Dolphins and Miami-Dade close to deal for stadium renovation | Page 2 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Dolphins and Miami-Dade close to deal for stadium renovation

I'm ok with the renovations. To me, they are resolving the issue of having the seats so far away. Plus, the stadium looks very unique - like it.
 
Nublar7 said:
[video=youtube;rDB8jPvXXpY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDB8jPvXXpY[/video]

Can't wait. :)
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Best part of that video was showing the downtown and skyline of Miami... which is absolutely nowhere near Joe Robbie Stadium. I wonder why they didn't show the actual sights around the stadium... airboat rides, crocodiles, rum-soaked mutuel tickets and a skeezy Wal-Mart. Oh, because those things suck? Hmmm... how about that.

Interestingly, the animation also includes a soccer game, which very recently seemed like something that would never happen thanks to the proposal David Beckham's team has been working on to build a soccer stadium on the waterfront. But the announcement of this deal combined with stories like this:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nake...khams-mls-stadium-at-downtown-miami-slip.html

Makes me think Stephen Ross has been spreading money around the county commissioner's office like Bryant McKinnie at a strip club.
 
TheWalrus said:
Because it means we won't have a new stadium for... decades, probably. They already spent $200 million "updating" this stadium like a decade ago. With this chunk that's $600 million in total, or most of the way to what a brand new stadium would cost in a new location. And in a few more years they'll probably be asking for another chunk, like the dunce who keeps throwing $1000 repairs into his old car when even a moron would stop and get a new car.

I don't need to reiterate what a drag Joe Robbie has been to the team as a whole. As I recall it's 1-2 points per game on average since it was built. That's 1-2 points per game that your team has been robbed of for ~25 years. And now it looks like it's going to continue for a few more decades. Who could be joyous about that, except our opponents?
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I'm totally sympathetic to your argument. I've hated Joe Robbie since 1987 and definitely feel it is contributory to the state of our franchise since the late 80's. However, I'm in favor of the renovations because of the closer seating and the canopy. I actually think we are going to get our home field advantage back. Seems to me the canopy and closer seating may increase the decibel level significantly. Can't wait.
 
TheWalrus said:
Best part of that video was showing the downtown and skyline of Miami... which is absolutely nowhere near Joe Robbie Stadium. I wonder why they didn't show the actual sights around the stadium... airboat rides, crocodiles, rum-soaked mutuel tickets and a skeezy Wal-Mart. Oh, because those things suck? Hmmm... how about that.

Interestingly, the animation also includes a soccer game, which very recently seemed like something that would never happen thanks to the proposal David Beckham's team has been working on to build a soccer stadium on the waterfront. But the announcement of this deal combined with stories like this:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nake...khams-mls-stadium-at-downtown-miami-slip.html

Makes me think Stephen Ross has been spreading money around the county commissioner's office like Bryant McKinnie at a strip club.
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Agree with you on the video. If the canopy looks like that in the video or similar like this, its not as bad as some of those earlier ideas I remember seeing. $350 Million for the canopy.

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflo...l-roof-for-dolphins-stadium-has.html?page=all
 
poppy said:
I'm totally sympathetic to your argument. I've hated Joe Robbie since 1987 and definitely feel it is contributory to the state of our franchise since the late 80's. However, I'm in favor of the renovations because of the closer seating and the canopy. I actually think we are going to get our home field advantage back. Seems to me the canopy and closer seating may increase the decibel level significantly. Can't wait.
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Home field advantage is about more than seats that are close to the field. It about people wanting to go to the stadium because it's convenient and close by. It's about the energy of that and a boozy, working class crowd. It's about the intimidation of the opponent flying into a city knowing everyone is against them.

Where the stadium is now teams get their pick of flying into Miami or Ft. Lauderdale and either way they drive out toward the Everglades. Hardly intimidating. Meanwhile the Dolphins' home base is even farther North of the stadium up in Davie, a city so unremarkable the only thing about it worth recommending is Char Hut. A lot of the players actually live out in Weston, Florida, on the border of the Everglades to the West of Davie. According to google maps it's a 50 minute drive from there to the American Airlines Arena, where the Heat play. You think the players really feel like they live in Miami, that it's their job not to just play for the Dolphins but to play for the city... when they live almost an hour from it's heart?

