Published by: South Florida Business Journal
Written by: Eric Fisher and Terry Lefton
Posted: November 14, 2008

The Florida Marlins report their season ticket renewal rate is running at 70 percent – some 20 percentage points higher than normal – with a boost from the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Dolphin Stadium, the Marlins′ home, won′t host any of the classic′s first–round games, but will hold half of the second–round games. The potential teams for that round are Canada, Italy, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico and the U.S.

First–round games will be held in Tokyo, Mexico City, Toronto and San Juan. Ticket sales for the March 5–23 classic kicked off with random drawings for the general public and presale opportunities for season ticketholders of the four Major League Baseball cubs that play in WBC host venues – Toronto, San Diego, Miami and Los Angeles – where the final games will be played.

General sales for the remaining tickets will begin Nov. 17 for the four first–round venues. Sales for the second–round, semifinal and championship games will begin Dec. 8. Total attendance for the 39–game tournament is expected to surpass the 737,112 recorded for the inaugural event in 2006, as the 2009 version is better established and the venues are generally larger.

“There′s a ton of excitement about this event and, for us, it really helps validate South Florida as a baseball market and why we went through so much to get a stadium deal,” Florida Marlins President David Samson said. (The deal for a retractable–roof stadium in Little Havana is part of the pending Miami megaplan, which includes a tunnel to the Port of Miami.)

Samson said: “Like everybody else, we went into the off–season concerned what kind of (sales) drop we might have because of the economy. But, we′re up, and the WBC has definitely been a positive for us.”

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