Sunday Morning Miami Dolphins/Phinsider Poll:Stadium Issues Edition

Last week, following another kick in the crotch loss, I poised the question of what did you think was the biggest problem with this team? The leading answer by a wide margin was "Multiple new players on offense. Revamp the whole thing." with 44.89% (224 votes). This would lead one to believe that the majority of Dolphins fan's believe that the top issue with this team is not coaching or lack of a starting caliber QB as has been the case in the past several years but actual lack of play makers and of course sold linemen on the offensive side of the ball.

The second most popular answer was "New GM! Fire Jeff Ireland like yesterday!" with 14.23% (71 votes). I actually expected this to get a much higher vote count given how much of a beating he takes on this blog and elsewhere. Even still almost 15 % of you want him gone which is a decent percentage or else CT has finally figured out how to manipulate the system and voted 71 times. Third place goes to "Multiple new players on defense. Revamp the whole thing." at 14.03% (70 votes). A little surprised to see this come in third place but no doubt among any of us that the defense like the offense needs several positions addressed in the off season.

Next to take the blame was Sherman with the option "New offensive coordinator. Mike Sherman's offense is bland and going nowhere." which received 10.22% (51 votes) of the vote. The next target was on the other side of the ball with option "New defensive coordinator. Miami's defense under Kevin Coyle is only going backwards." receiving 4.81% (24 votes) of the votes. The surprise of the week goes to the option "I don't care. Just here trolling as usual. Now back to my bridge." gained a full 4.41% (22 votes). This blows the previous record of 4 trolls visiting our poll at once out of the water. Epic news...

The rest of the voting went as follows - "Multiple new players on offense including QB." 2.61% (13 votes), "New QB. Tannehill is not going to take this team anywhere." 2.2% (11 votes), "All of the above!" 1.2% (6 votes), "New head coach. Philbin does not have what it takes to be a head coach." 1% (5 votes), "New coaching staff. Fire them all and start from scratch." 0.4% (2 votes).

So this week I was thinking about the whole stadium issue after Kevin wrote a very thoughtful article (HERE) about the issues that it's facing. He makes some sound arguments but then I started to think of some of the things that went on in the area that I live in now. I know it's always hard to compare one area with another but one of the things that always seems to make a city or county or even area finally step up is the threat of having the whole thing leave. Even when a team is down no politician wants to be the one that takes the blame for the favorite team leaving town.

Now I am not proposing that the Dolphins leave S. Florida (or that they ever would) but like crazy ass Jerry Jones did he played Irving (where the old stadium was) against Dallas (the place that he wanted to put the new stadium) and Arlington (the smallest of the three and the small city that had proven that it could get a new stadium built in the past with the Rangers). Ultimately the city that showed up to the table with the biggest amount of tax payer dollars and the best all around deal was the city of the three that had the smallest budget and the smallest tax base. What does the city get? They hope a lot of new development surrounding the stadium equaling more tax dollars and of course Jerry gets the rest. The entire stadium and full control of all revenue including parking (at freaking $50 a pop), ect....

Of course the debate will be that no one will do this after the city of Miami was burned by the Marlins. Funny because the same thing was said of the situation here after Hicks and Cuban burned the city of Dallas with the building of the new arena where the Stars and Mavs play when they are still to this day paying off the loans on Reunion arena which has since been leveled. Hows that for a kick to the head? Alas Jerry still pulled it off and the mayor of Dallas who killed the deal for Dallas is to this day vilified by many who still believe "The Cowboys should be playing in Dallas!". I live in an area where politicians do not want to be known for spending money but they would less want to be known as the guy that lost the favorite team. That's the sort of thing that every one of us would remember on election day!

So now on to our very own Dolphins. Of course on the outside it would seem the easiest thing to do (and I admit the most likely to happen by a long shot) is to revamp the old stadium like CT earlier noted the Bears had done with old ass Soldier Field. Having not seen that stadium its hard to say how nice or not nice it is or how it stands up to some of the stadiums that have opened in the last few years. I could see that working if they went in stripped the whole thing down and used the current skeleton to build what would basically become a whole new stadium. But then comes the issue of who pays for this? Logic says that Ross, since he owns it all and profits off of everything that goes down at the stadium and thus should of course pay to upgrade his investment. The only problem with that is that owners are reluctant to do so when they see their buddies all over the country getting new stadiums built for them and in some cases the keys to the whole thing handed over when construction is complete. His best bet is to somehow have both counties and even the state throw in a little, he throw in a little and just fix the damn thing already but...

The other option like I talked about with the Cowboys which I agree is far less likely but it is still possible (and I throw in for arguments sake) is for Ross to lobby for a whole new stadium. He of course has the land to build it right there next to the current stadium as he already owns the land. Or he could look for other locations around Dade county or pull the Jerry Jones card and start pitting Miami-Dade against the cities in Broward that might like to have the stadium located in their city/county. I know some think that this will never work but everyone swore it would not work here and there were those that said that no one would ever pay for a new stadium for the Marlins who have a TERRIBLE history of attendance. Also you never know what a politician that wants to make points with the voters is capable with one way or another.

At least the Dolphins have a long history of pulling numbers before this latest down turn in our fortunes. Like I said I see this as very unlikely but if you are Ross don't you have to look at and explore all of your options? Besides whats that land that he already owns worth to a real-estate developer like himself? I could also see the whole idea of him asking for a whole new stadium as hard to sell in a not so great economy but bigger things have happened in worse economic conditions. If he finds some sucker city/county to build him a new state of the art facility and leaves him with a nice piece of land ready to build on it would be like winning the lottery for a rich guy.

So what do you think should happen with the stadium issue? (On a side note what about the Canes new stadium already?)

PLEASE VOTE IN OUR POLL BELOW!