No NFL team has experienced "greater growth in ticket sales over the past two seasons than the Dolphins, who have gone from 29th in paid attendance" in '12 (57,379 per game) to 21st in '13 (64,319) to 12th so far this season (70,722), according to Tom Pelissero of USA TODAY. Dolphins President & CEO Tom Garfinkel said, "We have a long way to go, but we certainly made some progress together over the past year." Pelissero noted it "started with a cultural overhaul and expansion of the team's sales and service staff that coincided with Garfinkel's arrival" in '13 after stints with the D-Backs and Padres. The new regime "emphasizes a proactive approach, face-to-face meetings and a focus on group sales." Dolphins Senior VP & Chief Revenue Officer Jeremy Walls said that group sales "likely will account for around 145,000 tickets by season's end." The Dolphins also "integrated more data and analytics to help foster relationships with existing and prospective clients, as well as variable pricing for single-game tickets based on expected demand." The club said that its season-ticket renewal rate last offseason "was the highest in six years ... despite a high-profile locker room bullying scandal and an 8-8 finish." Walls: "We surveyed all of our members and asked them what they wanted and what their lifestyle was and what was important to them." Pelissero noted the Dolphins "began mobilizing to create more offseason events, as well as adding local fare to concession stands and making other enhancements to the game-day experience." The team "doesn't disclose its total season ticket base publicly." But Walls said that it "grew by more than 3,000 members this year and the team already has 1,700 new deposits" for '15 (USATODAY.com, 12/7).
ON THE OTHER END OF THE SPECTRUM: CBS' Boomer Esiason noted MetLife Stadium was "about a third full" for last week's Dolphins-Jets "MNF" game, and "of those third, 50% were Miami Dolphins fans." Esiason: "At the end of the game, there were about 15,000 Miami Dolphins fans left. If I'm (Jets Owner) Woody Johnson, I’m looking at that." He added, "My fan base is tormented right now. My fan base is buying billboards saying, ‘Fire John Idzik.’ ... That means the fan base is restless. They’re not buying your tickets, they’re not buying your jerseys, they’re not buying the parking passes. It's still a business at the end of the day. As an owner, you have to do something to re-energize the fan base and the only way you can do that immediately is by changing the head coach and/or GM” ("That Other Pregame Show," CBS Sports Network, 12/7).
