Skip to main content

Is baseball in Florida dead?

Baseball in Florida has been struggling for a while. 

 By now, it has become some weird chicken-and-egg game of (1) not having the revenue to hold onto expensive talent and (2) not having talent to bring in the attendance numbers they need.  

 And what we don't know is how long this game will play out.  The Marlins attendance numbers are barely above what the Montreal Expos were bringing in and hey, we all know how well that worked out.

 The problem hasn't always been talent.  Just recently, the Marlins had a core lineup of Dee Gordon, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, and Marcell Ozuna.  In fact, over the years -- going way back to their two championship runs -- the Marlins have somehow found a way to accumulate talent.  But the attendance numbers just weren't there and we're left wondering why.

 Some of it could be pricing.  The seats just may not be cheap enough to convince the fans to come to the ballpark.  But Miami is really no different than many other franchises, socioeconomically speaking.  The fans exist.
Some of it is systemic, as baseball attendance is down across the board.  There is not a lot that can be done about this trend, although we're going to find out if 2019 -- the year of the superstar -- can buck the disappointing attendance trend.  

 Some of it may be culture.  

 In fact, most of it may be culture.

 We're planning on doing a deeper dive across franchises and sports, but our goal is to do a statistical analysis examining the relationship between a team's culture (which could include such objective measures as payroll) and its attendance.  

 The theory I will posit here, and leave until we have the time to perform the full statistical analysis is this: the Marlins do not have a winning culture and doing so creates years.  There is genuine mistrust between fans and ownership (yes, despite the change in ownership).  Having spent some of my formative years in Florida, I am painfully aware of what it was like to watch the Marlins.  They'd build an incredible team, win the whole stinking thing, and watch the team be demolished immediately following their victory parade.  

 A fan base can tolerate many things.  Losing seasons.  Tough injuries.  And mediocre coaching.  But a fan base is smart enough to figure out when it's being sold, on purpose, an inferior product.  The Marlins, for years, have attempted to cut costs in hopes of a profit, only to find out that it may never be able to regain its form enough to build a successful team.

 Alas, there is no reason to think baseball in Florida is altogether dead.  Spring training is wildly successful and Florida's local economy benefits significantly from the games.  But baseball in Miami may very well be on life support.

Popular posts from this blog

When you create something bigger, your failures are given context

The first chunk of my life was dictated for me.  I went to school and I was told what to do in school.  I got a job and I was told what to do at that job.  I went to college and I was told what to do in college.  I found a better job and I was told to do in that job.   My success in those different contexts was some milestone, goal, or achievement that was given to me by those different contexts.  I didn't have to think about what the goal was - it was merely given to me.  In some sense, that's great - I appreciate that someone was training me. But the problem is that no one told me that I was merely being trained.  Without necessary communication and context, I kept drifting through the days thinking another goal or milestone would magically appear. Well, it didn't.  And it took me a few years to figure this out - more than I'd like.   What did I learn in the process? That you must set those goals for yourself - even if those ...
Read more

My body failed - what's next? How to fix it.

My body is f*cked. What's the best way to proceed?  Well, that's a tad complicated to answer - we're all snowflakes (translation: no, it's not that you're soft, but you are uniquely injured ). There aren't many worse feelings than knowing you are forever physically limited.  And if you fit into that category: I am sorry.  But here's the key: you cannot, and should not, feel sorry for yourself.  It beats the alternative (you know, not having a living, breathing body with flowing, pumping blood).   In this vein (pun intended), our goal is to use what we have.  It's to work with the hand we have been dealt.  It is to not stop at the first sign of danger - it is to see the danger, acknowledge it, and then move the fuck on.   You are not on this earth to sit still.  You are not on this earth to waste away.  You are not on this earth to do anything other than to inch closer to your potential. And so yes, there have been moments where...
Read more

The More Good Days than Bad Days Principle

There are seven days in a week, about 30 days in a month, and 365 days in a year.   Not all of those can be good days.  No one has 7 perfectly good days.  Likewise, I've never gone through an entire year without a single bad day.   I have two reactions to that: The first reaction is the whole "control what you can control" thing.  You can control your effort and your attitude.  And that's absolutely true.  But sometimes a day is so bad that no amount of effort or attitude will fix it. The second reaction is that, in any given week, if you have 4 good days and 3 bad days, you're still winning.  Even if you have a few "meh" days, but the good ones are still outnumbering the rough ones, I think we're in a good place. The same goes for our practices with our little leaguers.  We've had some truly rough and awful practices.  The coach's didn't show up with patience, the kids didn't show up with their attention spans, a...
Read more