As much as I’ve been a loud and vocal proponent for goofing on the Braves, and voicing my dissent and disapproval of ScumTrust Park, I would have to say that there still exists a team that is worse off. Which would be the Florida Miami Marlins, who have recently been reported to be suing their fans, alleging breaches of season ticket and lease contracts on account of the Marlins failing to deliver on a multitude of promises.
Long story short, since the Marlins opened their highly criticized, publicly funded Little Havana monstrosity, there was belief (that nobody believed in) that a brand new shiny ballpark would draw packed crowds, generate boatloads of revenue, and be a fruitful opportunity to businesses that chose to invest. But because they’re the Marlins, and Miami is Miami, which is to say the people are vapid, fair-weathered and have attention spans of narcoleptic goats, none of the beliefs have come true.
And people who were stupid enough to have faith in the Marlins, who actually sunk money into the organization, be it through season ticket contracts or business investments, have finally realized that things are not getting better, and are pulling out. And the Marlins are suing as many of them as they can.
Sure, the Marlins certainly have legal ground to pursue these lawsuits, but from a PR standpoint, all casual viewers of the scenario are only seeing one thing: the big bad rich and powerful organization, suing the fans.
If it wasn’t already widely public knowledge that the Marlins are owned by an unapologetic and despicable shitbag in Jeffrey Loria, an art collector who essentially sits on the ownership of the Marlins to basically use as a personal ATM, this story probably might be a surprise to those less involved. But by this point, the Marlins suing fans is probably about as surprising as discovering that fish live in oceans.
Honestly, the fans and businesses being sued probably should have known better, to do business with the Marlins. Sure, at some point, some people are going to have to be the pioneers to try to restore some faith to Miami sports, but as long as a guy like Jeffrey Loria is in charge of a team like the Marlins, doing business is a fool’s endeavor.
Here’s the thing: the Marlins are a substantial reason of just why I’m so critical of the Braves and their unfortunate decisions. Because baseball fans have already seen what can happen to a city and its relationship with the team and the fans with the Marlins. And as much as I goof on the Braves, I’d rather the Braves not become a laughing stock of an organization like the Marlins have been for the better part of the last two decades.
Braves fans might not like it or want to admit it, but there’s a lot of concerning parallels between both franchises these days, especially when it comes to the stories of their current (and future) homes. Marlins Park was a highly-criticized, oft-opposed venue, paid for widely with public funds and almost no transparency with the payment details. Those are exactly the circumstances in which ScumTrust Park are being built.
And Miami basically, just happened. Marlins Park opened in 2012, four years ago. Their failures are well documented and well chronicled. Given the Braves’ close mirroring to their format, I have a hard time believing that they’ve got all the answers to everything the Marlins did wrong.
Both organizations have shitty ownership, with the aforementioned Loria for the Marlins, and an organization of corporate, real-estate hungry stiffs known as Liberty Media owning the Braves. Both have a fuckton of money and could probably have very easily financed their ballparks themselves, but instead turn towards swindling the public whom mostly aren’t interested in paying for things they would seldom use, to pay for their parks that will widely make money for themselves and those in their circles.
The difference is that the Marlins have already lived and gone through what a failure to capitalize on a new ballpark is like. Look at all the new ballparks in recent years; the Yankees have won a World Series to hang the banner in New Yankee Stadium. The Mets have been to the World Series, and the Nationals have grown into a winning franchise. The Twins have failed to do anything like the Marlins have, but it’s not for lack of trying; they play in Minnesota, in a market nobody even knows exists, and their organization hasn’t done anything different in nearly 20 years.
I have concerns that the Braves will end up like the Marlins and not their more successful counterparts. I’ll admit that the Braves are being wise to restock their farm system and try to rebuild from within to contend, but I’ve spent the last decade listening to claims of prospects that can’t miss, make it to the Braves and completely miss, so I have some skepticism there. But the restocking of the minor leagues doesn’t change the fact that the Braves, like the Marlins, are run by greedy, profit-first stiffs that don’t understand the importance of fielding a respectable product, even when championships don’t seem possible.
Atlanta, like Miami is an extremely fickle, fair-weathered market where fans gladly show up in droves for a winning product, but are more scarce than Sasquatch when the team is a losing product. When the Braves deliver a 90-loss season in 2017 when ScumTrust Park debuts, it’s not going to be a quick solution to draw the fans back in 2018 and beyond.
Hopefully, the Braves won’t resort to suing their fans when in 2018 season ticket holders want out of their agreements, and vendors are unhappy with sub-20,000 crowds and are failing to meet performance numbers that they were probably promised as being attainable.
