Danny Barrett running backs coach was talking about how cool the canopy is for making it loud in the stadium, he said the team has talked as a group and one of their goals is to dominate at home and get a home playoff win..He said he wants our fans to go crazy when were on defense..Also said this ain't the old Miami,you don't come here to party,lol, thought that was funny, anyways his hearts in the right place, and he's right about the noise and the advantage it creates. Tom Garfinkel said that season tickets are up. Lets hope the fanbase learns how to give their team a true home field advantage now that the stadium has given them a boost. arrive early is important, and in your seats, stand when on defense and just scream..this is all you have to do and we will get an advantage, I mean you do want to win a championship right. team is headed in the right direction, got ourselves the right coach, so leave those tailgates a bit early and get your asses in your seats, we need to go undefeated at home this year.
Good stuff. Every season I say I'm going to head down to Miami for a week or so and catch a game. Life just always gets in the way it seems. Maybe this year. I'd love to get to a game down there especially now that the place is all re-done rather than always seeing us in opposing stadiums, which I fully despise.
Unfortunately, with the current playoff setup, the only way to get a home playoff game is to win our division. For some teams, that might just entail going 10-6, or even 9-7, and being an above average team. For us though, we all know that means that we have to be better than the Patriots. It will happen eventually, but I'm not counting on it for 2017. What I am hoping for though, is that after this coming season, when we're stripped of a home game yet again, that we can become a team that wins 6-8 games at home every season, and starts to dominate the lesser teams when they come down to South Florida. The ingredients are there finally.
Four divisons in the AFC. Top two winners get a first round bye. The other two host the wild card games. The two wc teams, regardless of record, go on the road to play that weekend. In theory, we could be 13-3, but if the Patriots are 14-2, we dont get a home game.
The only way to host a game as a WC is to meet the other WC team in the AFC championship game and of course have a better record than them. The good old days of WC teams facing each other is gone.
Billboards, something creative to get the fans hyped and feel like they can make a difference if they get off their asses and really participate
I would have to imagine all coaches have wanted to get the fans into the game. With the Dolphins, it comes down to consistent winning as the fans are so fickle. I was at the Bills game last year it was awesome! It was louder than I've ever heard the stadium due to both our dominant play and of course the stadium's tightly tuned acoustics. I really like the extra step of the away team sideline having no shade at a 1pm game on purpose. It was great seeing that! I think with all that Miami has going on, it'll take multiple winning seasons before there is a dominant Dolphins fanbase throughout the stadium. Essentially, many fans will have to know the Phins always have a chance to win before they will go to some of the tougher matchups.
It felt like we took advantage of the old system (1990-2001) a lot more than we did, but in reality, we only hosted a playoff game as a WC team three times, in 1990, 1998 and 2001. The other four seasons that we had home playoff games during that span, we won the division. I think that the fact that we were always in playoff contention during those years made it seem like hosting a game was always possible. Now, sadly, its not. Still, even if we don't win more games than New England, I think we've got a shot on the road as long as we travel to a warm place or a dome. I'll remain doubtful that the Fins can win a playoff game in cold weather until they do so though. Excluding Super Bowls, the franchise has never won a postseason game on the road outdoors in January. We need homefield as much or more so than any other franchise in the league.
I miss the days when WC teams squared off, to me there's something exciting about 2 WC teams facing off.
People who didn't grow up in South Florida probably can't fully understand what home field advantage means in the South- I remember pulling into 1PM games at the Orange Bowl and it was already like 99 degrees. You'd lose three pounds just sitting in the stands that day and the noise was so loud, nobody ever knew what the refs had just said on the field. Then there was the stadium itself- it was old and unstable and shook 3-5 feet in any direction...I'm amazed that place never collapsed. Between the noise, the heat and the intensity in South Florida, very few teams could compete with our Fins. But that was our advantage, we trained in the heat/humidity every single day. Building the stadium with a canopy was extremely smart- it drops the temperature for the stands but still keeps the field blistering. The only problem is that Ross loves the late-start games because he thinks more people can attend, but it's never been about that. If Miami is winning, people show up. It's that simple. And our best chance of winning comes at 1PM in the heat of the day.
