Is MLB in Florida a big mistake?
By Joseph Duarte
The Houston Chronicle (via SBN)
Also posted in the Portland Marlins thread

It has become a rite of spring. For decades, major league baseball teams looking to escape the cold have descended on Florida, where they train for six weeks and then pack their bags and leave. So it came as no surprise when baseball, anxious to conquer a new frontier, established a full-time address in the Sunshine State in 1991. A second franchise followed four years later. Things have never been the same.

A market that opens its doors annually to the crush of baseball strangers has yet to warm up to the idea of cheering for its own. A "natural fit" has turned into a marriage straight out of left field.

Almost since their inception, the Florida Marlins have toyed with fans' emotions. They won a World Series in only their fifth season, but before the last bottle of champagne had been sprayed owner H. Wayne Huizenga ordered piece by piece of that championship team sold in a financially driven purge that fans have never quite forgiven.

They have gone through three owners and six managers in a rocky 10-year history. They have had only one winning season during that time. They remain candidates for baseball's plans to eliminate two teams.

Across the state, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have grown accustomed to playing before rows of empty seats. After a nearly 20-year courtship with more than a half-dozen teams, the market has been tougher than originally thought, as residents choose to spend their days at the beach working on tans rather than in a stadium already considered antiquated by today's standards. It doesn't help that the Devil Rays, still relative infants entering their fifth year, never have come close to a winning record. Last season, they lost 100 games.

"No question, both teams have struggled," commissioner Bud Selig says. "Obviously there is a lot of concern."

It isn't quite what Major League Baseball envisioned when it decided to bring something other than spring training or minor-league baseball to the state. Now the once sunny, cloudless skies that define this tourist-driven state have been replaced by ominous, dark clouds that reside over the Miami and Tampa-St. Petersburg areas.

Can professional baseball compete and survive in the already-saturated South Florida market?

"Major League Baseball has to have its footprint there," says Rick Burton, director at the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. "There's too much baseball culture there. Too many reasons to give up."

Experts still can't understand why baseball hasn't been a bigger hit here. Considered the Gateway to Latin America, Miami has a substantial Cuban population partial to baseball above all other sports. That and this report from The Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte

"Florida is rich in baseball history and culture," Burton says. "I think both teams have not figured out how to tap into those markets."

Burton isn't easily convinced when he hears baseball is a tough sell in Florida because of competition from family-oriented theme parks and white sandy beaches.

"Hollywood has a lot of distractions," Burton says. "To use the excuse they can't sell tickets because it's sunny, those in Florida haven't had to sell tickets in Detroit and Milwaukee where it's been 15 degrees outside."

Despite being the 10th-largest U.S. market, Florida has struggled to attract fans for several sports. Major League Soccer folded both its Florida franchises -- the Miami Fusion and Tampa Bay Mutiny -- in January. The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL also have struggled to attract fans.

"At the time it looked like South Florida was a natural fit" for baseball," says Dean Bonham of the Bonham Group, a Denver sports marketing firm. "I've not been able to pinpoint the problem what is the key to success of sports in South Florida."

Mark Rosentraub, dean of Cleveland State's Levin College of Urban Affairs, has a theory: People on vacation don't want to attend sports, particularly if they have franchises in their hometowns.

"Tourists come from areas already with pro sports seeking different experiences," Rosentraub says. "They are seeking experiences they don't get in their home area. If they have sports back home, why go to it in Florida?"

If you really want to know how bad the state of pro baseball is in Florida, take a look at the sections of empty seats, which make the stadiums so quiet that players have sworn they have heard cellular phones ring.

Chuck LaMar doesn't need a reminder that attendance has dropped in each of the Devil Rays' four seasons. He has an overhead view from his office window in the team's executive offices at Tropicana Field.

A novelty item during their inaugural season in 1998, the Devil Rays experienced a 25 percent attendance drop in year two, down to 1.7 million, and then dropped to 1.5 million in 2000. Last year, Tampa Bay drew just 1,227,673, which ranked 29th out of 30 major-league teams, trailing only the Montreal Expos (609,473).

