loanDepot park
Miami Marlins
Major League
TL;DR? Here’s the long-form piece in a nutshell:
Despite receiving positive reviews upon opening, Marlins Park is generally considered a bottom 5-10 ballpark for issues that have little to do with the actual ballpark.
Bitterness surrounding unrelated issues—like the stadium’s dodgy financing scheme and the Marlins organization’s ineptness—translated to antipathy toward the ballpark itself. They conflate the Marlins franchise with Marlins Park. That makes no sense.
However, I’ve downgraded Marlins Park’s rating as of late for two reasons.
1) Attendance issues are sufficiently dire to affect the essentials of the ballpark experience, with the stadium operations routinely at 1/3rd capacity. Think a closed upper deck, closed concession stands in prime areas, and dormant signature spaces.
2) The Jeter-era no-fun alterations took a flawed “addition by subtraction” approach, removing amenities like the Clevelander pool nightclub and the cool fish tanks behind home plate, but without adding anything of interest in their place! Sure, there’s now a new lounge in the spot formerly occupied by the pool, and it’s admittedly pretty nice, but nearly all ballparks have trendy lounges. So what? And the home run sculpture now sits outside. Marlins Park can’t really afford to be boring given the product on the field.
Replacing the home run sculpture with a generic party deck, the pool nightclub with an overpriced lounge, and the fish tank with ads represents the new homogeneity of ballparks to a tee.
Regardless, I still think the building itself is architecturally underrated, even if it doesn’t fit in the Little Havana neighborhood. Design-wise, Marlins Park stands alone in baseball history as the only contemporary MLB ballpark in the 21st century sense of the word.
On the outside, Marlins Park conceptually captures sea merging with land, with an amalgam of deep blue glass, white stucco and steel, unadulterated concrete, and sparkling silver aluminum. With graceful fluidity in form, it’s an abstract expression of Miami.
The refreshed interior feels modern yet subdued, highlighted by the sleek white facade and attractive greenery. The retractable left field panels reveal surprisingly beautiful views of Brickell/Downtown Miami. I also adore the contemporary baseball-related artwork sprinkled throughout the concourses.
Marlins Park is particularly functional, with a wide, open main concourse without interruptions in field visibility and excellent sightlines for a post-1990 ballpark. The park’s amenities aren’t as fan-friendly as they should be—sparse crowds are partly to blame—but scrumptious Latin food options, a new beer hall, the Bobblehead Museum, and one of baseball’s best home plate clubs (relatively affordable on Stubhub!) are highlights.
In sum, Marlins Park is a bottom-10 ballpark experience, mostly because a ballpark this empty just isn’t a fun one. Attendance this poor has operational effects beyond a listless atmosphere. But Marlins Park’s dazzling contemporary architecture and aesthetics make it worth a visit.