I think he's rid himself of the Late start games, if you remember though, those four o'clock games at the orange bowl were awesome because of the sunset and vibe, the fans at the four o'clock game were always louder, always, because it got so much cooler in the 2nd half and they had energy instead of dealing with heat stroke. the canopy was a must have for hard rock, the stands were so far away from the field that they had no inspiration to engage in the game, just melt in the heat...now at least there is a chance to engage with the sideline seats being moved closer and the canopy..
A true home field advantage comes from a fan base knowing when the opposition is in offense to just stand and go crazy..you see there are many players on a team of 48 guys that where the more the intensity of the energy against them rises the more nervous they get..the more mistakes are made.. Of course you have to win for them to care but there is a way to strategically create one.
I've wondered for a long time why it's not cultivated at the stadium by the teams, guiding the fans on how to be impactful, quite on O at the LOS, loud when the bad guys line up at the LOS, they do have some of it, but it's not concentrated. The Seahawks for years had the best/smartest fans, the famous 12th man, they're still loud but I don't think they're as good as they used to be, anyhow when they were at the LOS you could hear a pin drop in that stadium and when the bad guys were at the LOS you couldn't hear yourself scream, opposing teams actually complained about it, they are they biggest impetus of the silent snap count. I never could understand why that wasn't universal at games, fans have the ability to impact games, simply by being quite when your team is at the LOS and being loud when their team is at the LOS, making verbal communication impossible. Making verbal communication impossible, the fans have that ability, all the players XO's and coaches with all their talent and smarts can't accomplish that advantage(some have tried by illegally pumping noise into the stadium), but the fans can, but don't, and they aren't really encouraged to do so. Yes they have the "get loud" signs flashing and the announcer shouting get loud, but they don't breed the communal thing, as in you the fans are a single force, and they don't push the "quite LOS/loud LOS" as an honored responsibility of the single force because you as fans can help the team. If I remember correctly, this is exactly what Seattle did, and it may have been mainly been through newspapers and radio but there was a campaign to basically explain to the fans the "quite LOS/loud LOS" concept, and how they, as fans, can help their team win games. Their fans became famous for it, lol, why isn't that the general rule of thumb?
While i'm talking about the fans, we are the only aquatic member of the NFL, we aught to have our own "wave" the "Dolphin wave", it starts at one end but goes down both sides simultaneously and then back again, the "Dolphin wave".
Lame? Its a classic song! Yes, its in reference to sharks instead of Dolphins, but I love how the team has appropriated it.
To put this as simple as possible.. Teams, administration, marketing, are not smart enough to implement such a strategy, the general narrative is, it has to happen organically, and the team must win first of course, then it will all take care of itself.. Seattles fan base does have a strategy as a fan base..they get it, and talk about it all the time..it's why their famous. However, they have the one advantage that helps what we're talking about tremendously, and that's a venue that's constructed where the stands are very close to the field..I'm confident that their fan base did not become famous and turn into a real competitive advantage because the Seahawks were winning all the time, they did so because of venue and recognition...they saw the results, and they got smarter and smarter. To some who may read this they will answer with, if we win it will get louder, and to that I will say no sh$$, but that's not what we're talking about here, we're talking about strategic unified education of the fans that are coming to the game, to make a real difference in our players energy, and interfering with the opponents communication. The sign inside the stadium to "get loud" is bush league and elementary.. Now that some of the seats/stands were moved 25 feet closer to the field, and the canopy gives the fans a hell of a lot more energy, an intelligent approach to try and engage them into the process of trying to win a game at home should go into affect.. But I highly doubt it.
Dolphin marketing to the fanbase .. " fins up" Lol.. What's interesting is ive heard Garfinkel talk about why they thought moving the seats closer to the field was important...and this site and the other as my witness, Ive been begging for renovation ( roof, closer stands, or a new stadium altogether) and that exact process well before anyone even thought about it...so you could only imagine my excitement when word came down.well, now that we're here, and we have what we have for a long time, and the stadium is a better version than the morgue it was, someone needs to get creative and proactive.
The reason why we are so far away from actually achieving this, is the stupidity of the stadium front office, or whoever the hells responsible for the signs that say, "please don't stand"....that initself tells me they have no clue. Fans are scared to stand, it's embarrassing for them, because they don't know who else will join them if the initiate it, so they sit on their asses instead, except for about 10,000 in the end zones.
