Miami Marlins Balk at Seemingly Promised 61% Ticket Price Discount Despite Horrible Attendance

The Miami Marlins sent out an e-mail on Monday promising to discount ticket prices based on how many home runs Giancarlo Stanton hit in the 2016 Home Run Derby. What a cool idea! Wonder how they’ll mess it up?

As you know, Stanton went crazy, hitting a record 61 homers. The Marlins, who have had horrible attendance for the last two decades, decided to cap the discount at 25%. (The Marlins will offer 61% for a single game on July 29th against the St. Louis Cardinals.)

What are they thinking? The Marlins have been filling just 57% of the stadium’s capacity this season. The Marlins were 18th in attendance in 2012 when they opened their new ballpark, but other than that you have to go back to the 1990’s to find the team in the top half of the league in attendance.

The Marlins are consistently in the bottom 5 in MLB attendance. In 2011, their last year at Sun Life Stadium, they closed the upper deck for the second half of the season. In 2013, pictures of an empty Marlins Stadium because fun, yet pathetic, internet fodder. In 2014 they tried to jumpstart ticket sales with $13 seats for opening day that came with a free ticket to an additional game. That obviously didn’t work as people continued to ignore the organization and every affiliated team sank to the bottom of the standings.

This year they have somehow climbed right into the middle of the NL Wild Card race. What has the club done to encourage fans? So far this year they’ve sued former vendors and season ticket holders. Now, having accidentally stepped into a possible way to attract people to games where they might spend money on the remaining concessions that haven’t gone out of business, the Marlins quickly reneged on what was a pretty clear offer.

The Marlins should be doing anything they can to get butts in the seats to watch Giancarlo Stanton and the rest of the team play baseball. Perhaps the Marlins could consider that 61% discount a small penance for the amount of money the taxpayers put towards the empty stadium. Not rolling with that discount is just further proof that the Marlins are undeserving of fans, who very deservedly, don’t exist.