BY BRANDON SLOANE
South Florida has long been one of the sports capitals in the United States. It is home to the world champion Miami Heat, the Florida Panthers, and the Miami Dolphins, all of which are teams that are relevant and on the rise in their respective leagues. Also, South Florida hosts many huge sporting events including the NFL Super bowl and the college football BCS national championship game. For all of the sporting greatness in South Florida however, there has been one team that has consistently disappointed their fans and ruined their reputation as an organization. This team is none other than the newly renamed Miami Marlins. Poor management, questionable trades, and an all-around lack of effort have led the Marlins to be named by Bleacherreport.com as one of the 10 worst franchises in all of baseball. A disgrace to the fans and the entire city of Miami, the Marlins need to pack it up and go to another city where they won’t be bothering anyone in South Florida for a very long time.
The Marlins, although winners of 2 World Series’ since the team’s founding in 1993, have only had 2 playoff appearances and a history of bad trades. After the team’s World Series win in 2003, the Marlins traded away Miguel Cabrera, their star on the rise to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for prospects (players who are still in the minor league system of the MLB). Since his departure Cabrera has become an MVP and just last year led his team to a World Series appearance. While Cabrera was tearing it up in Detroit, none of the Marlin prospects had any success in the majors.
Putting aside their blunders on the field, the Marlins also have had little success building a fan base. While some organizations such as the Cubs and the Red Sox were able to endure last place seasons and still sell out games, the Marlins have had pathetically low attendance for just about every game. In fact, the Marlins had a game in 2011 season versus the Cincinnati reds where only 347 fans were present. To put this into perspective, the Cooper City High School football stands can hold almost 1000 people.
One of the most outrageous things that Marlins have done had nothing to do with the actual team however. When the team decided to build a new $500 million stadium right in the heart of Miami, many fans were excited about the move. That is until they found out that in order to finance this stadium, Miami taxpayers would need to pay for 80% of the new ballpark. This measure directed towards Miami residents (even those who could care less about baseball!) is nothing short of shameless thievery.
Even with all of their errors and mistakes, the Marlins organization has never been able to completely estrange their fans- until this off season. The blockbuster trade that recently sent 5 Marlins starters to Toronto in exchange for 7 relatively unknown players may prove to be the breaking point for what little fans are left. A Miami Herald survey found that after the trade, over 90% of people that were polled felt that the Marlins ownership has permanently disaffected a majority of the team’s fan base.
Will this trade truly prove to be the end of the Marlins in South Florida? Baseball has never been particularly popular in Miami and is slowly losing more and more ground to the other teams in the city. I believe that the people of Miami deserve better than the Miami Marlins. Whenever possible, I think the people of South Florida would greatly appreciate it if the Marlins took their business elsewhere for good.
