Demographics and football

futurecane

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Wanted to hear some opinions on this.

I’m from Miami, born & raised, and I’ve seen it go from 20% Hispanic/20% African American 60% White to now 85% Hispanic, 5% White and 10% African American.

Immigration, higher costs of living, cultural friction, gentrification and development are pushing lower income families, including many African Americans, out of SoFla and to places like Atlanta and other points north.

Honest question: I believe this is already impacting the U slightly, perhaps 1-3 players a class who would have ended up in Miami in the 80’s/90’s no longer even play in Florida and will therefore go to other schools.

At what point is this a significant issue? Looking at high schools, you this this demographic trend in places like Long Beach Poly (CA), which was an amazing pipeline for talent that has been running fairly dry recently as the neighborhood has been shifting to heavily Mexican. In a larger sense, when does this impact the U?
 
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We still have way, and I mean way stronger neighborhoods than LA.

We got Opa Locka, Carol City, Liberty City, Overtown, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill, Miami Gardens, Pompano, the Muck, Immokalee, Florida City, Hallandale, half of Homestead, Florida City, West Perrine, west WPB.

And we're getting kids out of Duval, ATL and South Georgia now. No school has better demographics for ballplayers to draw from. None.

And on top of it, it's not like the athletic ability is all equal. We get kids training outside year round from a super young age. All of our athletes from all groups are better because of this. Baseball is the same thing.
 
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LOL...... Kids are going to go to winning programs and where bagmen are located. I would love for Miami to get more kids from Texas. But other schools produce other results $.
 
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Wanted to hear some opinions on this.

I’m from Miami, born & raised, and I’ve seen it go from 20% Hispanic/20% African American 60% White to now 85% Hispanic, 5% White and 10% African American.

Honest question: I believe this is already impacting the U slightly, perhaps 1-3 players a class who would have ended up in Miami in the 80’s/90’s no longer even play in Florida and will therefore go to other schools.

First- Your demographic breakdown is a bit sensationalized. See 2010 census(source-google):
  • Hispanic or Latino of any race: 65.0%
  • White (non-Hispanic): 15.4% (White total 73.8% when including White Hispanics)
  • Black (non-Hispanic): 17.1% (6.9% (Black total 18.9% when including Black Hispanics)
Secondly, we literally have TOO many 4-5star local prospects in the tri county area to sign. It is literally impossible. That is the legit issue in 2018... not enough scholarships.

Also, remember, when you were referencing Miami cleaning up in the 80s and getting all the best players, there wasnt another team in the country that would come down here to recruit. Like Joe Pa was gonna go to Liberty city to pull kids in the 80s, Lou Holtz lol... **** even the Gators barely came down this way. Was really just Miami and FSU. This makes your results skewed... now everyone knows we got all the best kids down here.

Finally, I flew in for the spring game, and I can say that a Hurricanes football game might be the most demographically-inclusive event in the south east. Literally EVERYONE was represented in numbers. My favorite part of the canes is its everyone's team. Blacks, hispanics, whites, **** even dade county asians **** with the canes.
 
I can see there being a long term effect from the continuing gentrification of lower income, primarily African American neighborhoods in Dade.
 
I can see there being a long term effect from the continuing gentrification of lower income, primarily African American neighborhoods in Dade.
Strongly disagree.

Lower income people, especially those on assistance are LEAST likely to change their state of residence, especially if public assistance is involved. Moving is expensive and resource intensive. No team in the country has access to the talent goldmine within 25 miles of UM. None.
 
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Strongly disagree.

Lower income people, especially those on assistance are LEAST likely to change their state of residence, especially if public assistance is involved. Moving is expensive and resource intensive. No team in the country has access to the talent goldmine within 25 miles of UM. None.


Not sure how old you are or where you live, but gigantic parts of primarily African American neighborhoods in Coconut Grove, Wynwood, Cutler Ridge and Homestead have been slowly bought up by real estate speculators to the point where they are unrecognizable.

Not every low income person is living in government housing or getting assistance. Thousands have owned then sold smaller, more affordable homes that increased in value tenfold over the preceding decades.

Gentrifcation in Miami is a real thing, just like everywhere else.
 
"Not sure how old you are or where you live, but gigantic parts of primarily African American neighborhoods in Coconut Grove, Wynwood, Cutler Ridge and Homestead have been slowly bought up by real estate speculators to the point where they are unrecognizable."

Very true. Those are just a few neighborhoods, of course, but over the years this team has drawn some of its best players from those exact neighborhoods. Over the long term, Miami's closest recruiting grounds will likely continue to gentrify and diminish. Little Haiti is in the process of it now, it'll just be another neighborhood after that one has been pillaged by the foreigners and speculators. The positive is, even when that happens, you can still mine the rest of Florida even as Miami-Dade County diminishes in its production of football players.

