Marlins Park put to the test today

[Brian Fein]

Today the Marlins play the Cubs in Miami, first pitch 12:40 PM.

Last season and most before that, the Marlins would draw as few as 300 people to a weekday afternoon game.  However, team president David Samson thinks that it is because no one wants to sit in the hot sun.  Even though a Sunday afternoon game would typically draw 10,000+ fans.

Samson thinks the new stadium with its roof closed will make people flock to the Marlins games that start Thursday afternoons at 12:40 PM.  Personally, I think he's insane.

I'm eager to see how many fans show up today.  My opinion is that there just aren't enough Marlins fans that are willing (or able) to take a day off from work to go to a baseball game.

I guess today, we will see if I'm smarter than David Samson.

[Sunstroke]

Reported attendance for today's matinee (per the ESPN boxscore) was 23,168.

[Brian Fein]

Paid attendance or actual?  Methinks that's the paid attendance number.

[AZ Fins Fan 55]

I would be more interested to see what it is during the dog days of summer when that new baseball smell has worn off the season. The ballpark is still new and many fans have not been yet so the first few months probably won't mean much in the grand scheme of things. When the team starts to struggle and/or the park is not brand new I bet the numbers start dipping back to some pathetic numbers.

[Dave Gray]

Any idea what kind of paid attendance the Marlins were bringing in for those early games in previous years?

[Brian Fein]

^^ that's just it, the 23k number was paid attendance.  If I remember the Marlins had 17k paid attendance in prior seasons and only 300 showed up.  No one could tell me the actual attendance - my guess is the Marlins didn't announce it.  I'm sure it was more than 300, but like AZ said, lets see what the park looks like in August.