From an interview last week on The Squak Box... This comment was made in regards to the MNF football game vs the Patriots, the crowd on hand, and the struggle to get butts in seats. That one line in bold tells me he still doesn't get it. You know what will bring fans back to the stadium? It isn't celebrities. It isn't cool little hand held tv's. It isn't concessions. It isn't lowering ticket prices. There is only one thing that puts butts in seats....WINNING! Someone needs to inform Ross that the best marketing a team can do is just win. Put a quality product on the field, gets the wins, and the fans will come. Put it out there...get players playing at their highest level...have this team contending for titles. Guess what will happen? Butts will be in the seats. Do you think Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Giants, Jets, Saints, Cowboys, etc rely on marketing to get fans to the game? No. They have no problem selling out games and you know why? BECAUSE THEY WIN! The fans know going to those games that they can make a difference and help this team get the push to the playoffs and then some. In the NFL it doesn't come down to the team that markets best wins the most. It is the team that wins the most that markets best. Ross would rather fly in on game days and hope for the best than be a hands on owner and strive to be the best. He just doesn't get it. What will it take to turn the franchise around and putt butts in seats? Well...it starts with the owner, GM, and coaches. They all need to go. But since the owner won't go...he needs to learn first and foremost how to be an owner in the NFL, because he sure as hell has no clue yet on how to be one.
It is maddening to realize we have an owner who thinks NFL fans will come to a stadium to see washed up celebrity owners and other such nonsense whether the team is winning or losing. You hit the nail on the head. Win ****ing games and the fans will come. The rest is nonsense and fluff and means nothing.
Perhaps all of us here at the Phins should start a fund to buy the Miami Dolphins, given our vast experience in business dealings and running multiple billion dollar companies. Ross has been thrust in to a horrible situation. What is the solution outside of the same tired blame? He tried to upgrade the coaching staff and got hammered last year. And for those of you that don't go to games, you can't say squat about the environment at the stadium.. They have done things differently and the energy was getting better.. Do you expect Ross to get on the field and play?
He got hammered because he has no clue on how to be an NFL owner. Had he fired Sparano and then went after Harbaugh, he would have had a better chance of landing him. But no...he makes a mockery of the situation by trying to get another head coach while he still has a head coach. Ross didn't come into a bad situation. He came into a situation that was a viable franchise that needed new leadership on the field and in the front office. He has done everything since then to address everything but that.
He's talking like an owner and not like a businessman there. Improve the product on the field not at the field and that will put butts in the seats... The Fins never had to worry about filling the stadium, even in the sweltering heat that was an advantage to our team, because for 27 yrs with Shula and even a couple of years with JJ and Wanny the team won games.... Then Wanny stopped replenishing the talent and the downward spiral began.... Parcells comes along and starts to replenish the talent, then leaves with the job half done. That's where we are. Mr. Ross....it's pretty simple in the NFL..If your team wins, you fill the stands. After years of mediocre to poor play, false hopes and miscues on player acquisition you aren't filling the seats....take a wild guess at why ??
Viable franchise? What crack are you smoking? Outside of 2008 this franchise has been the joke of the NFL. A joke of team when it came to drafting, a joke of a team when it came to QB's, a joke of a team when it came to coaching and a perrenial under-achiever.. To blame Ross for this sudden decline is an oversimplification of the problems that have plagued this franchise.
He blew up any chance this regime had of rectifying the problems on the field by his half-azzed approach to replacing Sparano. I'd like to think that Tony can look beyond what Ross did with Harbaugh and not feel undermined, but that isn't happening. The players know that Sparano is gone, Sparano knows he's gone and the fans know it. The question is when. That makes it real tough to produce no matter how you look at it. Ross IS the problem.
