There aren’t very many goods thing coming out of the Miami Marlins this season.
The team has the worst record in baseball, an injured star in Giancarlo Stanton and an empty stadium.
The Marlins drastic decline in sports ticket sales were due in part to a complete re-build occuring only one season after going all in – and failing – with the signings of big ticket free agents such as Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell. All three players have since been traded and last season’s team is a long lost memory.
The team currently features aging veterans such as Juan Pierre, Placido Polanco and Miguel Olivo, a no name starting pitching staff and an assortment of young, up and coming players filling their Major League roster, so the fans aren’t showing up to the ballpark with good reason.
In a recent article by the Bradenton Herald, it was reported that the Marlins are responsible for 20 per cent of the decline in sports ticket sales in MLB.
MLB has seen a decline of 3 percent in ticket sales this season and the Marlins are the main reason for this. Despite a huge increase in sports ticket sales in Baltimore and Los Angeles the Marlins hitting the dumps is affecting more then their local community. It is affecting baseball as a whole.
“The decline from this year evens out the increase from last year,” said Marlins spokeswoman Carolina Perrina de Diego.
Sure, the Marlins are ‘Even Steven’ from last season, but Miami should think about the damage they are doing to baseball now.
No one wants to go to see the Marlins, whether it be at home or away and this is a major problem for MLB.
MLB should do something about this now, so it never happens again, because having a franchise run the way Miami is currently doing business is bad for the game and the fans of Miami and all of baseball.
Photo courtesy of: New York Times
