People say “you can take the New Yorker out of New York, but you CAN’T take New York out of the New Yorker”.  Well, this New York sports fan was taken out of New York about four years ago, and I can still feel the withdrawal symptoms to this day living in Boca Raton, Florida.

Think about it New Yorkers, among the four major sports you have exactly EIGHT professional teams that represent you within a mere 20 mile radius of New York City (sincerest of apologies to the New Jersey readers for the Jets, Giants and Devils inclusion in this group, and fans of the Bills and Sabres who are also New York State based teams but are omitted).

I feel like I’ve moved to “Sports Siberia” here in South Florida.  The local pro teams are the Marlins, Dolphins, Panthers and Heat (Tampa is a full 270 miles away, roughly the equivalent distance from New York to Boston), and none of them could sell out a home game even if they held a “Free Money Night”.  The Marlins were in the heat of a pennant race until the middle of September and they played in a three-quarter empty ballpark most of the time.  The exception……….when our beloved METS came to town.  Then it would be only half empty and the New York fans (including myself) would outnumber the local Marlin fans.

There is no passion for pro sports here like there is in New York.  In New York, when a team doesn’t do well, we rally around them.  Here, a team can win a title one year and play in an empty arena the next if they get off to a slow start (i.e. – the Miami Heat).  The Dolphins have a whopping 8 regular season home games a year, but can’t even sell them out (unless the JETS come to town).  In New York, families include season tickets in their wills and pass them down from generation to generation.

The inspiration for this article involves the controversy surrounding the size of the new stadiums for our two New York area baseball teams.   The Yankees and Mets finished first and second in the major leagues in home attendance last year, drawing a combined 8.3 MILLION fans (in contrast, the Siberia Marlins were last, drawing only 1.3 million).   Granted, there was some extra nostalgia involving the finality of the two stadiums, but the two teams drew in excess of 8.1 million fans in 2007.

Well, the new stadiums will have larger seats, aisles and concourses, there will be more luxury boxes, team stores, restaurants and restrooms.  What there WON’T be more of are SEATS.  The seating capacity will be a combined 17,000 seats fewer (roughly 18%) in the new stadiums, and this figure doesn’t include the increased “standing room” count in each new ballpark, which is being counted as a “seat”.

Even with our struggling economy, New Yorkers, in spite of the high ticket prices, will scratch and claw and probably sell out almost every game the Yankees and Mets play this year.  We’ll even pay to stand somewhere in the stadium.  Why?  Because we are loyal, we are true, and we are fans, Fanatics in every sense of the word.

Listen New Yorkers, if you have trouble finding or affording a ticket for the 2009 baseball season, come on down to southern Florida……….. PLENTY of great seats are still available.

Tags: New York Mets, New York Yankees