shop on the edge of the Everglades and basically were not heard from again. Unfortunately, our decision making in the '70s was along the lines of the Heat, and in this era it resembles the Panthers. Something happened in the '80s to screw us in the wrong direction. I still haven't fully figured it out. You can't pin it solely on Robbie's decision to build that stadium in that spot, although it's certainly the worst move in franchise history.
