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Miami Hurricanes to deploy giant banners to hide empty seats

By Phil Watson

Nov 15, 2014; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; A general view of Sun Life Stadium before a game between Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 15, 2014; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; A general view of Sun Life Stadium before a game between Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports /
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Once upon a time, the Miami Hurricanes at the old Orange Bowl were the hottest ticket on South Beach. As a 6-6 team at Sun Life Stadium? Not so much.

If you can’t fill ‘em, hide ‘em.

That seems to be the working theory behind the Miami Hurricanes decision to cover the upper decks at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., with giant banners.

Chris Wittyngham of 104.3 The Ticket had a rendering of what the stadium will look like for Hurricanes games:

That is part of a renovation of the 27-year-old facility that will reduce the capacity by more than 10,000 seats, down to a more manageable 65,326, according to the Sun Sentinel.

But it’s still a marked change for the Miami Hurricanes, which once sold out the old Orange Bowl—and then some—when they were winning national championships as “Da U.”

The Hurricanes haven’t had a 10-win season since going 11-2 in 2003 and last won a national title in after the 2001 season.

The last time Miami finished a season even ranked in the AP Top 25 was 2009, when they were 19th, and the team is 28-22 in four seasons since Al Golden took over the program for the 2011 season, including an 0-2 mark in bowl games.

Their loss to South Carolina in the Independence Bowl on Dec. 27 left the Hurricanes with a 6-7 record, just their second losing season since the turn of the century.

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Miami was 6-6 in 2011, Golden’s first season, but banned itself from bowl competition in 2011 and 2012 as it prepared to be sanctioned by the NCAA for violations that occurred from 2002-10, under the coaching tenures of Larry Coker and Randy Shannon.

The program won one BCS national championship, following the 2001 season, and was No. 1 in the final poll by The Associated Press four times (1983, 1987, 1989 and 1991).

Logistics is perhaps the biggest problem the Hurricanes face. Sun Life Stadium is 45 minutes from the school’s Coral Gables campus. Miami moved the football program to Sun Life Stadium in 2008, after the Orange Bowl was closed and demolished.

The site is now occupied by Marlins Park, home of the Miami Marlins.

The Orange Bowl was located just 22 minutes from campus.

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