One particularly painful stretch for the Devil Rays came last season, when they attracted 11,156 for a game against the Kansas City Royals. Two days later, the announced crowd for the series finale was 11,083. Since opening day of 1998, the club has not had a sellout. An expansion "honeymoon" has never materialized. Season tickets have dropped from 19,000 in 1998 to below 10,000 last season. That and this report from The Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte

A main reason for the problem is the team's poor showing on the field, which includes four consecutive last-place finishes in the American League East.

"If given time, the Tampa Bay area will prove itself as a profitable major-league market," says LaMar, the club's vice president for baseball operations and general manager. "Nobody wants to have that patience. Everybody wants you to win immediately."

Things began better for the Marlins, who surpassed 3 million in attendance during their inaugural season. They had 20,000 season-ticket holders in 1993 to watch an expansion team that had no chance to finish higher than last place. The following year, the Marlins were on pace to draw nearly 2.5 million before a labor strike wiped out the final two months of the regular season and playoffs.

"That was a killer," says former manager John Boles, now a senior adviser with the Los Angeles Dodgers. "That hurt the Marlins severely."

Wining hasn't necessarily been the cure-all. In 1997, the Marlins spent more than $50 million on payroll and had the best team in baseball. The Marlins won the World Series, but few came to watch them. Attendance rose only 600,000 to 2.3 million. An offseason fire sale brought a decrease in season-ticket sales that has been in a nosedive ever since. They had a home attendance of 1.26 million in 2001, and the club's uncertain future this offseason has resulted in only about 3,000 season tickets sold.

"There is a bitter taste in the mouth how baseball has handled Florida from day one," Rosentraub says. "There has been a long manipulation of Florida and poor handling of the markets."

At the top of the list: The dismantling of the 1997 World Series champion Marlins.

"There's been a real mistrust (since that time)," Rosentraub says. "Florida has to make a decision whether it wants to establish a partnership with Major League Baseball."

Unlike some wealthy people who buy pro sports franchises to fulfill a lifelong dream, Huizenga considered his acquisition of the Marlins a business deal.

"I am not a hobbyist," Huizenga said a week into the Marlins' inaugural season. "If I thought for a minute I couldn't make money on this, I wouldn't do it."

Huizenga, who built his wealth as chairman of Blockbuster Entertainment Corp., considered himself "a less than average fan," and those around him claim he joined baseball's fraternity for all the wrong reasons. Turns out, he was baseball's ultimate fish out of water. Don't say Huizenga wasn't warned. That and this report from The Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte

Huizenga, who also owns the Miami Dolphins, said he would be patient at first but made it clear he expected the Marlins to win eventually.

"Ask me if I'm still patient in five years," he said.

He didn't last that long. Less than a year after spending $89 million on free agents, and less than five years after the expansion team started play, Huizenga put a "For Sale" sign on the team, eventually dismantling the 1997 World Series champions piece by piece. Huizenga claimed to have spent $200 million since being awarded the team in 1991, including operating losses he said exceeded $30 million in '97.

"I think Wayne came to the conclusion he is a businessman and he wasn't going to get a ballpark built," says former Marlins general manager Dave Dombrowski, now with the Detroit Tigers. "So far, his conclusions are correct."

John Henry bought the team prior to the 1999 season, but his patience was tested for two seasons embroiled in a political battle for a new stadium. Henry, whose net worth is about $1 billion, estimates he lost $38 million in the three years he owned the team. He finally gave up on the Marlins this past offseason, selling to Expos owner Jeffrey Loria and forming a group that bought the Boston Red Sox.

"The Marlins got off to a exciting start, won a pennant and then had a rapid demise," Selig says. "They've really struggled since then. They've had an interesting up-and-down history so far. Really up and down. It's been real shocking."

