See the new ballpark? Give us your thoughts.

       Thousands of fans and gawkers poured into Marlins Park in Little Havana this morning for FanFest, checking out the team's new digs. If you were one of them, we'd like to hear what you thought. Give us your review. Did you like the Home Run Sculpture or find it hideous? What about the overall color scheme? Were the seats to your liking? What was your impression in general? Here's your chance....

Comments

[Ricardo Reino]

Ive offered Samson $1 million to live here. no joke.

[SANBAR]

I was not there but can seee this is a first class venue. BEAUTIFUL. nOW HOW DO WE PUT A WINNING TEAM IN IT? FIRST GET THE OWNER OUT. hE HAS THE 2ND WORST TEAM IN MLB, WENT BANKRUPT WITH MONTREAl and get a new stadium for the looser. QUESTION FOR YOU: WAS THIS WORTH THE LAYOFF OF TEACHERS, POLICE AAND FIREFIGHTERS AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE INFASTRUCTURE OF MIAMI? a BROKE CITY, NEEDS MONEY, POOR OWNERSHIP, ECT. tHIS STASDIUM, WHICH THEY CAN NOT FIND A SPONSOR TO HANG THEIR NAME ON THE BUILDING IS A LOOSING AFFAIR. (FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC) THIS PLACE WON'T LOOK SO GOOD IN AUGUST WHEN THERE ARE 3,000 FANS IN IT.

[Roy]

Do not like the green walls surrounding the field

[Observer]

Worth EVERY penny douche....

[pimienta]

muy lindo, un stadium de primera
Felicidadez Marlins

[DAVE]

would be much nicer if we didn't have to pay for it.

[Go Marlins]

Great day at fan fest. A number of players out signing autographs, Carlos Zambrano seemed very nice. The stadium is beautiful, truly unique with all the splashes of color. Very Miami. The home run structure looks very cool but reserving final judgement till Giancarlo Stanton sets it in action.

[DAVE]

VOTE JOE MARTINEZ

[Glags]

SANBAR you're a joykiller!!! There isn't a bad seat in the house at least not in the lower bowl.

[JZ]

Overall looks great. The batters eye is too light of a shade of green. I bet they change that quickly, probably before the home opener.

['witz]

Sightlines are terrible, with huge blind spots in the outfield corners even from the most expensive lower-deck seats. How could anybody not notice that?

[Michael A.R.]

SANBAR: You are beyond clueless! You sit here today questioning how this team is going to field a winner?!? Are you aware that this team is going into the 2012 season with a $100M payroll and improving players? Oh, and the laying off of teachers and police have nothing to do with the financing of the stadium! Teacher and police salaries are not paid by tourism taxes and that's by law!!! One has nothing to do with the other, but in your little feeble mind that's all you can corrolate together!

DAVE: Please explain to me how YOU "paid" for this?!?! Did you stay in a hotel in Miami-Dade County? Did you rent a car in Miami-Dade County? If you did, then you paid a share. If you didn't, then not a dime from your taxes went to it! Get the facts, buddy!

['witz]

Michael A.R., you are right and Sanbar's wrong about teacher and police layoffs and salaries, but even though local people didn't pay much of the tax money that was used to finance the stadium, the money was ours. We weren't given a chance to vote on using it for the stadium, specifically because of the concern that we would vote against that. Although Sanbar is grossly under-informed on some details, his lingering anger over the deception involved is legitimate and very widely shared.

[DAVE]

MR. AR, WHAT ARE THE PEOPLE OF DADE COUNTY GETTING OUT OF THIS TERRIBLE DEAL. GETTING TO SEE THAT TOOL SAMSON ON TV. WHAT A JOKE.

[Flav C]

Went to the fan fest today. Nice little stadium. 9.50 burgers and 10.00 pizza. Agree with witz, there were some blind spots. Nice view of the skyline from the promenade, nice breeze today. That Home Run piece of art (??) is really huge. Only when you get up close you realize how big (and horrendous) that thing is. I didn't park in the garage area, which means that if you are not a season-ticket holder, you are in for trouble. I had to resort to the old days of Orange Bowl and find a spot in the neighborhood close by. By the way, that surrounding area is scarier than ever.

[spitballer]

I just got back from Fan Fest....230 mile drive...it's definately a WOW! I got one autograph...Omar Infante. Wanted more but the lines were way too long. A vast improvement with the hot dogs....Had a great time.

[lucio]

WAY better than I thought...REALITY is better than the fiction I hear above...it WILL bea HUGE success !!!!