I've gone to 150+ games and the atmosphere sucks and isn't getting better at all. The entire package of stuff Ross has come up with is a complete and utter embarrassing. The Orange Carpet? Panning up to celebrities on an opposing teams third and long, with the expectation we're supposed to get excited about seeing Will ****ing Smith0? Every time there is a break in noise in the stadium, you've got some awful dubstep beats echoing through the whole stadium from that awful ClubLIV concept? It's absolutely irritating to sit behind, let me tell you that. Ross has done an awful job with the stadium experience. Just shut the **** up and reconfigure the stadium to be more football oriented with the Marlins gone.
And another thing - Ross needs to be more worried about putting the players in a better position to win than making fans comfortable. His tinkering with the scheduling of 1:00 games is yet another example of him not getting it. *** ****ing backwards. He's going to make it very hard to be a Dolphins fan. I hope he gets bored and sells the team. I don't want to have to resort to wishing him ill health.
I think the imperative part of this statement was "ownerS". There will always be teams that lose in the league. Either way, his statement was clearly intended to address the problem that television broadcasts have become much more attractive in relation to being in attendance.
Personally, I think this mindset about Ross is ridiculous. Do you really not believe he doesn't realize that winning will bring fans in most of all? Really? The team isn't winning. And until they do, should he just throw his hands up and sit back saying "well, there's nothing I can do for this season."??? No. So he's trying to do everything else he can to bring in the fans in the mean time. He can't snap his fingers and make the team great. He's been the owner for a very limited time, inherited the current regime, and even looked else where in the offseason to see if he could make an improvement there (which he got killed for doing). As of today, what can Ross do to make them a winner this season? Theres nothing he can do, including firing the coach. Firing Sparano today would not make this team a winner this season.
I have to take umbrage with this. Marc Anthony is not washed up, he has a new album out and just released his own clothing line available at Kohls.
Well that's just great! Now fans of the Miami Dolphins will be lining up at Kohls on Sundays, attendance will drop even lower!
This is ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with what Ross said. Ross has identified a problem that not only exists in Miami, but other cities as well. The game day experience on an HDTV being watched from the comfort of your couch, exceeds that of a day out in the stadium. There are empty seats all over the country, not just Miami. "Well he should just produce a winning football team and the fans will come!" Well no itsh. But the reality is, in the NFL, its very difficult to have a winning football team year in and year out. I don't see anything wrong with innovating ways to get fans out of their houses and into the stadiums. Was his application wrong? Yeah maybe. Fergie, J-LO, Marc Anthony, etc., may not be working out- but don't blame the guy for trying. And make no mistake, Ross inherited this mess. Parcells was the guy who put the FOOTBALL side of this organization together. The side that everyone is pissed off at right now. Blame Parcells for this. Oh yeah, and Parcells is still collecting his 3+ million for this season while working for ESPN, distancing himself as much as he can from Miami and the disaster he created. After this year, when Ross hand picks his own GM and his own coach- and things still suck, then we can blame him.
The man opened "Club LIV" inside the stadium and it's open during games, and you expect him to "get it"?
wait a minute we had three great season from 2001 to 03 and then has a ok season in 08 l;ook at the bills who is their coach now? its chan Gailey where did he coach at one time? Miami as a o.c Chan gets it , Sparano doesnt . i think Chan and dave win a superbowl in buffalo meanwhile Gilligan and the skiper are running the miami dolphins like they are on a island .
From the article in the "Armando with some scoop" thread... Ross isn't acting as an NFL owner. He's looking at profit margins versus investments. He cares more about keeping costs down, achieving television ratings, marketing to see box seats and suites, marketing celebrities for home games to lure people to the games to sell tickets. Disgust even pointed out from his own observations at games, instead of invigorating the crowd and motivating them to cheer and make noise on opponents 3rd down, they pan the stadium camera to a celebrity. For Ross, his actions show he's not the owner of an NFL football team...he's the owner of a celebrity showcase.
I'm not sure winning even matters anymore. The Bucs were 10-6 last year and are 2-1 this year and they're drawing 40k fans to their games. It's more than winning and it's because watching on TV is about 1000000x better than watching in real life unless you're in a luxury box, first row on the 50 yard line, or you're standing on the sidelines.
