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Say goodbye to the REAL Orange Bowl

MiamiBuffs

YYZ
Club Member
Demolition began a few weeks ago after The U decided to move to Dolphins Stadium.

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The stadium hosted five Super Bowls and numerous college football National Championships. The Miami Dolphins played there for 20 years and it was also the home of The University of Miami from 1937 to 2007.

Plans are to use the soon to be vacant site to lure the Florida Marlins who have been seeking a new home as their lease at Dolphin Stadium ends after years of poor attendance. The University of Miami signed a twenty year lease to play at Dolphins stadium which is much further away from campus than the 20 minute trip to the Orange Bowl was.
 
The U is stupid for making this move, IMO. What they should have done is renovate the O-Bowl. Take the top deck off and make it a true bowl, with the luxury boxes around the top edge, kinda like Lambeau Field. They could have signed a three year lease at Joe Robbie/Pro Players/Dolphins/whateverthehellitscalledtoday stadium while the renovations were being completed.

I've seen two games at the Orange Bowl. CU lost both games. :cry: Nevertheless, I still revere the place as a historical football landmark.
 
It was a landmark. I saw the Buffs there in '90. The facility was in deserate need of help back then. Renovation would have been nice.
 
Demolition began a few weeks ago after The U decided to move to Dolphins Stadium.

The University of Miami signed a twenty year lease to play at Dolphins stadium which is much further away from campus than the 20 minute trip to the Orange Bowl was.

Do you think it hurts the "U" in recruiting, fan base, donations, etc. that they don't have their own facility? Or can they use the pitch that play at an NFL stadium. Plus, the proximity factor can't help. Are there any other big time programs with their "home" that far away?
 
Do you think it hurts the "U" in recruiting, fan base, donations, etc. that they don't have their own facility? Or can they use the pitch that play at an NFL stadium. Plus, the proximity factor can't help. Are there any other big time programs with their "home" that far away?

Fan base? What fan base? Seriously. They don't much of a fan base. They can realistically count on around 30,000 people to show up for every game. They only fill their stadium when FSU or Florida comes to town. That's why I suggested removing the top deck. There isn't a college football program in America that is both successful AND plays it's home games in a pro stadium. Take that for what it's worth.
 
The U is stupid for making this move, IMO. What they should have done is renovate the O-Bowl. Take the top deck off and make it a true bowl, with the luxury boxes around the top edge, kinda like Lambeau Field. They could have signed a three year lease at Joe Robbie/Pro Players/Dolphins/whateverthehellitscalledtoday stadium while the renovations were being completed.

They are stupid and thats what my dad (a season ticket holder) and most of their fans think. The last few years attendance has declined to arround 30k because the team wasnt playing well. In the 80s and 90s they drew 40-50k consistantly. Your recomendation would have been a pretty good one though expensive to execute. They moved in part for the luxury box revenue.

It was a landmark. I saw the Buffs there in '90. The facility was in deserate need of help back then. Renovation would have been nice.

It's been renovated a couple of times since then in so much that all the things that were falling apart on it were fixed. I think they got some Hurricane money after Andrew that paid for the most recent round.

It would have been nice to see it renovated, but wouldn't have been cost effective.

The U wanted that but didnt want to pay for it beyond their lease amount. They wanted the taxpayer to foot the bill.

Do you think it hurts the "U" in recruiting, fan base, donations, etc. that they don't have their own facility? Or can they use the pitch that play at an NFL stadium. Plus, the proximity factor can't help. Are there any other big time programs with their "home" that far away?

I think in the end this move hurt them because they play a lot further away from campus then before and at a time when the team is at a cross roads. And they do this for the next 25 years. If the team does not get better their base will dwindle some more. And now they have no where to go back to. When the Dolphins moved they suffered a much larger loss of casual fans than was expected. The Jets, Pats, and Bills were regular sellouts at the Orange Bowl that didnt translate to Joe Robie for years. I think The U will lose those same casual fans that dont want to drive to that concrete toilet.

An on campus stadium is not an option since the city keeps blocking it. They had the space and the blue prints but a late outcry from citizens killed it. The U is also a really small private school with undergrad at only 10,000 students and 5000 post graduates so on campus might not make sense anyway. They need the casual fan.

