ItsAUThing.com — Formerly allCanesBlog.com — It's All About 'The U'!

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• We all bitch and moan about the Orange Bowl being gone. I do it too...a lot. But the fact of the matter is we let this happen. We are the ones responsible for this. Not the city; not the county; not the university; us, the fans! We could have saved the OB. We could have pushed for it to become a state historic site. We could have helped raised money to restore it. We could have voted out the legislators that demolished it. We could have chained ourselves to it and demonstrated civil disobedience in order to give it one more day. But we didn't. We stood by and watched it happen. Instead of starting a revolution we allowed a victimization complex to develop. Instead of figuring out a solution, we just complain about the problems. One of the greatest architectural structures in our country (not just stadium but actual architectural structure) was taken from us and not a single professional reporter, student reporter, blogger has done an investigative piece. There is no doubt the University, MLB, the city, the county, shady business men and who-knows who else was involved in building the Marlins' stadium (the SEC is investigating for goodness sakes) yet not a single person has cared enough, thought of or taken the time to investigate.

  The funny part is, it's still not too late. We could have something better than SLS. We could build the greatest college football stadium in America if we wanted to. And it's as simple as having the University set up a direct stadium fund. I know there are a lot of questions, but the one that shouldn't be asked is, "where will we get the money?" b/c that answer is simple...Hurricane Nation!

  Go Canes!

• aes - Definitely some merit to that, but in all honesty, as fans did we ever really think the Orange Bowl was going anywhere? Owned by the city, around forever, hosting six or seven Cane games a year, as well as swap meets or random soccer games. For so long it looked like the Marlins were headed out of town and the notion the OB would've ever been torn down for a city-funded professional baseball stadium ... honestly, who ever saw that happening?

  Yes, in hindsight, as fans we could've done more, but at the time, I don't think anyone really saw it coming.

  The real shame is that no public official ever made it their cause to restore and protect the Orange Bowl, as a big piece of the City of Miami's history. You'd think that someone, somewhere, with some power, would've done something to champion the cause.

• Thank You!!!!!! Wouldn't that be nice??? Only if.............

• I love your idea!!!!! Canes take back the OB!

• AGREED! they should have never torn down the orange bowl without a plan to replace it with a new state of the art one. It should have looked basically the same but with the new age luxury. This was complete waste of money and time for the city of miami. The Canes deserved a new stadium and it would be filled especially with the new coaching staff in place. still not sold on our defensive coach but the others i am. Destroy this new one already build the canes a new home to win national titles in and as much as i love baseball the marlins need to be shipped to a baseball town. Look at the rays playoff team after playoff team and it only sells out when the red sox or yankees show up.

• Maybe bullfighting ???

• I could'nt agree more, Bring back the Orange Bowl!

• And they care about football? I think the avg attendance at a Hurricanes game is around 30 people. There are more people working the concessions than show up to cheer on the canes. The dolphins don't do much better either.

• The Dolphins average attendance in 2011 was around 61,000 per game. Not bad for a garbage franchise that went 6-10 on the season. As for the Canes, fans are less forgiving, but for a private university with less than 10K undergrads and an off-campus stadium, the numbers aren't bad, either. More fans turn out when the Canes win, but UM isn't the "hometown team" the way professional franchises are. It's a mix of Miami alum -- many of which aren't from South Florida and don't stay after graduation -- while others are locals who got on board with the Canes because of location, but have allegiances elsewhere as they attended other universities. When the Canes win, the casual fan with no allegiance will come watch a winner. Lose, and it's very easy to disconnect from the program if you're not an alum or diehard.

  The Marlins just got a brand new stadium and six home games in the place is a ghost town. Pretty pathetic.

• AAAAAAAAAAAMEEEEEEEN! Baseball is not miami's primary sport. Did everyone forget about football? i mean the dolphins suck but the hurricanes are on the rise. I hate that they built this on one of miamis most historic landmarks and i love the idea to give it back to the #Ufamily

• Absolutely! The Hurricanes have been the most successful south Florida sports team for the past 25+ years, and they should have a good place to call home. The Pro Player stadium needs to be revamped for football only if it is going to remain the home of the Canes, although taking over the Marlins stadium or a new thing at Tropical park would be preferable. The Tropical park location would be great, and a simple stadium similar to what FAU just built for around $45MM would suffice. I am sure that the alumni would step up to fund it so ticket prices could stay reasonable. No fancy crap, just a well designed venue with stadium seating close to the field, and a stifling atmosphere for visiting teams. I don't like the convention center feel of the box level at Pro Player, and having the stands start 20 yards from the field is terrible. At least shift the field so it is close to one side and put portable seating on the visitor side.

• Portland and Las Vegas would both love to have a baseball team. Cannot understand why the local populace won't support major league baseball,which they claim to love. (This was before Ozzie Guillen ran his mouth before putting his brain in gear and made things much, much worse.) Move the Marlins to either one of those cities. Maybe folks there would appreciate two MLB championships. Miami fans don't. Give us back a real home, not some rental from a damned Gaytor.