Why aren't Florida baseball teams dominant?

[Suburbia]

Florida is a old person's state.

Low taxes, warm weather. Baseball teams like the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins have horrific attendance.

That shouldn't be.

Older people tend to watch baseball, it reminds them of their childhood, when Baseball WAS the America's pastime, when it was the entertainment sport.

[JGibson]

Florida is a old person's state.

Low taxes, warm weather. Baseball teams like the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins have horrific attendance.

That shouldn't be.

Older people tend to watch baseball, it reminds them of their childhood, when Baseball WAS the America's pastime, when it was the entertainment sport.

This could be because a lot of the Northeastern and Midwestern transplants that move to Florida retain their following of their teams from those areas, esp. the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals.

The lone times Tampa's stadium gets a decent-sized crowd is when the Yankees and Red Sox (and to a lesser extent, the Mets) come to town.

The same could also apply to the Florida's NHL teams, except that Tampa Bay Lightning has usually been a successful team.

[Suburbia]

Florida is a old person's state.

Low taxes, warm weather. Baseball teams like the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins have horrific attendance.

That shouldn't be.

Older people tend to watch baseball, it reminds them of their childhood, when Baseball WAS the America's pastime, when it was the entertainment sport.

This could be because a lot of the Northeastern and Midwestern transplants that move to Florida retain their following of their teams from those areas, esp. the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals.

The lone times Tampa's stadium gets a decent-sized crowd is when the Yankees and Red Sox (and to a lesser extent, the Mets) come to town.

The same could also apply to the Florida's NHL teams, except that Tampa Bay Lightning has usually been a successful team.

Panthers are not so great despite having the NHL's best record last year.

A lot of Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Sabres, Flyers fans in FL and they keep their allegiance.

[Sestak]

Because the Marlins front office is incompetent

[Fight for Trump]

Florida is a old person's state.

Low taxes, warm weather. Baseball teams like the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins have horrific attendance.

That shouldn't be.

Older people tend to watch baseball, it reminds them of their childhood, when Baseball WAS the America's pastime, when it was the entertainment sport.

This could be because a lot of the Northeastern and Midwestern transplants that move to Florida retain their following of their teams from those areas, esp. the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals.

The lone times Tampa's stadium gets a decent-sized crowd is when the Yankees and Red Sox (and to a lesser extent, the Mets) come to town.

The same could also apply to the Florida's NHL teams, except that Tampa Bay Lightning has usually been a successful team.

Panthers are not so great despite having the NHL's best record last year.

A lot of Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Sabres, Flyers fans in FL and they keep their allegiance.

I've seen a lot of transplants/part-time Floridians adopt the Lightning as their "second team".

[bagelman]

Marlins suck and the Rays are stuck with a bad stadium in a bad location. There are quite a few minor league teams across the state, even an entire league. Florida is also a spring training hotspot.

[Catholics vs. Convicts]

I think its just a simple case of poor ownership.

The Tampa Bay Rays have clearly prioritized and have become the poster child for moneyball management. They have by the best cost-to-winning ratio in the league. Now, that's good enough to regularly compete for the playoffs but the lack of elite players in their prime just means that a World Series will not be seriously in the cards.

And then you have Miami, who have never been willing to spend for prolonged periods of time. As soon as they can cash out on their investment, they take that opportunity. Plus, I imagine what relatively limited money they do have is probably going to paying off any stadium construction debts.

If either of these teams was sold to anyone who was remotely aggressive in spending for players for the long run, they would rise up and be serious organizations. But their owners just aren't interested in doing what it takes, so they will be mired in mediocrity just like poorly-owned teams in other parts of the country.

[Comrade Funk]

Florida is infamous in terms of supporting their pro sports teams. Opposing fans take over the stadiums regularly.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

On the other hand, Florida, Florida State, and Miami are three traditionally very strong college baseball programs.  You can count on at least one of them being in Omaha most years.

[Benjamin Frank]

When the NHL expanded to Los Angeles in 1967, the rationale was 'there are a lot of Canadian transplants in Los Angeles.'

After the team failed to draw well initially, people started to say "all those Canadians left for Los Angles to get away from hockey."

[Benjamin Frank]

Florida is infamous in terms of supporting their pro sports teams. Opposing fans take over the stadiums regularly.

Except for the Dolphins. The old North American Soccer League teams drew relatively very well, with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers frequently selling out Lockhart Stadium (the first 20,000 seat 'soccer specific stadium') and the Tampa Bay Rowdies frequently outdrawing the Buccaneers, but the Major League Soccer teams in Florida, except for Orlando, haven't attracted much attention, not even the Miami Beckhams (Inter Miami) which plays at the renovated and renamed Lockhart Stadium.