The Miami Marlins, 11-11-11

On 11-11-11 the Miami Marlins

will be introduced to the baseball world….

Along with their new logo, uniforms, & stadium.

The above logo was leaked recently, and while it’s been refuted as anything but likely I still want to visit the ”what if.” Logan Morrison has publicly compared it to the monopoly logo, and said they’d be “the skill boys chasing the rainbow…” Fans have publicly shared their outrage at the lack of creation in the image and most hope the front office can come up with something better.

 As a part of the 1993 MLB expansion, the Marlins never had a real chance for success. Their chance to become a real, professional market in Florida never thrived because they never had their own marketable identity, as they were forced to share a playing surface with the local NFL team, the Miami Dolphins. One can determine from their commencing year in 1993, they drew over 3 million in attendance and averaged 37,838 per game. In their sophomore season attendance fell by over a million for a year and kept a steady decline until their first Championship season in 1997 where their attendance spiked back up to over 2.3 million. But, by 2002 the team fell to its shortest attendance of 1 million. In their second Championship season 2003 they averaged 16,290 fans per game, but in the following two years they hiked that number up a little to over 22,000 per game. In 2011, their 19th season, drew short of 1.5 million by 22,538. Looking at these past attendance figures, you can see why the Marlins organization has pushed so hard for a new stadium. It is hard to create a brand while you are sharing your main profit with another organization. The exclusivity of having their own stadium will help structure a fan base for the rest of it’s existence.

 With that being said, the other part of the 11-11-11 unveiling is their unbelievable new stadium. One of my favorite websites, http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ has a complete review including pictures of the uncompleted ballpark. In their review they write that one of the distinct features of the ballpark will be matching 600 gallon saltwater fish tanks on each side of the backstop behind homeplate that will be made out of bulletproof glass to prevent foul balls from shattering the glass. Construction on the $634 million dollar stadium began July of 2009 and is almost complete. The Miami Marlins will kick off their new franchise versus the New York Yankees on April 1st of 2012 in a pre-season match, while the regular season will commence on April 4th, 2012 versus the St. Louis Cardinals. And the best news for Florida fans… a three panel retractable roof that will only take 13 minutes to open/close. No more rain delays. No more sharing a field with a football team. The stadium will also be a futuristic design, somewhat similar to the Chicago Bears stadium, in my opinion. No brick exterior depicting old era ball, instead it will be white stucco with silver detailing. Large white columns will showcase the Miami skyline against 37,000 dark royal blue seats. Dead center field is designed at 420 feet from homeplate, with the lines measuring 340 to left and 335 to right. The pictures below are from http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ .

Outside view of the stadium, retractable roof built in with an oversized awning

Image of the Miami Marlins new, baseball only, stadium

View of the outfield concourse/bullpen – white columns open to the Miami skyline

Aerial view of the new stadium, where the Orangle Bowl was previously held.

 Now, after seeing all the plans, projected images, and style of the new stadium it seems near impossible to imagine such a retro logo to be the new franchise marker of the Marlins. Many Marlins sources have denied any link to the image that has been circulating, and I hope they are telling the truth. My guess, and this is without any information from any sources, is white on royal blue with grey. Blue is futuristic to match the stadium, white is classic and timeless. If they added some orange (or other complimenting color) bordering, that would serperate them from the Royals or Blue Jays. But, I would not be surprised to see the Miami Marlins go the classic route and add some dark cerulean blue pinstripes to their home attire. Either way, I am interested to see how they end up and fit into the overall theme of the new franchise.

Thanks for reading &  Happy Playoffs!

The Baseball Life by S