Joshua Guiher is a college football fan whose goal is to visit all 120 FBS football stadiums. He will be writing a weekly column for Crystal Ball Run, highlighting a different stadium he has visited each week.
Josh’s first piece on Michie Stadium can be read here, and over the course of the last two weeks, he has broken down both sides of the Notre Dame-Michigan rivalry, with thoughts on both Notre Dame Stadium and the Big House.
Well today Josh is back, as he shares everything you need to know about Sun Life Stadium, which will play host to the Ohio State-Miami game this weekend!
Also, to read the rest of his work, please check out collegiatestadiums.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @collegiatestdms.
Quick Facts:
* Miami has played at Sun Life Stadium since 2008
* Capacity of Sun Life Stadium is 75,540 for football
* They have never had a full sellout with the largest crowd 75,115 against Florida State on October 9, 2010
Seating:
Sun Life Stadium was built in 1987 and is also home of the Miami Dolphins of the NFL, and home of the Florida Marlins until the end of this year, so the stadium has nice chair back seating, although they are in an awful teal and orange color scheme. There are eight circular ramps that lead you up to the upper levels, with two being located at each corner of the stadium. It is a bit of an odd arrangement, but nothing about this stadium is real normal.
The corner sections are terrible to watch a game from. Instead of curving the stadium seating, the corner sections are turned at a 45 degree angle providing terrible sightlines. Anything from between the goal lines along the sidelines, or straight behind the field goal post, are the best in my opinion, although the top of the upper deck is pretty far from the action.
Here is the picture of the seating.
Concessions:
Concessions are not bad at Sun Life Stadium, but they are so slow. Some of the slowest service I have experienced anywhere personally. But, if you can time your trip out right, you can get there when the lines are not as long. Just keep in mind that when schools don’t sell out, they usually don’t open all of the concession stands, so make sure you pay attention to which ones are open when walking in so you don’t waste ten minutes looking for an open stand.
The food and beer prices are at NFL and MLB levels, but since you are in Miami, those prices don’t seem so outrageous. The only food we bought was a $5 soda for my wife since some real nice Miami fans had been real hospitable and feed us at their tailgate and allowed me to consume large quantities of beer for free.
Traditions (what to watch for):
Despite having a strong football history of six national titles, mixed between periods of probation, Miami doesn’t have any real traditions like some other schools. Also, with the shared stadium there is no place to check out the national title trophies or anything like you would see at a college only, on-campus stadium.
The most famous thing for you to watch for is probably Sebastian the Ibis leading the team through the “fog” onto the field at the start of the game. To me, it is a high school style gimmick but the fans were entertained.
Tailgating:
Tailgating at Sun Life Stadium is wide open and fun. The hardest thing is making sure you don’t get parked in because the open fields become a bit of a free-for-all and no one parks in real good lines. In fact, the official website even has directions on how to park your vehicle. Wow!
I enjoyed my time tailgating and was surprised how many oddly painted Hurricanes vehicles we came across. In fact, while attendance figures may lag at Hurricanes games, the tailgating was right on par with the larger crowds of other ACC schools.
Parking information was hard to find and the ticket staff lady hung up on me when I asked how much it was, but I found parking links on Ticketmaster that indicated the orange lot passes are $25.
Fans:
The student section isn’t very big, but for a private school with a small enrollment and a stadium that is located far from campus, the students show up in good numbers.
The alumni fans are kind of hit and miss. The fan’s who are huge fans, go all out and are absolutely crazy. The rest are just kind of there and are only mildly interested in the game. That can probably be said about every fan base, but to me it was magnified for some reason.
Tickets:
Tickets are pretty easy to find and can often be bought on websites for below face value. Just be careful and make sure you don’t get them in the alcohol free family zone if you plan on drinking before or during the game.
The actual ticket page on the Hurricanes website does not have a link to buy tickets; I had to find it on the sitemap at the very bottom, which linked to a Ticketmaster page. Prices ranged from $47.50 to $500 depending on seat location.
Getting There:
Sun Life Stadium is fairly easy to get to. Either take the Florida Turnpike to exit 2X or if you want to avoid tolls, take Interstate 95 to Ives Dairy Road and follow it for approximately 5 miles to the stadium.
You can easily get a cab from the Fort Lauderdale or Miami areas. Try the Super Shuttle if you have a large group of people since they drive cargo vans.
If flying in, remember that Southwest only services the Fort Lauderdale airport, so you will need to make all plans from there. Plus, the Fort Lauderdale airport is way less busy and is closer to Sun Life Stadium so it is my preferred airport in the area. Of course, the Miami airport has plenty of carrier options if you like a different airline.
Where to Stay:
There are almost too many options to list. I have stayed at a variety of hotels in the area, and while I loved South Beach, I could only afford it because someone else paid for it. I usually have to look around and find something like a Motel 6 or a Days Inn. I just get on Kayak and search real quick. The stadium is technically located in Miami Gardens, which is well north of Miami Beach so be sure to get a hotel in the right area.
Downtown:
There is not so much around Miami Gardens, so I usually wind up more toward Miami-Dade County or in South Beach. My favorite restaurant of all time, besides my own of course, is Perricone’s in South Beach. Plan on spending a good $50 a person but it was completely worth it.
Around Miami Gardens itself was the only time I have ever seen a Denny’s and an IHOP that were closed as I was driving around at about 1:15am after the game. Therefore, I don’t have any real food or bar suggestions in that area.
Things to do:
This section could be so large it would be its own post, but I’ll make it short. I don’t do strip clubs or nightclubs so I don’t have any suggestions except I think LIV is in Miami and it is popular.
Last trip to Miami we fit in a trip to the zoo and a Florida Panthers game, where they have free parking and plenty of cheap tickets. We also got buy-one-get-one-free tickets for the zoo by visiting their website. I loved both but if you have to choose, go to the zoo.
Overall:
I enjoyed my visit to Sun Life Stadium for a Miami Hurricanes game, but they need to fill the stadium better with fans. They could go from an above average experience to top 15 with just more fans or an on-campus stadium that seats around 40,000 so they could show off their tradition more.
The involved fans they had were great just they could just use about 30,000 more. However, I know it is Miami and even the Heat couldn’t sell out on a consistent basis last season with that “dream team” so unlike most schools, I am not so hard on Miami for being unable to fill a stadium.
Follow Josh on Twitter @Collegiatestdms.
