A lot of struggling teams turn to ticket deals and other acts of goodwill this time of year, making sure people keep showing up to the games through September. It's not really all that rare, with even the $1 ticket promotion being done every once and awhile.
When it's the Miami Marlins doing it, though — the same team that had Groupon deals for Opening Day and is currently dead last in attendance — the event is going to draw some attention (and snark). But even the Marlins could be forgiven for trying to get a few extra people through the gates with a promotion like this if they were playing a fellow bottom-feeder, right? Those games against the Phillies in their last homestand of the year aren't exactly looking like they'll be all-time classics, for example.
Here's the thing, though: the Marlins are resorting to $1 tickets when the Los Angeles Dodgers are coming to town.
Yes, the same Dodgers who are currently on one of the craziest hot streaks in recent memory, going 39-8 since June 21. The same Dodgers with a nation-wide following that has them leading the league in road attendance, drawing 36,322 per game away from Dodger Stadium. The same Dodgers with a Cuban phenom who's taking the league by storm.
The Marlins need to give away $1 tickets for a game in THAT series. That's how dire things are.
To be fair to the Marlins, it's not like you can get seats anywhere in the stadium for a buck. The deal appears to be limited to a small number of sections (or at least only a few sections with available seats are left). But let's be honest here — it's not like there won't be room to try to move down, either, assuming Jeffrey Loria doesn't instruct the ushers to crack down on the people who actually dared to pay for his product.
To cap it all off, the promotion — apparently for just Miami's "most loyal fans" — is handled in the most Marlins way ever: despite the "thank you for being a loyal social media follower and Marlins Insider email subscriber" message that implies exclusivity, anyone can get to the site and find the not-so-secret HASHTAG coupon code. Oops.