UCLA is the only team I can think of that plays that far away from campus (Rose Bowl). Usc plays in a former NFL stadium but its very close to campus.

To me the orange bowl was a special place. My dad and I would go together and sit in the stands and eat hot dogs. I was only 8 or 9 first time I went. I remember the ticket stub was white with a picture of Griese on it and it cost $10.

It was ratty for sure but no worse than Folsom. I saw Griese play there in the late 70s. I saw the Phins beat the Bears on MNF. I saw Marino play his first game there. I saw the Hurricanes play some great games against FSU. There were also some great games against BC, Penn State, NU, VT, and others. I saw the Buffs beat Notre Dame and win the mNC.
 
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They are stupid and thats what my dad (a season ticket holder) and most of their fans think. The last few years attendance has declined to arround 30k because the team wasnt playing well. In the 80s and 90s they drew 40-50k consistantly.

there are quite a few Div 1A schools that draw more fans than 40-50k when they are losing, let alone 30k, but then again most Cane fans dont know that college football was played before 1982 either.... :lol:
 
Left on the Jewel of the Seas to the eastern caribbean through Royal Caribbean. What line are you guys going out on?

i'll have to ask her, she is the one that makes plans months in advance. I am a "fly by the seat of my pants" type of guy when it comes to stuff like this. All I do know it includes 2 dive trips to locations I have never blown bubbles at before.....:thumbsup:
 
i'll have to ask her, she is the one that makes plans months in advance. I am a "fly by the seat of my pants" type of guy when it comes to stuff like this. All I do know it includes 2 dive trips to locations I have never blown bubbles at before.....:thumbsup:

Have a good time, my wife actually got me up parasailing in St. Thomas and it was one of the best things I've ever done. If you get a chance to do a canopy tour do it! It sounds a little crazy because you are ziplining through the trees, but it's definately worth it. :thumbsup: I've always wanted to try scuba diving, but the wife isn't the best swimmer in the world and isn't interested in doing that. We are getting ready to plan our 4th cruise to Alaska I believe.
 
Have a good time, my wife actually got me up parasailing in St. Thomas and it was one of the best things I've ever done. If you get a chance to do a canopy tour do it! It sounds a little crazy because you are ziplining through the trees, but it's definately worth it. :thumbsup: I've always wanted to try scuba diving, but the wife isn't the best swimmer in the world and isn't interested in doing that. We are getting ready to plan our 4th cruise to Alaska I believe.

done the zip line - canopy in costa rica in the rain forest, its way cool and i enjoyed the heck out of that. That what was great about my scuba trips to costa rica, dive in the morning, zip in the afternoon/evening or at least go do something in the rain forest.

As far as scuba diving, you really dont have to be a strong swimmer especially with the fins they have these days. it really takes very little leg strength to move underwater. Scuba diving to me requires more brains than being the best/strongest swimmer. Also you can find "drift" dives that are basically effortless if you find a dive tour that has its act together. you baiscally float along underwater with the current. I remember a couple of dives on the back side of the Molikini crater off of Maui. Once we were down 60-70 ft along the back wall all we did was float till the current started from the oppisite direction, then thats where we kinda hung out for a while, checking out the wall and of its life, then came up to find the dive boat right there ready to pick us all up....:thumbsup:
 
done the zip line - canopy in costa rica in the rain forest, its way cool and i enjoyed the heck out of that. That what was great about my scuba trips to costa rica, dive in the morning, zip in the afternoon/evening or at least go do something in the rain forest.

As far as scuba diving, you really dont have to be a strong swimmer especially with the fins they have these days. it really takes very little leg strength to move underwater. Scuba diving to me requires more brains than being the best/strongest swimmer. Also you can find "drift" dives that are basically effortless if you find a dive tour that has its act together. you baiscally float along underwater with the current. I remember a couple of dives on the back side of the Molikini crater off of Maui. Once we were down 60-70 ft along the back wall all we did was float till the current started from the oppisite direction, then thats where we kinda hung out for a while, checking out the wall and of its life, then came up to find the dive boat right there ready to pick us all up....:thumbsup:

Man, now I want to go on vacation again! :lol:
 
