According to Joe Rose this morning.....local TV ratings : Heat drew a 15.1 on Saturday, and the Dolphins drew a 14.1 on Sunday. Ross has a problem. I never thought this day would happen either, but its because this team is so horrible on offense.....they are actually offensive !!! This is soooooo so so sad, I never thought it would happen either.
The Dolphins drawing a 14.1 rating in a meaningless game against the worst franchise in the NFL is impressive in and of itself. But at least Miami fans get to see what a real winning franchise looks like every time the Heat are on.
Dude you live down here, you know that its been, even in 2006 the Heat in winning a championship, would draw half or less the number the Dolphins would draw on TV even if the Dolphins were playing the sisters of the poor. This has to be a bit troubling to the Dolphins Front Office. They are playing 2nd fiddle now in this town. That has NEVER happened. It also should be a HUGE wake up call too.
It took basically a Heat dream team playing on Christmas against the Lakers, going up against the latest game in a long line of disappointing Dolphins games against the worst franchise in the NFL, for the Heat to outdraw the Dolphins by… one point. While it’s significant, I refuse to overstate its importance given the circumstances involved. If the Dolphins had played the Jets this week, the Fins still win the ratings war.
I still think its more troubling that the number is so low. Not as much that the Heat beat them. The Dolphins would never get less than a 30 rating a couple of years ago.
The Dolphins weren’t playing the Lions a couple of years ago. Don’t worry, this is Miami. The fans will be back on opening day 2011, full of hope and promise for a great season under Coach Retread. Again.
That Christmas game featured the Champs against the new dream team on the block.It was a media event chock full of stars - Plus there was a lot of buildup to the game.I am not surprised it had high ratings. I wouldnt have missed it for any football game and I wasnt disappointed . After so many disappointing Dolphin seasons it felt good to see one of my teams on the upswing.
I didn't watch either game. Besides, who would've thought an NBA team would be able to lure two all-stars to join their current all-star anyway? It doesn't happen often. I can understand a 'once in a lifetime' type deal with how it all went down. But a regular game not on a holiday wouldn't outdraw the Phins, would it?
You still don't get it Des, people would tune in for the Dolphins even if they were playing the sister of the poor. It was the Dolphins that were the draw, not their opponent. Now it looks as those a lot of those fans have given up on them, and that has to be a very troubling sign for the future of football in this town. You guys look, LA is going to build a stadium, that is GOING TO HAPPEN. Loss of fan support in these kind of drastic numbers is very troubling. The numbers crunchers in Ross organization could start to encourage him to drop the plans to upgrade the stadium and push the NFL to allow the Dolphins to move, since the locals have abandoned the team. This is not as crazy as it sounds. Just look at Baltimore when they lost the COLTS and when Cleveland lost the BROWNS.
Dude, a couple of years ago, yes it would, BY FAR. You live in Va, you have no clue as to what a football town this is. In February & March sports radio in So Fla is not about what the Heat are doing, or what the Marlins season will be like. It was ALWAYS all about what are the Dolphins going to do in the draft. No Heat calls, no Marlins calls, a few Hurricanes calls......Panthers calls ? Most people don't even know we have a hockey team in town.
A NFL game is a event. a reg. Season NBA game is just another game.....that is what makes this ratings number important. What i think is more important is this...The Heat has a great gameday experience at the AAA, at Sunlife it is a burden sometimes. The Dolphins need to revamp their ticket office and the experience at the stadium, right down to the music they play in the stadium. here is the number to watch...the Dolphins season ticket holder base. it is nowhere near the Heat's % of sales. The Heat has a waiting list for season tickets. The Dolphins missed their target of 65k and their tickets are much cheaper than the Heat's. In the end..people are voting with their dollars for what they want. they WANT WINNING. it's Ross job to go get that at all costs.
What you guys aren't getting.....a 15.1 one is astronomical, especially in Miami for an NBA game. But its the 14.1 rating for the Dolphins. Dudes a 30 share was common for a Dolphins game, ANY Dolphins game, a couple of years ago. That this number for the Fins was ½ of what it used to be is mighty disturbing, especially if you are Steven Ross.
Padre, you don't get it......its not the Heat's number that is disturbing. Its that the Dolphins number would fall that low. This is a football town, always has been, even when my parents were growing up in Miami in the 1930's & 1940's going to Hurricanes games and High School games was THE event of the week. From their inception the Dolphins have not even had to work to get fans to watch the games. Now this looks like that the fans are really starting to abandon the Fins in big numbers. The losing seasons are starting to catch up with them. As more and more of the residents that were born here and have lived here for a long time, continue to leave the area (for whatever reason, just look at the makeup of this board), you can see the erosion of support. I remember the days in the Orange Bowl where we had soldout games just about every game, over 75,000 season ticket holders. Its got to be disturbing to Ross to see this happening. He needs to do something quick, or he risks losing a significant portion of the fanbase permanently.
