The game is played by players. The best players in the world live in the neighborhoods surrounding that ****ty stadium.
You've obviously never studied home field impact and variance. Leaving the Orange Bowl was devastating. We essentially forfeited 2 points per game on average, which is a greater adjustment in performance than all but a top tier quarterback.
Check the Dolphins results in their Orange Bowl years (1966-1986) versus the Sun Life years (1987-2013). They have declined 2.7 points per game on average in road games, indicating that the team in general has not been as good as the Shula years. But the decline in home games has been 5.3 points per game, from +7.5 to +2.2. That's unbelievable. It demonstrates how far the Orange Bowl was above the typical venue. I wrote to Dee and Shalala in 2007 emphasizing those numbers. At least the Dolphins could pretend the new venue would approximate the Orange Bowl. We had two decades worth of data and chose to ignore it. But why should I be surprised, given the conventional wisdom that the stadium doesn't matter? I never met one successful speculator who didn't understand home field values and how they vary.
If Golden leaves, I hope he is candid with the media in regard to Miami's stadium situation and how it regulates the program. That would be a needed jolt to the university, and to message boards like this one. The stadium should be the focal point every year, trumping every other variable.