As far as scuba diving, you really dont have to be a strong swimmer especially with the fins they have these days. it really takes very little leg strength to move underwater. Scuba diving to me requires more brains than being the best/strongest swimmer. Also you can find "drift" dives that are basically effortless if you find a dive tour that has its act together. you baiscally float along underwater with the current. I remember a couple of dives on the back side of the Molikini crater off of Maui. Once we were down 60-70 ft along the back wall all we did was float till the current started from the oppisite direction, then thats where we kinda hung out for a while, checking out the wall and of its life, then came up to find the dive boat right there ready to pick us all up....:thumbsup:


I respectfully disagree with your assertion that swimming ability is not an important factor in SCUBA diving. When everything is going just fine, yeah, it's not important. If something goes wrong, you need to have your wits about you and if you are questioning your own swimming ability, that's bad news. You don't have to be an olympic swimmer, but I would highly recommend the ability to swim 500 yards in under 15 minutes. I would suggest the mastery of at least two strokes, one preferably the crawl.
 
UBT, have you ever dove down by Cozumel or Grand Cayman??? I've done some snorkeling in both places, but I've heard the scuba diving is awesome in these places.
 
UBT, have you ever dove down by Cozumel or Grand Cayman??? I've done some snorkeling in both places, but I've heard the scuba diving is awesome in these places.

grand caymans were my 1st dives after certification. cliff note version, 1st dive go down and meet at where the dive bouy (marker for site is anchored) 50ft of water, cool as anything, we take off down a tube which is bascially a cut in the floor covered by coral so I am am all in awe over the fish, coral, and other sea creatures. so we get to the end and we pop out on the west wall, 100 ft down, nothing but blue to black water in front of you and 2400 feet down to the floor.... kinda freaky at 1st. It been 6 years since I have been there last.. Fisheye is the diver operator I have dove both times I have been there.

Oh and there is "stingray city (?)" on Grand Cayman that you can snorkle with sting rays.... crickity matey... watch out for the barbs...

Cozumel is great. Everyone raves about it, but I think you need to hook up with the right operator. I have only been once and was on the mainland and had the resort I was staying with book my dive. We ended up having a person that was not certified and was a tank hog, (he was there with his daughter he was a dive master) and he blew his tank in about th 1st 15 minutes. The sucked down the air of 2 of the shops dive master's tank as they buddied up with them. So that dive was about 25 minutes when it should have been 40-45. I was pissed. 2nd dive of the two tank dive, thank to the air hog was off one of the docks where the ferrys dock between the mainland and the island. I know the currents were strong and this is a popular drift dive site.

I have to check my dive manual, but I dont think you have to swim 500 yard in 15 minutes to get certified. My part of this was in a pool and at 1st I thought it was an incredible distance, but in reality it wasnt all that hard. I think it was like a 200 yards (8 laps) and I think I had like 12-14 minutes to do it in. But Sacky is right, its good to be able to do a few different style of swim strokes.... best one being able to swim on your back.... and remember your are doing this with fins as this is where you get your greatest power/speed, your legs, not your arms or shoulders like in a crawl.... I know I did mine mostly on my back with a partially inflated BCD (as you have all your equipment on) and just cruised kicking with my fins, very little crawl used.

oh and btw.... one of the worst sunburns I have had was the last day of my 1st trip to Caymans. I am very hot blooded I guess as the cold doesn't bother me as near as much as the heat as I dive in "skin suit. So my last two dives were going to be in 60-70 feet of water along the north wall of Grand Cayman. I thought to heck with the "skin" I'll just dive in my board trunks. Let me tell you what, 60 feet of water in the Caymans did not keep me from burning. I wore my skin on the 2nd dive.
 
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UBT - the best "wall" dive I ever took was on Roatan, just off the north coast of Honduras. Simply astounding. And you're right, the wall just drops off. I found myself drifting down to about 110 feet, and I had to scoot back up to 90 ft, which is where we were supposed to be.

If you ever get the chance, dive Roatan. It's better than Belize, IMO.
 
UBT - the best "wall" dive I ever took was on Roatan, just off the north coast of Honduras. Simply astounding. And you're right, the wall just drops off. I found myself drifting down to about 110 feet, and I had to scoot back up to 90 ft, which is where we were supposed to be.

If you ever get the chance, dive Roatan. It's better than Belize, IMO.