"You could write a book and have a lot of chapters," says Boles, who twice managed the Marlins before being fired last season.

After pushing for an expansion franchise the same year the Marlins were awarded, Vince Naimoli put together a consortium of six general partners and nine limited partners to buy an expansion team in 1994. Unlike Huizenga, Naimoli is a baseball fan with his heart in the right place -- even though his foot is often in his mouth.

Naimoli's management style didn't prepare him for the public scrutiny that comes with owning a team. He has alienated fans and local businesses and was the target of a coup by the other partners to remove him from his day-to-day control. As for low attendance, Naimoli went on a national radio show last year and pointed out that the New York Yankees draw sellout spring training crowds each year in nearby Tampa. That and this report from The Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte

"The ownership group is still here," LaMar says in his defense. "We have a very stable ownership group still intact and in its entirety. Give credit to the ownership group. They know we got off course and have admitted that. They knew it was going to take time when they made that initial investment."

But Naimoli's biggest mistake might have been his "you owe me" approach to fans.

"Once a community turns on a team, it's difficult to get it back," Burton says.

The Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks, both expansion teams in the '90s, have raised the bar by winning World Series in their first five years of existence. Arizona became the fastest to win a championship last November, doing so in only its fourth season.

The Marlins thought they could be patient in a secure market. Thanks to the impact of spring training, South Florida has long been primed for Major League Baseball. But from the beginning, baseball has been much less a hit in Florida than in Colorado, which joined the National League the same year as the Marlins. The Rockies reached the playoffs within three years and are regularly atop the National League in attendance thanks to a revitalized effort led by the building of Coors Field.

The patience and long-term development philosophy emphasized by the Marlins early was overshadowed by the panic created by waning interest from South Florida fans. Prior to the 1997 season, Huizenga sent Dombrowski on an $89 million winter shopping spree to acquire such talent as Moises Alou, Bobby Bonilla and Alex Fernandez. During the 1997 season, Huizenga announced that the team was for sale, and just weeks after winning the World Series he began dismantling it.

"We broke people's hearts again," Dombrowski says. "There is still a fan base to be successful in South Florida, but we definitely tested people down there. I think we would have drawn 3 million in 1998 if we kept the team together. But we would have continued to lose money."

Watching Florida win a championship and the almost immediate success of Arizona, which reached the postseason in its second year, was a major reason Tampa Bay abandoned a five-year blueprint that called for developing a minor-league system.

Naimoli added expensive free agents, such as All-Star third baseman Vinny Castilla and slugger Jose Canseco, and re-signed aging veteran Fred McGriff after the second season. The Rays attempted to jump-start attendance by nearly doubling their payroll to $60 million in 2000. It didn't work, and as a result the payroll was slashed last season and the team has been cutting corners in other areas. There were even reports the club was having difficulty paying bills.

The increased payroll did not result in any more wins. The Devil Rays were 63-99 in their first year, then 69-93, 69-92 and 62-100. At the urging of Major League Baseball, John McHale Jr., one of the sport's most respected executives, was asked to become the Devil Rays' chief operating officer last May 22. That and this report from The Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte

LaMar has accepted the blame for the spending spree, although many suggest he only did so at the urging of Naimoli, who thought high-priced veterans boost sagging attendance.

"One time in the franchise's history we got away from our plan that we set forth. We're paying for it," LaMar says. "We were not ready to expand, to go out in the free agent market. We were trying to generate fan interest, more attendance, which in turn would give us more money to go out and spend on our major-league club. It did not work."

For both Florida franchises to survive, experts insist new baseball-only facilities must be built.

Pro Player Stadium, home of the Marlins, was originally built for football and has no roof to protect from ubiquitous afternoon rains in South Florida. Its location -- between Miami and Fort Lauderdale -- also is a problem.

"It's in the middle of nowhere," Marlins outfielder Cliff Floyd says.

