Mike's Review: Land Shark Stadium

After enjoying a beautiful day at Miami Beach we headed off towards the home of the Miami Dolphins. As we approached the stadium the blue sky disappeared and was replaced suddenly by a heavy downpour. Between the constant rain and the unfortunate fact that the Marlins play in an old football combo stadium, they really need that new ballpark coming in 2012.

The Ballpark
Land Shark Stadium is probably a nice enough football stadium. It's a terrible place to watch a baseball game. The seats face the 50 yard line, not home plate, and the scoreboards are behind 3rd base and over right field. Regardless of the sport being played, the stadium lacks any sort of character. There are no defining features or pretty views. In the closed concourses there is little interesting food other than basic ballpark food. Land Shark Lager, by the way, is about on par with Budweiser (and also brewed by Anheuser-Busch, so there you go). Overall, the attempts at disguising the football stadium with a scoreboard over the seats in left field or the National League standings flags on three of the corners of the ballpark aren't enough to change the overall atmosphere, which is a pretty ugly one.
0 / 5


The Game and Fans
About 10,000 people watched the Giants beat the Marlins 3-2 in a game that started slow with dominant pitching from Tim Lincecum (and a 3-0 deficit for the home team), and ended in the Marlins almost completing a late game comeback. The game was exciting, and the small number of fans were really into it. They were loud, focused on the game the entire time - the only thing they lacked were numbers.
4 / 5


Besides the parking lots surrounding Land Shark Stadium, there was a busy street with strip malls and fast food choices. Everything of course is driving distance only.
1 / 5


Miami is a nice looking, big city, with tons going on. Our time exploring the area was spent in the city of Miami Beach, where we enjoyed great weather, a gorgeous beach, and tons of restaurants, clubs, and bars with outdoor seating.
4 / 5