I went to college in Gainesville, which boasts one of the fiercest home field advantages in college football. And when you go to a game there you know why. You can feel the energy just walking toward the stadium, which is dwarfed by the feeling when you get inside. It's completely tangible, like a surging, rolling wave... and it's intimidating as ****. I've been to plenty of Dolphins games (all after the move to JRS, sadly) and not once have I ever felt that energy, despite the fact that I love the Dolphins about a 1000 times more than I love the Gators. It's just not there, not even for Jets games. It's more like walking into a NASCAR track. Ho hum.
 
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There was some energy for the Falcons game and the Patriot game for sure better than in recent past. If we start winning it sure would help, when the Heat were horrible there was no energy there either. The Orange Bowl was better though as far as intimidating like the swamp no doubt about that.
 
TheWalrus said:
Because it means we won't have a new stadium for... decades, probably. They already spent $200 million "updating" this stadium like a decade ago. With this chunk that's $600 million in total, or most of the way to what a brand new stadium would cost in a new location. And in a few more years they'll probably be asking for another chunk, like the dunce who keeps throwing $1000 repairs into his old car when even a moron would stop and get a new car.

I don't need to reiterate what a drag Joe Robbie has been to the team as a whole. As I recall it's 1-2 points per game on average since it was built. That's 1-2 points per game that your team has been robbed of for ~25 years. And now it looks like it's going to continue for a few more decades. Who could be joyous about that, except our opponents?
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Team and stadium owner H. Wayne Huizenga is spending more than $250 million adding and renovating about 360,000 square feet, said Dolphins Enterprises CEO Joe Bailey. That's the equivalent of building a 32-story office building.
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http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2006/07/03/story2.html?page=all

2006. And by February 2010(Saints-Colts Superbowl) Goodell told Ross we needed to renovate the stadium again. It should be noted the upgrades started in 2006, they were completed years later.

I have a sneaking suspicion Goodell will have another "request" by the time the Superbowl comes to Miami. If it comes to Miami, as we are competing against other cities who are building new stadiums. But hey, who gives a ****? So long as Ross gets to host(but not compete in) a championship then nothing else matters.

---------- Post added at 12:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 AM ----------
TheWalrus said:
Home field advantage is about more than seats that are close to the field. It about people wanting to go to the stadium because it's convenient and close by. It's about the energy of that and a boozy, working class crowd. It's about the intimidation of the opponent flying into a city knowing everyone is against them.

Where the stadium is now teams get their pick of flying into Miami or Ft. Lauderdale and either way they drive out toward the Everglades. Hardly intimidating. Meanwhile the Dolphins' home base is even farther North of the stadium up in Davie, a city so unremarkable the only thing about it worth recommending is Char Hut. A lot of the players actually live out in Weston, Florida, on the border of the Everglades to the West of Davie. According to google maps it's a 50 minute drive from there to the American Airlines Arena, where the Heat play. You think the players really feel like they live in Miami, that it's their job not to just play for the Dolphins but to play for the city... when they live almost an hour from it's heart?

I went to college in Gainesville, which boasts one of the fiercest home field advantages in college football. And when you go to a game there you know why. You can feel the energy just walking toward the stadium, which is dwarfed by the feeling when you get inside. It's completely tangible, like a surging, rolling wave... and it's intimidating as ****. I've been to plenty of Dolphins games and not once have I ever felt that energy, despite the fact that I love the Dolphins about a 1000 times more than I love the Gators. It's just not there, not even for Jets games. It's more like walking into a NASCAR track. Ho hum.
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Thats because the local fans hate this team for no reason whatsoever, not because of the stadiums location and the general crap that is our franchise. And when they dont go to the games our line cant block properly which in turn causes us to lose. ****ing fans, they are the worst.
 
I'm with The Walrus on this one- I'd prefer a new stadium. I've been to a ton of games at JRS, and I've never felt that energy either- not even for a playoff game (I went to the playoff game in 2002 against Baltimore, which we lost-shocker- 20-3.) Unfortunately, I was 7 years old when the Dolphins left the OB so I never had a chance to attend a game there. Watching some of the old YouTube videos gives me chills, especially the game against the Bears in '85. Immeasurably loud. I dream of the day we have a home-field advantage like that again. But it appears a new stadium will be out of the question for a while if this goes through. I hope moving the seats closer and the canopy help boost up the noise level at least...
 
