Marlins Park Finally Opens
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Nearly three years in the making, Sunday afternoon the Miami Marlins played their first major league game in the newly christened Marlins Park in Little Havana.
The pre-season game against New York Yankees is just part of the history being made. It is the first time the Marlins have ever had a home outside of what is now Sun Life Stadium. It also will be the culmination of years of political bickering and infighting.
The stadium's construction was held up for years because the Marlins never wanted to release their financial details, yet claimed poverty and wanted the city/county to pay the majority of the cost of the stadium.
After it was finally agreed upon and all of the lawsuits were settled, it was discovered the Marlins had been making money hand over fist while consistently putting a losing product on the field and saying they didn't have the money to spend on the roster due to poor attendance.
Those disputes are in the past now and it's finally time for major league baseball to get underway in what's been named Marlins Park, and what a stadium it is.
From just driving by the retractable-roof stadium, it's one of the most impressive sights in South Florida. The state of the art roof, when closed, will keep the temperature inside the park a comfortable 75 degrees even if the mercury outside soars towards triple digits.
The stadium, unlike Sun Life Stadium, has been built with only baseball in mind. It will hold 37,000 Marlins fans and over the leftfield wall will be a panorama view of the downtown Miami skyline.
The biggest drawback at the stadium is potentially a massive parking problem. Despite being built for 37,000 fans, the stadium has a total of 5,700 parking spaces.