I've been to Roatan and I think I know where you are talking about. The ocean floor goes from like 40 feet or so to a large shelf that drops to the center of the earth. Just snorkling that was kinda scary. I'm just scooting along with the wife and then I see it and I'm like, "HOLY $HIT!" Needless to say I turned back around. The snorkeling wasn't great that day because there were alot of little jelly fish and the water was a little cloudy.

The best snorkeling I've done has been on Hamburger Reef in Grand Cayman. There's an old ship wreck down there and you can actually see inside the ship and see the old diesel engines. Good stuff. :thumbsup:
 
I've been to Roatan and I think I know where you are talking about. The ocean floor goes from like 40 feet or so to a large shelf that drops to the center of the earth. Just snorkling that was kinda scary. I'm just scooting along with the wife and then I see it and I'm like, "HOLY !" Needless to say I turned back around. The snorkeling wasn't great that day because there were alot of little jelly fish and the water was a little cloudy.

The best snorkeling I've done has been on Hamburger Reef in Grand Cayman. There's an old ship wreck down there and you can actually see inside the ship and see the old diesel engines. Good stuff. :thumbsup:

I've dived that wreck. Wreck dives are fun if it's a decent ship. I did a wreck dive in Tortola that was really cool. I forgot the name of the ship, but it went down in a hurricane. In Aruba, I did a dive into a sunken plane. That was very cool. Visibility that day was awful, but once we got into the plane, it was fine. We all got to sit in the cockpit.
 
I've dived that wreck. Wreck dives are fun if it's a decent ship. I did a wreck dive in Tortola that was really cool. I forgot the name of the ship, but it went down in a hurricane. In Aruba, I did a dive into a sunken plane. That was very cool. Visibility that day was awful, but once we got into the plane, it was fine. We all got to sit in the cockpit.

I've been to Tortola as well and did some snorkeling there, but it wasn't a wreck. Have you ever tried snuba?
 
Not to be a complete arrogant prick, but why would a certified diver do snuba?

Yeah, your probably right. I was just wondering how it was and maybe I could get the wife to take some baby steps in the right direction and try it on our next vacation.
 
Yeah, your probably right. I was just wondering how it was and maybe I could get the wife to take some baby steps in the right direction and try it on our next vacation.

SCUBA isn't for everybody. Some folks feel uncomfortable being 100 feet away from air. Some people, like me, have a hard time equalizing. My ears hurt like a MOFO for the first 10 minutes of every dive. I can't descend as quickly as the other divers in my group because it takes so long for me to equalize. Some folks get claustrophobic (although I can't imagine why). There's a ton of reasons why SCUBA isn't for everybody. I happen to love it, even with the problems it poses for me.
 
SCUBA isn't for everybody. Some folks feel uncomfortable being 100 feet away from air. Some people, like me, have a hard time equalizing. My ears hurt like a MOFO for the first 10 minutes of every dive. I can't descend as quickly as the other divers in my group because it takes so long for me to equalize. Some folks get claustrophobic (although I can't imagine why). There's a ton of reasons why SCUBA isn't for everybody. I happen to love it, even with the problems it poses for me.

Agreed. I've done it for most of my life. I don't like going too much deeper than about 50 feet or going inside something like a sunken ship. I never thought much of diving, even snorkeling, until I took some CU buddies to the keys over spring break and pu them on Looe key reef. They freaked. I guess not growing up on the ocean had an effect on them.

F'ing A did my thread get railroaded. :smile2:
 
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The U is stupid for making this move, IMO. What they should have done is renovate the O-Bowl. Take the top deck off and make it a true bowl, with the luxury boxes around the top edge, kinda like Lambeau Field. They could have signed a three year lease at Joe Robbie/Pro Players/Dolphins/whateverthehellitscalledtoday stadium while the renovations were being completed.

I don't know how feasible or cost-effective a renovation would have been, but I agree that this is a bad move by the U. While they don't have their own stadium, at least the U was fairly close to campus, whereas the Dolphins stadium is what, like 30-40 miles away? And when college teams play their home games in NFL stadiums, the games seem to be totally void of college atmosphere. I still don't understand why Pitt moved out of their cozy on-campus home. :confused:
 
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