Doesn't matter which side of the fence you stand on, if I'm Ross and the Fins flame out these last 5 weeks, Ireland needs to be fired. This team is hemorrhaging fans and needs to do something drastic to bring back the fans. Pathetic numbers.
More than the team, more than the record, more than the players, more than Ireland, more than Ross, more than the media, the real problem is Miami and its economy. Link People are broke and out of work. It costs a couple hundred dollars for a few hours of entertainment when there are infinitely cheaper things to do, like go to the beach for example.
Miami Dolphins are in the rare position of having the GM being the #1 complaint amongst it's fan base. Put aside your personal opinion of whether that's fair or not. When you retain the biggest complaint of a fan base, and things do not improve, attendance drops. It's a pretty simple formula. Firing the GM will have a marginal increase in attendance. But in the end, only winning will improve attendance to where it needs to be. So, if Stephen Ross retains Jeff Ireland he better be pretty damn sure retaining him will lead to more wins. If not, Ireland is out the door. The bean counters will tell Stephen Ross a story that will make it hard to retain Ireland if this season doesn't end better than last.
The reality IMO is that you're selling amenities that don't appeal to high-end clients, while trying to charge prices that match high-end amenities. The people that can afford spend $700+ per person for a day's worth of entertainment aren't going to do that at Sun Life Stadium.
I really don't think it that. The unemployment rate is only about 2-3% higher than the norm and those 2-3 people out of every hundred probably weren't the people going to the games. In fact, if you look at the jobs chart on that link, there are actually more jobs than there were in 2004. Unemployment is up because there are more people overall, but there are more employed people now than in 2004. Most people are making the same or more than they were 2, 4 or 6 years ago. People are still spending plenty on sports and entertainment. Look at what Heat and concert tickets go for. And attendance isn't really down in places with winning teams.
let me ask you this , how much of this is contributed to not having a a premire wr or even two wide receivers ? i would not pay my hard earn money to go see Bess and Hartline. nor Fasano or Bush . remember when we had Irving Fryar , Dan and the Marks brothers, now that was worth the money .
Yep, a part of that was drone ball, the other part is a lack of wins. Fans are far more interested in high scoring/lots of action then a 19-14 loss or even win. Though it is always preferrable to win, but when you win and you are still boring..
Just for the sake of context, here are average home #'s for some teams: Kansas City: 70,378 Jacksonville: 63,765 Buffalo: 69,510 Tennessee: 69,143 Miami: 55,758
I agree with the premise, but there aren't many (if any) $700 seats at Sun Life. Many of the empty seats are $40 (or less) and those tickets really haven't gone up in price much at all over the years. While there are certainly people who can't afford that, there are a lot who can, but simply choose not to. And it's not that they just do free things. They still probably spend the same as they always have on entertainment, but they just choose to spend it on something other than the Dolphins.
The fact that Jacksonville is averaging better attendance should scare the absolute **** out of any Miami Dolphin fan.
Right, but what kind of atmosphere are people in Miami looking for? Half the people I know going to Heat games only go because they feel its a place to see and be seen. Sun Life Stadium needs to provide that if they want to attract casual fans. Thats the reality of South Florida.
Recall the Orange Carpet and Club Liv that "real" football fans despised? Uhm, yeah, Ross knew what he was doing, but that is gone now, or at least not emphasized.
I think Ireland needs to be fired, but I'm not sure doing so will automatically give the attendance a boost. Ultimately, it's about winning. Stadium upgrades would be nice, but as the Marlins found out, you need a winning product to keep fans coming back.
Well, what's concerning is that usually a new QB spells hope and gets people behin a team. BUT this team has lost, and disappointed for so many years that fans have even lost faith in REBuILDING.
Unemployment or not, the economy is bad and people aren't going to spend all that money for tickets right now. And Heat numbers don't prove the point, because the arena holds 20K. The Dolphins bring in more than 20K a game.
That is exactly the type of crowd that they need to attract. The Club Liv thing was poorly executed. Operating the club during the game was a dumb idea. It certainly would be a good idea IMO to operate the club before the game and after the game though. Thats only one aspect of it though. They need to a lot more than that to attract the high-end consumer.
When Jacksonville and KC are pulling in 15K more fans per game; and when Oakland is pulling more fans; there is a lot more to it than just winning or losing. Winning games certainly would help. But even if this team is winning, I don't think you're going to see a big affect. The people in South Florida that actually care about winning 11 games as opposed to winning 8 are few and far between.
This. Also, as excited as people were that they drafted a QB high in Round 1, Tannehill kinda felt like a consolation prize. Like Andrew Luck and RG3 were the Showcases, but we underbid and were left with a Vespa we won from Plinko. Guarantee you if we had drafted either of those two guys, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
The Washington Redskins averaged 77k fans for home games last year, with Rex Grossman and John Beck as their QBs. With RG3, they average 78k fans per home game.
I think in this more market, moreso than in others, winning does have that big of an effect. Maybe even moreso than winning, it's Star Power. Marino, Wade, LeBron. Stars. Who's the biggest star on the Dolphins right now? Cam Wake? Would you pay just to see him?
Dual strategy, high end and lower end customers imo. Filling club liv is not going to really help the thousands of empty seats, that is more of a winning and losing problem.
I thought about Reggie. I guess you could say he's the biggest star. But I agree he's gone after this year.
Fixed that for you. It's not the fans who have to worry about low attendance. It's the people running the team. Jeff Ireland should be wearing asbestos underwear.
Of course winning will help. Of course marquee names will help. Of course stadium improvements or a better stadium will help. Even with those things we aren't going to see the numbers we hope to because fans have less money and the experience costs more.
Looks pretty dire. Never thought I would see Miami in a position to where there could be legitimate reasons to ship the team out of town.
The question is, is Ross the type of owner who would want to do that. I feel like a large part of his interest was in the property-development and facility-management aspect of the organization. The stadium. And development. Wasn't there a waterpark or something they wanter to open next door too?
guessing arounf $750,000 per home game... so, like millions. Also, concessions. Parking. Ancillary stuff.
Its around $7M per season. Remember last season when Jeff Ireland was $10M below the salary cap? Stephen Ross isn't sweating $7M.
After our 1-15 season, the hire of Parcell's brought back season ticket holders. We have essentially been rebuilding since Wanny was fired. Think about that for a second. In 8 years we have had two winning season, one of which was a 9-7 season under Saban, but were out of playoff contention after starting out 1-5. So outside of 2008, this team has been nowhere near playoff contention. At 5-6 and facing NE twice and SF on the road, we will be playing for nothing again in December.
