Marlins Launch Male Dance Team To Enhance Game Experience

The Marlins Monday for their Opening Day game against the Mets at Dolphin Stadium will debut the "Marlins Manatees," the male dance team that is part of the club's effort to "boost the game day experience," according to Sarah Talalay of the South Florida SUN-SENTINEL. The initiative is in "keeping with other teams and sporting events that have been adding entertainment value beyond the action on the playing field." The Manatees, a troupe of 14 "chubby men," earn nothing for performing except two tickets to each Friday and Saturday home game in which they perform. The Marlins last season launched their "'You Gotta Be Here!' slogan to push watching games live," and the team this year is maintaining the theme by adding the Manatees, an in-game host, a DJ and a spirit team known as the Marlins Maniacs. The team also will add the Marlins Minnows, a youth dance team. All of these additions "complement the existing Marlins Mermaids dance team." Marlins VP/Marketing Sean Flynn: "It's the wave. I think even more so in South Florida, it's an event-going market and sizzle and value-added sells. We're going to continue to push the envelope on that side of it, never forgetting that baseball is our core product" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 3/28).