Something weird happened at Marlins Park on Monday. People actually showed up. The stated attendance was 37,116, though the actual butts-in-the-seat number was about 35,000. Still impressive by Marlins standards.
But it appears that the team just isn't ready when fans actually show up. The wait for concession food was up to an hour according to some folks. President David Samson of course came off like he was blaming the fans for the inconveniences.
Here's a selection of Tweets of people complaining about the food lines.
@Marlins B6 & food lines still crazy. I can't go upstairs to eat? How would you ever handle a sellout? #awful pic.twitter.com/cBfOi1mEdW
— Mark Pencek (@MarkPencek) April 1, 2014Long lines, overpriced pizzas, and no parking! But hell, what a game! Great way to start off the season boys! #WorthItAll! @Marlins
— Javier Herrera (@Javi_herrera19) April 1, 2014Only negative of big crowd at Marlins Park tonight, long lines at concessions. Some people said wait was 45 min to an hour. Bad.
— Will Manso (@WillManso) April 1, 2014@Marlins I guess u guys are never going to be ready for an opening night huh? The lines for food are terrible again!
— Kevin (@klmartinez12) April 1, 2014Sure would love to grab a bite at the Marlins game... But unbelievable concession lines. @MarlinsPark #roomforimprovement
— Annie Luepker (@aluepker) April 1, 2014"We're never going to have 35,000 people in here and not have complaints," Samson told the Miami Herald. "For soccer, concerts, whatever; it won't happen. I'm sorry for the fans. I want every fan to have a perfect experience."
Hmmm, maybe that inconvenience is part of the reason that you'll never have 35,000 people in there on a regular basis. Samson did however add that he had more concession workers on staff that usual for the night.
"My frustration is that I hate lines and I hate incompetence," he continued. "When I'm at Disney, I wait 60 minutes to get on Space Mountain with my son. Am I happy about it? No. But I signed up for it."
"There is a way to do fast pass in this park. We tell you to download the MLB at Park app on the phone and order food."
See guys, its your fault. Should've downloaded that app!
Anyway, the Marlins Tuesday night attendance was about back down to normal. 15,906 paid for tickets. That's below's last year's average attendance of 19,584. Though, it's up for last season's second home game which also took place on a Tuesday. Only 14,222 tickets were sold then.
In case you're wondering, with just two games into the season, the Marlins have the second-lowest average attendance of teams that have actually hosted games. Only the Tampa Bay Rays have worse attendance. That's exactly how it went last season when the Marlins and Rays were the two worst teams in baseball by attendance.
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