I hate the location more than the stadium, which is very outdated. But like Walrus was saying, no one fears playing in JRS, like they did the OB. The stadium needs to be closer to the city for sure.
 
I've been resigned to this. Dullards make this type of choice. Even if our owner doesn't fully qualify for that description, since he's into his 70s he doesn't want to commit to a new stadium.

It will be interesting to see how many Super Bowls a patched stadium receives. I'd set the over/under as 1.5 with under the chalk.

This is a more devastating development than losing a full decade of number one picks. I'm not trying to exaggerate. Walrus already provided the numbers. First round picks aren't worth a point or point and a half per game. An inferior stadium in an irrelevant location basically regulates every occupant for the duration. The Canes might be able to overcome it occasionally if they have a freak recruiting haul, or several. For the Dolphins in a balanced league it's considerably more problematic.

This is not my best work. I don't have the energy to adequately describe how devastating this is. At my age it means the final 2/3 of my lifespan will be ruined in local football terms by Joe Robbie's incomparable error, and the subsequent choices that were exponentially worse.

I'm not aware of a patched stadium suddenly exploding in home field impact. Sure we can hope for it, just like we can continue to invest early picks on projections who have never been great. At least I was old enough to fully experience and appreciate the Orange Bowl for several fantastic decades.
 
steveo style said:
I'm ok with the renovations. To me, they are resolving the issue of having the seats so far away. Plus, the stadium looks very unique - like it.
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They are not moving seats closer to the field, the only thing they can do is add a few rows at the bottom of the lower tier..

The canopy will help, but the edges of the stadium will still be farther away from the field than any other stadium in the sport.

It's a completely debilitating situation, one that has deterioted both programs cultures since the move, hell if it wasn't for landing one of the greatest most exciting qbs of all time, our sunlife record would be inordinately worse..

It's completely idiotic by the suits for both programs not to come together and crunch the numbers on what a stadium with intelligent design could generate....the 12th man design, designed to intimidate, would be the smart move.

---------- Post added at 02:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:38 AM ----------

But is all that noise solely The 12th Man's doing, or does it have to do with the architecture of CenturyLink?

"Well, it was built to be a great home field advantage," says Paul Greisemer, principal architectural director at AECOM, the firm that designed CenturyLink." The fact that it is loud is really kind of a result of a number of things that came about just through the design. It's on a very small site, comparatively to other stadiums, and because of that we had to compress the building very tightly. Fans are closer to the field than they are in most any NFL stadium today. So that combined with the desire to have a large roof covering, so fans are protected, really kind of combined the greatest of convergence of storms into a great environment."

Beyond the design, the materials used to build the stadium also contribute to the roar.

"It's a metal roof so it naturally is a very reflective surface. As is the seating bowl which is largely concrete. So there are a lot of those materials that are serving as sound mirrors, if you will, and bouncing the sound right back."

I asked Paul what where the loudest part of the stadium is.

"Luckily, it's right on the field, it seems, from all of the false starts that the visiting teams experience. The way the roof is angled, and the way the bowl captures all the sound that goes backwards and focuses it back towards the center of the stadium, you're pretty much going to get the maximum affect right at the players."

As we can now read in the Guinness Book of World Records, CenturyLink is the loudest stadium in the country. Paul says no one even comes close and other cities definitely covet that honor.

"We get calls all the time from various clubs and from stadiums as far as, 'What can we do to improve our game environment?' As far as sound goes, people would love to have what Seattle has. I think they realize that it's pretty tough to replicate what Seattle has. So they're all looking for maybe their own way."
 
The 12 man...a multi million dollar enterprise..

Tickets, season tickets, merchandising, advertising, exposure, lure, wins, culture.

The key would be to advertise that the new stadium is being built to recapture our glory, it is being built to intimidate, to be the original 12 the man..all the rest, the money, the attendance, the wins, the culture, and more money, would all take care of it self, it's ALL about the venue.
 
It's either take the upgrades now and have the team locked into staying in Miami for the next 30 or so years. OR wait till Stephen Ross dies in the next 10 years or so (he ain't that young) and watch a new owner buy the team and move it to LA or some other city.

They aren't getting a new stadium but the work being done on this is essentially building a new stadium but just using the shell of what they currently have now.
 
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