Dolphin Stadium

I saw two Marlins games in Dolphin Stadium last week and here's my report.

First, the good:

• It's cheap! Ten dollars to park right next to the stadium, and eight dollars to get into the stadium. A ticket to a Marlins game is cheaper than a gin and tonic at Ocean's Ten on South Beach.
• Sit wherever you want! Sure the tickets have assigned seats, but since the stadium is so empty, you just need to wait for an usher to be distracted and any seat is yours.
• Easy to get to, easy to leave. It took us less than one minute to get from a good parking spot to the Florida Turnpike.
• They gave out free Marlin visors.
  

Now, the bad:

• It's not a baseball stadium. This bothered me more than I thought it would. Baseball just doesn't belong in this stadium. Seeing an empty upper deck ring around the field and the list of Dolphin greats was strange, and the sight lines weren't optimal.
• Cheerleaders. I have nothing against Cheerleaders, but they don't belong in baseball. Imagine watching cheerleaders do a dance routine on top of the dugout in Yankee Stadium. Maybe I'd have a different opinion if I got a closer view of them.
• The fans. There were two good fans that talked about Cuban baseball players with Patriotsy2k. As for the other 20,000 (supposedly the attendance), that's another story. There were two fans who sat next to me. They showed up in the fifth inning, left in the seventh. Then there was the second funniest part of the week (the first was when Patsy2k got us into a club for half the cover price. After getting into the club we discovered we were the only white people there. All that was missing was Otis from Animal House). Back to the Marlin fans. When the Marlins were in the field the fans started chanting, "defense," just like you would at a football or basketball game. This died down, but then a Marlin made a nice play, and everyone chanted "defense" again. It was just bizarre.
• The stadium is not in the city. I missed the atmosphere I saw in Baltimore and Boston with the scalpers, vendors, and t-shirt salesmen. Also, there weren't any bars you could walk to before or after the game.
  
• The service. It took forever at the Will Call Window. Then when we went to buy tickets some guy in front of us decided to buy tickets for 79 games. All the people were in the background pretending to busy; none of them thought of opening a second window. Standing in lines for over an hour is not a good way to start a night at the ballpark. Then I stood in line forever at the concession stand. They ran out of hot dogs and nacho cheese. Guess they weren't expecting us.
  

The only other stadiums I'm comparing Dolphin Stadium to is Fenway and Camden, which isn't fair. Sure there were problems, but I can't complain about seeing a good professional team at such a good price.