MAN-atees

[Willets Point]

The Florida Marlins are putting together an all overweight male cheerleading squad for 2008 called the Manatees. That ought to fill the seats in Miami.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080225&content_id=2389612&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[Frayed Knot]

Anything, I guess, to get them through the next 3 years.
With their stadium financing recently approved (a few details still to come) they're expected to break ground this November for a new stadium near the site of the Orange Bowl in anticipation for it being ready in 2011.

One condition for the county agreeing to foot a large portion of the tab (with the old standard; 'we'll finance it thru a tourist tax' logic) is that the team will be known as the [u:d4311538eb]Miami Marlins[/u:d4311538eb] starting that year.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Good! That should have been their name from the very beginning.

I wonder if they can also sneak in a clause to require the Rockies to become the Denver Bears and to make the Diamondbacks become the Phoenix Firebirds?

[soupcan]

Frayed Knot wrote: ...the team will be known as the Miami Marlins starting that year.

Excellent.

Now all we have to do is get the Colorado Rockies to change their name to the Denver Bears and we're all set.

On edit: Doh. I should probably read the previous posts before I start hammering away on my keyboard.

[Frayed Knot]

The whole 'Florida' thing seemed to be mostly a thumb in the eye at the ownership wannabes in Tampa. Since Miami "won the race" to host the first team in Florida they figured that the act of claiming the name of the state as theirs would somehow convey state-wide appeal on them while any subsequent team in the TB area would be forced to adopt a city name and therefore be relegated to local pip-squeak status.

Miami Marlins not only sounds better and better describes the team but, as has been mentioned, has some history to it as well.

[metsmarathon]

]The Marlins Maniacs are a fourth promotional team the organization has. The Maniacs are more of an energy squad that will help initiate fan interaction. For instance, they may get a "wave" started by the crowd.

wow! how wacky!

[Guest vtmet]

the Marlins have more people in their cheer groups than they have fans that attend games...

[metirish]

If the stadium is expected to break ground this November why will it take until the 2011 season for it to open, does that seem like a long time to build it?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Isn't CitiField going to end up taking three baseball seasons? Construction started during the 2006 season, so that seems like the same time frame.

[metirish]

You're right Grimm, from a November 06 Citigroup release.

] The Mets, in conjunction with their construction partners Hunt-Bovis and HOK, began construction of the 45,000-capacity Citi Field this summer in the outfield parking lot between Shea Stadium and 126th Street. More than 2,200 of the 2,800 piles already have been driven

[Guest vtmet]

I would think that Miami has a little longer construction season each season than NYC does, which by itself should mean less time to build...plus, I'd imagine that having Shea and all it's crowds on the same piece of property would slow things down as well...

[metirish]

They should put the fat blokes to work on building the new stadium.