There Are Already Lots Of Empty Seats At Marlins Games

All right, so, there's nothing worse and more useless than attendance stories in April. Still: here's one anyway. The Marlins, despite that fancy new ballpark, haven't even been close to filling the place.

The Marlins Park sellout streak ended at one game. This past weekend's series with the Astros saw an average attendance of 32,020, nearly 5,000 shy of a full house. (It's a very small ballpark.) Those numbers must have been for paid attendance, because by all accounts, the number of ass-filled seats was much lower. But that's the Astros; no one cares about the Astros. Surely the Cubs would draw? Last night's game, which saw the return of Ozzie Guillen to an "indifferent reception", drew shy of 25,000. Again, that's paid attendance, and seems generous when looking at huge swaths of empty seats.

Don't panic. It's the parking. It's the rain. Lots of new ballparks have drop-offs after opening day. Attendance is still up from last year. The home run sculpture isn't any cooler the second time around. Miami is a tropical paradise with a thriving nightlife and a small local base and it'll never support a baseball team no matter how much it wins or how many gewgaws the stadium has to offer.

It's one of those, anyway.

Photo via Flickr