Exactly how was Ross THRUST into a horrible situation. I wasn't aware that someone held a gun to his head and forced him to buy the Dolphins. It is his responsibility as the owner of the team to do everything he can to upgrade the coaching, the front office and the talent on the field. Since he purchased the team from Huizenga, he has not done one single thing to improve the product on the field. I was a season ticket holder for forty years. This was the first year in over four decades which I did not renew my season tickets. I hold Ross 100% responsible for the situation this teams finds itself in today. If he doesn't what to spend the money to upgrade the coaching staff, the GM, and the overall talent on the team. He should sell the team to someone who actually is more concerned with the product on the field than he is in bringing in washed up celebrities as part owners of the team.
Really? Did you see Wayne Huizenga turn Dolphins Stadium into a celebrity fiasco with a nightclub and focus on ticket sales? For that matter, the original owner of our team, Joe Robbie, from 1966 until his death in 1990...did you see him turn Dolphins Stadium/Orange bowl into a celebrity fiasco? We never looked like blooming idiots in the sports world regarding our home games and fan base until Ross bought the team from Huizenga...then began selling minority shares of the teams to these celebrities and use a FOOTBALL stadium to promote themselves and their celebrity status. I don't see the Rooneys in Pittsburgh doing this. For that matter I don't see the Titans doing this in Nashville and they are in the Music City capitol of the world!! I think your "well everyone else is doing it" rationalization doesn't wash.
And it could also do with the simple fact that we as a nation are still in a recession. People don't have as much money to spare to go to football games as they may have in the past.
I don't think you understand my point. Stephen Ross cares more about profit than actually winning. Thats what makes him like almost every other NFL owner. As much as you want to decry club LIV or Marc Anthony or J LO, it is a net positive financially for Stephen Ross. It does absolutely nothing to help the team on the field, but I'm saying thats not Ross' #1 priority. Mike Brown owns a football team that has no scouting department, in a small market, with perpetually no hope for fans, and absolute lowest attendance figures in the league (even worse than Miami) and still made $30M last year. $30M. How did he do that?
Wayne ia Brilliant!!! He is going to get to buy the phins back for pennies on the dollar. Parcells was a poison pill. He knew Bill would not complete the job once Ross started messing with personnel. The Phins are in a spiral and Ross will never get control. Who wants to coach here after the stunt he pulled on Tony? Who would trust that guy. I think right now coaches would rather coach for Al. Atleast they know where he stands. Ross is a train wreck. It starts at the top. The very top. Wayne!!!! Buy it back! Stop the bleeding!!!! And us fans get to suffer........
The mindset is the same, but the means to achieve it is completely different from any other owner. You don't see Jerry Jones doing the celebrity and disco route. The team starts losing, heads start rolling. No other franchise has become the NFL version of "The Birdcage" like we have. That's the difference between a football owner and a businessman who knows nothing about football. The fact that Sparano is still our coach after saying he has "no idea" how to fix the losing at home trend shows that. ANY other team, he'd have been shown the door.
So lemme get this straight, you want me to lower the prices of my treasures. Basically give the **** away so that the people can just go for the, give to the, erm, price that was higher?
Wade Phillips was 33-15 before his disastrous final year in Dallas that led to his firing. When Sparano gets a record like that he can earn a mulligan for saying he has no idea....not when he's 1-11 in his last 12 home games. And be that as it may, Jones didn't use celebs and nightclubs as countermeasures to distract the inevitable missiles being fired at the franchise. He righted the ship.
He hasn't righted anything. The Cowboys are an average team. I would also say the $1B stadium he built is quite the distraction as well. I know people who aren't even football fans who have made a point of going to games while in Dallas just to see the stadium.
They're better than we are. Next. Yes, the STADIUM. Where the GAME is played. Not a nightclub IN the stadium. Again, next.