Why is this being over-analyzed? The Dolphins game was a meaningless game against the Detroit Lions on the very next day after Christmas. People were at the mall returning items and looking for after Christmas sales. The Heat game, on the other hand, was played on Christmas day where everything was closed and the game was played against the defending champs.
Is there any way to get ahold of the numbers from all the games from this year ? Then we could get a better analysis if this is a trend or just a blip on the radar.
No apparently you do not get DolphinJake, the Dolphins Franchise has had 2 winning seasons in the last 6 yrs, working on 7 yrs depending on what happens in New England, a decade of average to terrible play has a nasty way of causing loss of interest. Start winning, and the numbers go back up, but winning in the NFL is not as simple as signing FA's as the Heat have done, different leagues, different systems, it takes *gasp* time to rebuild a beaten down franchise into a winner..until it happens I'd think the Dolphins will be what it is. Which is yet another point, imho Dolphins fans are kinda dumb at times, how many "savior" Coaches does it take to come down to Miami, fail, and yet scream for the next one? The last 15 yrs have been a study in exactly that..
You mean you're not going to go with the usual response to adversity that is used around here? KNEEJERK?!?! Good job! lol
I do get it, I said its all the losing seasons. Its just very sad to see this happening to the franchise. Years ago, during the Shula, Greise & Marino years, those 30 + seasons of 10 win average seasons, I always in the back of my mind knew this day would come. I told myself to enjoy this because one day it would be like this. Its karma.
Nah, spoiled fanbase, for the reasons you list, the past means absolutely nothing which is yet another lesson Dolphins Fans do not learn. "Wishing" for a winner will not bring one, neither will "hope" it takes work and is ugly but and it is a huge but, as long as the team is playing reasonably well and is playing young players with talent, things will improve, but once again, it takes time. Why do fans overlook the fact that when Shula was retired, the Salary Cap killed the dolphins for the proceeding 3 seasons? Why do dolphins fans forget that Jimmie Johnson, and constant coaching changes, are the reason why the post Shula Dolphins have always been defense heavy? Defenses are easily upgraded and the quickest way to win ballgames..which every new Coach wants to do or the Fans will once again blow a gasket and demand heads roll? Why is it Fans forget that they themselves were SCREAMING for Chad Henne to play even over a healthy Chad Pennington?
That is how it starts. it is the owner's job to give direction. To make available, the resources to win.
People also thought the Saints could never win the Super Bowl, or that the Red Sox would win another World Series.
And this somehow compares with Miami up and leaving for L.A. based off 1 T.V. Rating. Again I say............FOX NEWS.
No but it does show the erosion of fan support here. If it becomes a trend, then it does become an eventuality. No one ever could have fathomed that the Cleveland Browns would leave and go to Baltimore, but it happened. If you had suggested in the mid-1980's that the Los Angeles Rams would have left LA and moved to St. Louis they would have been laughed off the board, but it happened. Its not as ridiculous as you think. Our stadium needs $ 300 million in upgrades after the Marlins leave. Who is gonna pay for that ? Ross needs to have more Super Bowls in that stadium to help him recoop some of his investment so its imperative he do those improvements. If he can't secure public funding for it, it has to come out of his pocket. You think he wants to spend another $ 300 million on a 24 year old stadium ? (which makes our stadium one of the oldest in the league). He could move to LA and relocate everything just as the Colts and Browns have already done. Or as the Rams, or Oakland (to LA and back to Oakland). If you don't believe this stadium issue will be a problem, you are putting your head in the sand. Someone will have to pay for it, or they very well could leave. Remember the land the stadium is on, is not owned by the Dolphins, but by the county, and the 160 acres of the Lake Lucerne property are LEASED to the Dolphins for $ 1 a year. The county owns it, and would then be left with a stadium abandoned by the Dolphins.
Miami isn't going anywhere in the foreseeable future. There isn't a single solitary fact out there that lends any weight to such. Hell Miami is more solid then 2 teams in their own state let alone the rest of the league. To suggest otherwise is completely paranoid.
Of course...because Head Coaches and GM's Hire themselves. Then they commit millions to free agents without consulting the owner as well. arguing for the sake of arguing Dupree?
