First and foremost, I will preface this by saying that since the age of 3 and that was in 1978, I have been a season ticket holder with my dad for both Dolphins and Canes games, I have had the joy and honor of experiencing the OB and some of the best games ever there, as well as enjoyed Joe Robbie Stadium, I will always call it that, he deserves it, he paid for it with no public money, and at the time the stadium WAS A MODEL FOR ALL OTHERS. With that said there were some design issues with JRS that impacted the football experience, but as some here have had the audacity to call it a dump, is preposterous and insulting and unfair. First off, the renovations would in fact turn the stadium back to state of the art, as the infrastructure is in place, secondly, the issue here was when the stadium was built, Joe Robbie envisioned bringing a baseball team and soccer events to Miami, but to do that the design of the stadium forced the seating to be further away from the field, and thus taking away that advantage of the crowd. But to his credit it did bring baseball to South Florida.
On another note, this attack on the stadium because of location. First I will preface this by stating I am a Miami boy, but for those knocking the location, your foolish and clearly don't see the big picture, and like most who I have discussed this with are from Miami and nowhere else. The fact is JRS is perfectly situated, you have access from all over, the 826, I95, The Turnpike, a variety of ways that allow for traffic to be minimal and to flow and not stay stagnant. Secondly, guess what this nonsense of the majority of fans are in Miami, is exactly that nonsense. There are tons of fans in Broward and Palm Beach, the stadium allows both teams to have excellent access to South Florida fans, not just fans in Miami. When running a program you must hve the ability to look at the big picture and to access all avenues, the Miami Hurricanes have fans in Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, plent of them, it is good business to tap into all of them, JRS provides that the best, and unless we were to have an on campus stadium, which will never happen in Coral Gables, than a stadium that allows you to tap into the whole market is the smart business move.
Third, enough with this nonsense of us leaving the OB, folks, the City of Miami screwed the pooch on this one, and they allowed the OB to get run down, the plan was always to remove the old girl and build a baseball stadium, the University had no choice but to move to JRS.
The fact of the matter is this thing about having their own stadium, though would be nice no doubt, is no big deal. The Canes have always played in a stadium that wasn't theirs and still won, they always had the bs argument of other schools and their facilities while we don't and still won, the Dolphins have won at Joe Robbie at times without the home field crowd advantage, and do you know why? Because they were more talented that year!! This nonsense of advantage, is bs, field a more talented team and it doesn't matter where you play. Now with the proposed new improvements, the seats will be moved in, creating that crowd advantage, the stadium technologically will be up to date, with the canopy and new design the University will be playing in the most bad *** looking stadium, that is also a pro team stadium (selling point to recruits) in all of college football. With the seats being moved in closer to the field, we will have that home field advantage.
And also folks, especially in today's age where public funding is into play, at least the Dolphins are putting up half the cost, and there is a positive and big economic impact for South Florida, and there is no doubt that we get a Super Bowl, and let's not forget the BCS title game will now be in play for bidding like a Super Bowl. Economically it just makes sense.
