Transit Miami

Ok, don’t listen to me. We’ve already proven that Marlins Management is fully capable of making horrendous decisions regarding baseball; why not let them decide how to plan our cities? I mean, after all, it’s not like I haven’t spent the better part of my life studying transportation engineering or urban planning. I even read traffic flow analysis reports and look over project plans with my spare time, there’s no way in heck that I, some random blogger would know why a stadium in Pembroke Park would be a complete catastrophe.

Some time ago, Marlins’ management decided through a very unscientific study that the main reason people were not attending their games was because of the lack of a dome on Joe Robbie Stadium Pro Player Park Dolphins Stadium Huizenga’s House of sports. Well, the findings were only partially correct. The other factors which they negated to analyze include: location and proximity of the stadium to the areas with the densest population, impact of the highly unpopular roster purging technique, availability of public transit, etc

I don’t know how many times I’d have to say it but hopefully this one will be the charm: Baseball is an urban game; it belongs in areas with dense populations surrounding it and within easy reach of multi-modes of transportation.

Now, a park in Pompano Park would be as big of a disaster as Hialeah keeping the Marlins in Huizenga’s House of sports and I’ll tell you why:

If you take a look at the recent trends in Major league baseball, all the new (and old stadiums for that matter) are located in the downtowns of their respective cities (St. Louis, San Francisco, Detroit, etc.) People in these cities typically attend games after work, saving them the hassle of a rush hour commute in the afternoon or a cross-town journey to watch a bunch of minor leaguers play.

The biggest argument I hear is “well, all the Marlins fans come from Broward anyways…” Yes, and look at how many of them have been showing up recently, about 12,000 per game despite the fact that the stadium is on the way home for many of them to begin with. Many Miami-Dade residents have ceased to support the team due to the ridiculous drive north we would have to endure. A stadium in downtown would capture the local population base (the densest base in the Greater Miami region) as well as all the Broward commuters who travel south daily to work. I’ve heard countless business professionals saying “I’d stay in the city to watch the game, just to avoid the dreaded commute every evening…” It would also be served by the Metrorail and Metro Mover, as well as any passenger trains which begin to travel on the FEC tracks…

Look, I propose we build the stadium somewhere where population is dense, transit is an option, and vehicles are not the priority (people are.) I think we should cut our costs too and build it initially without the retractable roof, to minimize the use of public money. Then, in a few years, once the fan base returns and the team has proven that it is profitable and committed to the greater Miami community, we can add the retractable roof. If the stadium is located somewhere near the coast, the afternoon showers which form over the everglades should hardly be much of a concern to begin with. Oh, and it should be a ballpark, not some casino sports megaplex, we should have retail, office, and residential space surrounding the stadium…