As advertised, the Marlins front office is all geared up to take some more home games away from Marlins fans next season.
Major League Baseball and Antonio Munoz, owner of MB Sports, which is serving as the promoter of the San Juan Series, have not made anything official regarding next year. It is, however, expected that efforts will be made for a return trip.
"If MLB invites us back and Mr. Munoz invites us back, we'd be happy to come back," Marlins president David Samson said. "We're not going to come back in '12, but next year would be perfect, if we are asked."
Not excited about this. First off, should the team decide to do this, they need to let the Marlins fans know in advance, which they didn't this year. The ones who buy advanced season tickets need to know that they aren't buying a 81 game package but a 78 game package. Not to mention the problems of those who are buying a shorter game package. In other words, there are home games for which you cannot purchase a seat.
It seems to me that building a fan base in South Florida is the smartest thing the Marlins front office can do and that doesn't happen by taking away home games. If some other team wants to give them away for the sake of MLB expansion of the overall fan base that is fine. We will do whatever. But the Marlins fans have already given; it is someone else's turn.
And to the ones who trumpet the sellout crowds in Puerto Rico may I remind you of the fact, while it is true that the three-game series drew 55,678 fans total, in the last three game series against the Mets in South Florida a total of 105,864 fans attended.