Dolphins - Chargers October 5, 08
Yesterday my husband and I had the pleasure of visiting Dolphin Stadium and watching the Miami Dolphins play the San Diego Chargers. It wasn’t so much luck as it was a lack of true interest of South Floridians who are just not consistent in game attendance. We even had two extra tickets that we couldn’t pay people to take from us! This “fair weather phenomenon” as I call it, is intriguing to me to say the least. We live in South Florida where the weather year round is mostly sunny, hot, and inviting for outdoor activities. However, in the many years of watching sports and occasionally attending the local NFL games, I have seen many empty seats at the newly named Dolphin Stadium, home to the Miami Dolphins. For so many years it was called Joe Robbie Stadium and I am still trying to retrain my brain to its new name.
Empty seats at Dolphin Stadium
Maybe the empty seats are an indicator that we live in an area where the activities for living are abundant,and therefore many people can find themselves busy doing activities other than football on a Sunday. Or are they an indicator of the true nature of this historically losing team’s dying fanship? For instance, I have always admired and often shook my head at the die-hard nature of the Green Packers’ fans. These fans live in an area where football season is like Alaska year-round, and Lambeau field is often reporting frigid temperatures in the single and negative digits. Nevertheless, they show up to see their team play – and getting season tickets there is more familiar to the lawyers who help draw up the wills than anyone else. Basically, you ain’t getting in unless someone dies and leaves them to you.
So how do you explain that true dedication of its fans to a team that has seen seasonal its ups and downs, and still is filled to capacity every home gameday? Could it be that the simplest explanation is the one here, that area of the country is truly limited in its availability of activities so the residents have become more attached to this pasttime than any other team’s fans have? Or could it be that growing up in an area such as Green Bay, one is constantly subjected to the influence of the sport?
Whatever the case may be, I still find it sad that Dolphin Stadium has so many empty seats on gamedays. I think another explanation for the lack of fan support of this team is largely due to the number of transient people who live here, myself included. Being that I am a die-hard Dallas fan, there’s not much I can do to help the attendance of the Dolphins. So maybe that is the plight of others here as well. We simply cannot give up our loyalty due to relocation.
I am proud to say that I did support the home team yesterday, with a bit of my own inside joke thrown in. I do own a Dolphins jersey, for a player who is now with my Cowboys, the talented and very tough defensive end, Zach Thomas. So although I wore my jersey in support of the ‘Fins, secretly inside I had not waivered in my support of my own team. Last year on my birthday the Cowboys played the Dolphins in Miami and I was able to purchase tickets through a season ticket holder. For this game, the Cowboys fans showed up out of the woodwork! There was a good ratio of Cowboys fans there, and I am willing to bet that several of them helped to fill those normally empty seats.
The funny thing is, last year I really wanted to get on T.V., and I just happened to work at a sign company, so I had a really nice professional sign made (first mistake) and set out to get myself on T.V. Well, besides my jumbled nerves and my very drunk friend who attended the game with me, I just didn’t get my 3 seconds of fame on Fox Sports. Then ironically, this year, with no intention nor desire to get on T.V., I made my way to the big Dolphin Stadium screen, jumping and screaming in support of the Miami Dolphins! My husband’s boss, who gave us the tickets had apparantly located us in his seats through his binoculars and when he saw me on the fan cam, expressed to my husband that he was glad we had a good time. And we did! My boss also had tickets to the game and I immediately received a text following my celebrity moment, We SAW you!!
Dolphin Stadium - The Big Screen
I’m still buzzing about seeing myself up there, while I was buzzing from all the beers I drank at the game. 
Being such a fan of the game, I want to be immersed in the sport, and nothing says you’re a fan more than being excitable enough to get the cameras on you! Or maybe it was the cut-off see through jersey I was wearing with little underneath… 
Thank goodness the camera was good to me!