Florida has been unable to land support for a new ballpark in downtown Miami. Those efforts received an Opening Day brushback in 2000, when Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said in a newspaper column he would veto a proposal for a cruise tax to fund a new ballpark.

In a defiant protest, Henry removed the tarps that covered the upper deck, revealing thousands of empty seats.

"Why should we hide the fact that we play in a football stadium and no one goes to the games?" Henry said.

Henry admits he knew that landing funding for a new ballpark was a long shot from the start after Huizenga's failed attempts.

"I knew exactly what I was going to get into when I bought the team," Henry says. "What I was counting on was getting support publicly. Perhaps I needed to get our message out clearer about how important Major League Baseball is for this community and that we could not survive in the current facility.

"I'm not blaming anyone; I knew what I was getting into. If anyone is to blame, I should blame myself for taking on a very difficult situation."

The city of St. Petersburg opened the Florida Suncoast Dome in 1990 -- built against the advice of Major League Baseball -- to lure the White Sox from Chicago. Instead, the White Sox reached an agreement to build new Comiskey Park, and the $138 million facility played host to everything from college football and basketball to monster truck races before the NHL's Lightning moved in for a short time. The stadium received an $80 million face lift before the Devil Rays finally began play in 1998, but the building's location -- in downtown St. Petersburg -- has made it a tough sell for fans reluctant to make the 25-mile trek. That and this report from The Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte

An escape clause in the team's lease of Tropicana Field has 25 years remaining. Any new owner would have to honor the remainder of the lease because the lease obligation must be sold with the team.

Will the third time be the charm for Marlins ownership? Loria, the third owner in the club's 10-year history, has quelled concerns that he will move or fold the team unless local government builds him a ballpark. He insists baseball can survive in South Florida despite sagging attendance in recent years.

"Fans of this team have been left behind twice," Loria says. "I know that raises questions in all of your minds. Let me put an end to those questions. We're here to stay."

And baseball officials say they, too, are committed to the South Florida market. In fact, under the terms of the $38.5 million loan issued to Loria, baseball would forgive $15 million if Loria cannot build a ballpark within five years. If he does build a ballpark, he must share 20 percent of the team's profits for five years.

"If we really didn't care about the team in South Florida, we wouldn't have made the effort to keep the team in South Florida," Selig says of the Marlins.

Still, if Loria doesn't turn around the Marlins franchise it could remain on a list of potential teams up for contraction -- this winter's fancy word for eliminating some teams to improve the game's economics. The Expos remain viable candidates to either relocate to Washington, D.C., next year or be eliminated. So are the Twins. Tampa Bay seems an unlikely possibility for elimination because of its ironclad lease and the lawsuits that could be triggered by contraction.

Baseball has not moved a major-league franchise in nearly three decades. The last move came in 1972, when the Washington Senators moved to Arlington and became the Texas Rangers.

"I don't think baseball, very candidly, has been very good on how they've handled the contraction situation when it deals with Tampa Bay and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays," LaMar said. "It's funny. The criteria for contraction is revenue. We're 21st. There are a few teams that should be contracted before us. But what the fans look at is wins and losses. So they immediately say the Tampa Bay Devil Rays haven't won in their first four years so we ought to contract them.

"Baseball goes in cycles. If you look back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, if contraction was then who would be contracted? Go on wins or losses, the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians and the Seattle Mariners, some of the finest organizations in baseball. The word contraction has not bothered us because we know what the true criteria is, and we do not think we have ever been or will ever be a candidate for contraction."

Ultimately, one Florida team may have to be sacrificed. Selig remains optimistic that day won't come.

"I'm more hopeful today than a year ago," he says. That and this report from The Houston Chronicle's Joseph Duarte

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EAMUS CATULI -- AC135794

Why are the florida teams in danger of moving? Not just in baseball, but Hockey and Basketball. It seems that the NFL is the most stable sport in that state. I have heard the rumors about the Tampa Bay Lightning relocating (possibly to Portland).