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BY ADAM BEASLEY
ABEASLEY@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Is Miami big enough for two college football bowl games? That’s a conversation occurring at the highest levels of the Miami Marlins, as the South Florida’s re-branded baseball club ponders ways to make full use of its Little Havana ballpark.
Set to open in April 2012, the stadium will be used predominantly for baseball during its inaugural season. But beginning next November, Marlins execs hope to book concerts, boxing matches, conventions — and even basketball and football games. The facility, which was built largely with public funding, could make a bid to host a future Final Four. Another possibility: having its own bowl game.
“It’s in the thought stages,” said Juan C. Martinez, the Marlins’ director of multicultural marketing. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a bowl game on the grounds of the old Orange Bowl?”
Of course, Miami-Dade County is already home to the Orange Bowl (game, not stadium — that was demolished in 2008), and is also in the rotation to periodically host the BCS National Championship Game (which returns in 2013).
But the as-of-now-unnamed baseball stadium could become a player for a minor bowl, considering the facility’s 37,000-person capacity — the perfect size for a matchup of non-power conference teams.
For a decade, the town did play home to the Blockbuster/Carquest/MicronPC Bowl, but the event relocated to Orlando (and was ultimately renamed the Champs Sports Bowl) amid little fanfare in the early 2000s, after the Orange Bowl game moved for good to the Dolphins’ home stadium.
ABEASLEY@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Is Miami big enough for two college football bowl games? That’s a conversation occurring at the highest levels of the Miami Marlins, as the South Florida’s re-branded baseball club ponders ways to make full use of its Little Havana ballpark.
Set to open in April 2012, the stadium will be used predominantly for baseball during its inaugural season. But beginning next November, Marlins execs hope to book concerts, boxing matches, conventions — and even basketball and football games. The facility, which was built largely with public funding, could make a bid to host a future Final Four. Another possibility: having its own bowl game.
“It’s in the thought stages,” said Juan C. Martinez, the Marlins’ director of multicultural marketing. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a bowl game on the grounds of the old Orange Bowl?”
Of course, Miami-Dade County is already home to the Orange Bowl (game, not stadium — that was demolished in 2008), and is also in the rotation to periodically host the BCS National Championship Game (which returns in 2013).
But the as-of-now-unnamed baseball stadium could become a player for a minor bowl, considering the facility’s 37,000-person capacity — the perfect size for a matchup of non-power conference teams.
For a decade, the town did play home to the Blockbuster/Carquest/MicronPC Bowl, but the event relocated to Orlando (and was ultimately renamed the Champs Sports Bowl) amid little fanfare in the early 2000s, after the Orange Bowl game moved for good to the Dolphins’ home stadium.
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