[JZ]

All the new ballparks have the sightlines blocked in the outfield corners. It doesn't really matter since 99% of the action is in the infield. Better than staring straight stat the left fielder when sitting down the line at Sun Life.

[Timinwpb]

Came down from WPB and had a great time today at Fan Fest. Traffic wasn't bad at all. Took just 15 minutes longer than the old football dump. The stadium is beautiful and the Home Run display is certainly colorful. Looking forward using my 20 game pack.

[Flagstafffishfan]

Wish I could have seen it but here in AZ as a fish fan. Thanks for the descriptions and prices/quality of food etc....Cool to see Palm Beach and Broward fans still coming out certainly all deserve a nice ballpark to watch a game.

[Glags]

The nachos are horrible. They should have a suggestion box.

[BaskervilleHolmes]

I love baseball but, personally, it would hurt my pride and my soul deeply if I spend 1 single penny with the Loria clan, I dislike them immensely, I dislike what they did, how they got the stadium on the backbone of a city in financial trouble by pushing around a bunch of inept very low end politicians of very low moral fiber. However low the bar or morality was set by the politicians on this one, it was surpassed greatly by the lowest of the low morals of Marlins ownership on all aspects and particularly on how they lied and defrauded the citizens to stick it to a city and its people with a bill for $2.4 billion dollars after all financing is calculated for that stadium. It is certainly a debt that Miami and its citizens will be stuck with for generations to come before it is paid while the carpetbagging millionaire Marlin owners from Palm Beach go slumming to Miami and collect their winnings.

To make matters worse, they insist on using that horrific PR man, that quack duck voiced pitchman Samson as the face and voice of the organization (nepotism, yes, I know but still...). When I hear his voice on the radio or TV I change stations.

And after all is said and done, people will NOT go there in sufficient numbers after the newness of the park wears off. There is not enough money in Miami to support such an enterprise for so many games per season and the people of counties to the North have been evicted and excluded by the Marlins because where the stadium was built ... IT IS A HORRIBLE LOCATION TO GET TO AND PARKING WILL BE A PROBLEM. If you do not believe it, try going there now, any day from Monday - Friday at about the time you would go to a game.

[Andy]

Concerning the hat Logo. Love the new Logo but the Logo size is way too big. Seems gheto to me. They should offer a hat Logo a bit smaller, classier. Then i can buy one.

[monkeysee--monkey do]

Marlins designed the hat with that in mind... marketing to the ghetto thugs...who else wears a baseball cap as everyday/prison/formal wear...

[ariana]

i thought it was amazzing! its going to take some getting used to but i loved it. i cannot wait for the 1st game, april 2nd

[Davie man]

I was at the fanfest. The park is great, a real baseball park. I sat in different areas and the view is OK. Today I purchased tickets for the second Marlins-Yankees game and I was also able to purchase parking. I simulated purchasing tickets for Marlins-Astros game and parking spaces were available. Would this be an index that not too many people have bought season tickets? The only detail that I did not like was the horrible home run sculpture. I think it might be a distraction for hitters

[Pinnocchio]

Do you think Samson would actually lie,stretch the truth,omit facts or fib about the true amount of actual season tickets sold ???? Really? Who woulda thought?

[Jeffrey L]

Samson's wife has said he lies in his sleep

[Richard]

Hey Sanbar, Teachers and Police officers would be getting the cuts with or without the ballpark. GET OVER IT!! BTW maybe you should have paid attention in class a little more because you KEEP MISSPELLING L-O-S-E-R!!

Ballpark is absolutely beautiful and is probably one of the nicest ballparks in all of baseball today. Million times better than playing in that football stadium where they win Marlins Championships!!

[DaveK]

Attended Fan Fest...Turned off 12 Ave on to 7 Street and traffic came to a halt. Got to the first garage and sign said "LOT FULL", second garage..."LOT FULL". I looked at the side streets to park and could only think of "SOUTH BEACH TOW" TV show. I ended up at the justice center and walked across the 12 Ave bridge like I used to do for football games. I love the ballpark especially the standing room area around the whole perimeter. But concessions!!!! $3.50 for a 12oz soda (filled with ice) and $9.00 for cold, dry chicken strips. I guess I will be filling up at the Wendy's across the street.

[GK1]

My company worked on the project for over a year and we still have yet to get paid all of our monies. we are not even close to getting paid what we are owed. This whole stadium was built on lies and coruption. The whole Minority Status and minority percentage is BS and they know it.