Dolph N.Fan
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I mean isn’t there built in shade for the fans? What I don’t understand is how the orange bowl can be sold out all those years, we’re people not worried about the heat then?
Stadium kinda empty?
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When the Dolphins left the Orange Bowl, they were two years removed from being in the AFC championship, three years removed from being in the Super Bowl, and a little over ten years removed from a mini-dynasty. Currently the team is almost fifty years removed from a championship, almost forty years removed from being in a Super Bowl, and almost thirty years removed from being in an AFC championship— oh and they haven’t won in the playoffs in over twenty years.
Weather may be a factor, but the main factor is the deterioration of the team over the years.
A lot of the fans from the old days have moved away from the area and who can blame them? It's not like GB where people live there their whole life.
Dolph N.Fan
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I think you’re right. No one wants to bake in the sun to see Miami lose 35-0.
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In certain spots yes. Aren’t the locals used to it being hot anyway? I can’t honestly believe people aren’t there because of the weather.
It’s been about a quarter empty for the last several years and unfortunately many of the fans at the games now are actually fans of the opposing team. The Jets, Patriots, and Bills fans come down to visit South Florida and then go to the game and end up making as much or more noise than the Dolphins fans do.
I went to games for over 40 years and the last few years I went before my arthritic back just made too uncomfortable to sit for over 4 hours in those seats. The opposing fans made going to the games unpleasant. I remember when the stadium was completely filled and 99% of the fans in the were Dolphin fans. That just isn’t the case anymore and it’s truly sad.
I went to games for over 40 years and the last few years I went before my arthritic back just made too uncomfortable to sit for over 4 hours in those seats. The opposing fans made going to the games unpleasant. I remember when the stadium was completely filled and 99% of the fans in the were Dolphin fans. That just isn’t the case anymore and it’s truly sad.
DANTODUPER
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75% watching that kind of product? I wonder if those fans are pain adverse or were simply watching our beautiful cheerleaders.
DANTODUPER
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And is 100% the result of having 40 years of irrelevance. Sad but completely expected and understandable.
I would still be attending games if not for my arthritis. Finally deciding to stop attending games because of how uncomfortable it was sitting in the stands was one of the hardest decisions I can remember making in my life. I loved being at the stadium and I was at every home game of the 2007 season when they were 1-15. Including my wife and me flying to London to watch the Dolphin game there. I continued going to games until just 3 years ago and they certainly weren’t great or sometimes not even good Dolphin teams I was going to see.
I understand those fans not having the financial resources to attend games staying home and watching the games on TV. Yet real fans who can afford to go to the games, go to the games if they live in South Florida. The fairweather fans simply make excuses for not going to games and blame the years of mediocrity as the reason they don’t attend games. Sorry but I just don’t see these as real Dolphin fans in South Florida. The real South Florida Dolphin fans are those fans who if they can afford to go to the games, they go. I was fortunate to sit around real Dolphin fans for over 40 years as a season ticket holder and I miss that experience every time I see the Dolphins playing at home and I’m not in the stands.
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Trifecta Nation
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Sorry, but my take is a little different (or foggy) on the ol' Orange Bowl. Now granted, I lived in Key West during the 70s and early 80s and while the games may have sold out by kickoff, they didn't within 72 hours of kickoff which they had to in order to be televised. We got Dolphins road games each week and never got home games. We had a lot of Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau from what I remember, stuff like that as filler until the 4pm game. Dolphins at home on the Monday Nighter? Get ready for Serpico starring Al Pacino at 9pm. Yeah....a lot of that going on. After a while, WPLG the ABC affiliate started buying up the last 500-1,000 tickets just to get the damn thing on the air that night. Howard Cosell announces John Lennon's death at the Orange Bowl on Monday Night Football in 1980? You might have heard about it live then but we sure didn't. We had a movie going on. Probably caught it on Good Morning America at 7am the next day.
Oh, and UM football? Please! It takes an unbeaten Miami team vs Florida, Florida State or Notre Dame to get a full crowd there otherwise, it's sparse. OB was always that way for them too.
Oh, and UM football? Please! It takes an unbeaten Miami team vs Florida, Florida State or Notre Dame to get a full crowd there otherwise, it's sparse. OB was always that way for them too.
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Only so many punches a majority of fan base can take before they because passive and unenthusiastic..
Folks like us will continue to take the punches..
It’s a real issue IMO…but we are all at the mercy of the front offices ability to identify and aquire talent
Folks like us will continue to take the punches..
It’s a real issue IMO…but we are all at the mercy of the front offices ability to identify and aquire talent
The vast majority of those games ended up with full stadiums once fans realized the game wasn’t on TV. At that time I loved it when the games didn’t sell out in time to lift the blackout because I knew I would be at the game and I knew that the blackout would mean a full stadium.
They only changed the blackout rules because the owners make so much money off TV now, they don’t need the full stadiums they once needed to be profitable. The NFL was also under intense pressure from several politicians and many groups to life the blackout of games. The large TV contracts the league signed with the networks made it easier for the NFL owners to act like the good guys and agree to drop the blackout games permanently.
Even though I don’t go to the games anymore, it is still disappointing to see so few fans in the stadium each week. I just wish I could sit in the stands and enough the games but unfortunately my back just won’t let me do it anymore. The only thing worse than a stadium with thousands of empty seats is growing old and not being able to enjoy some of the things I once did.
At least I can sit in my massage chair and comfortably watch the game but I would still rather be there.
FINatic054
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I think it was due to the exact reason I didn’t go. Everyone and their mother knew we were losing that game and by double digits. Why spend the money to watch a beating when I can watch it at home and sulk by myself. Put a team out there who can actually block for their QB and win a game then you’d see people in the seats
They know there will be a few thousand empty seats, so they might as well hand them out to some schoolkids or in the local community. There are a lot of creative things you can do to fill empty seats and improve the gameday experience.