"Finally, I flew in for the spring game, and I can say that a Hurricanes football game might be the most demographically-inclusive event in the south east. Literally EVERYONE was represented in numbers. My favorite part of the canes is its everyone's team. Blacks, hispanics, whites, **** even dade county asians **** with the canes. "

This is also true, especially when the team's halfway decent and fun to watch. A well-attended Canes game looks like some kind of racially inclusive utopia. If the team can continue to improve, a real opportunity exists here to solidify and expand the South Florida fan base......take advantage while the Dolphins are so pathetic. I wish both could be good at the same time again, but that seems like a pipe dream. Those days when you could go to the Orange Bowl on Saturday and Sunday and watch good football back-to-back were something.....as a very little kid, I thought that was the norm around here.
 
First- Your demographic breakdown is a bit sensationalized. See 2010 census(source-google):
  • Hispanic or Latino of any race: 65.0%
  • White (non-Hispanic): 15.4% (White total 73.8% when including White Hispanics)
  • Black (non-Hispanic): 17.1% (6.9% (Black total 18.9% when including Black Hispanics)
Secondly, we literally have TOO many 4-5star local prospects in the tri county area to sign. It is literally impossible. That is the legit issue in 2018... not enough scholarships.

Also, remember, when you were referencing Miami cleaning up in the 80s and getting all the best players, there wasnt another team in the country that would come down here to recruit. Like Joe Pa was gonna go to Liberty city to pull kids in the 80s, Lou Holtz lol... **** even the Gators barely came down this way. Was really just Miami and FSU. This makes your results skewed... now everyone knows we got all the best kids down here.

Finally, I flew in for the spring game, and I can say that a Hurricanes football game might be the most demographically-inclusive event in the south east. Literally EVERYONE was represented in numbers. My favorite part of the canes is its everyone's team. Blacks, hispanics, whites, **** even dade county asians **** with the canes.

I think you're missing OP's point. Or maybe i am, but i read it as he's looking at trends and his concerns arent for this year or next year or 2023, hes looking more long term like say 2040 - which is only 22years away, not a long time if you consider our last championship was 18years ago. Given the demographic trends what will a Miami team look like then? Better yet, how popular will football even be? And to those who say football will never go away - boxing was bigger.
 
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Not sure how old you are or where you live, but gigantic parts of primarily African American neighborhoods in Coconut Grove, Wynwood, Cutler Ridge and Homestead have been slowly bought up by real estate speculators to the point where they are unrecognizable.

Not every low income person is living in government housing or getting assistance. Thousands have owned then sold smaller, more affordable homes that increased in value tenfold over the preceding decades.

Gentrifcation in Miami is a real thing, just like everywhere else.

Yeah, it's no so much that low income people choose to move as that their landlords cash out and the have to move. Miami realestate is too valuable for it not to happen. This is America.
 
And we're getting kids out of Duval, ATL and South Georgia now. No school has better demographics for ballplayers to draw from. None.

Quite a few SoFla implants in Duval, Shaq & Pinckney's Dads being 2 of em'.

And even though He came from Alabama, Michael Jackson's Dad is from Dade, played for Jackson back in the day.

Point being, they may move away, but that Orange & Green runs strong.
 
I can see there being a long term effect from the continuing gentrification of lower income, primarily African American neighborhoods in Dade.

Gentrification happens everywhere. This is not just a south florida phenomenon. I understand the concerns voiced by OP, and they even seem logical on their face. But when you really zoom out and look at the world/country as a whole, this set of concerns is laughable and ridiculous.

Forget about percentages, for purposes of this conversation they are meaningless. What matters is sheer numbers. This is not a zero-sum equation. Blacks and whites aren't disappearing because the percentage of the population is changing. I haven't done the research and could be wrong, but I would bet that the african-american population of Dade county is higher (by sheer numbers) than it was in 1983.

People keep looking for reasons that Miami can't again do what it has done before. These people are looking at the problem upside-down. How can Miami NOT return to greatness is the better question. The tide has turned, OUR time will come again. Rest easy, my friends.
 
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Finally, I flew in for the spring game, and I can say that a Hurricanes football game might be the most demographically-inclusive event in the south east. Literally EVERYONE was represented in numbers. My favorite part of the canes is its everyone's team. Blacks, hispanics, whites, **** even dade county asians **** with the canes.


This. Well said, and it can not be repeated enough.
 
Wanted to hear some opinions on this.

I’m from Miami, born & raised, and I’ve seen it go from 20% Hispanic/20% African American 60% White to now 85% Hispanic, 5% White and 10% African American.

Immigration, higher costs of living, cultural friction, gentrification and development are pushing lower income families, including many African Americans, out of SoFla and to places like Atlanta and other points north.

Honest question: I believe this is already impacting the U slightly, perhaps 1-3 players a class who would have ended up in Miami in the 80’s/90’s no longer even play in Florida and will therefore go to other schools.

At what point is this a significant issue? Looking at high schools, you this this demographic trend in places like Long Beach Poly (CA), which was an amazing pipeline for talent that has been running fairly dry recently as the neighborhood has been shifting to heavily Mexican. In a larger sense, when does this impact the U?
About the same point where you begin to think that only certain races can be good at football.
 
Gentrification happens everywhere. This is not just a south florida phenomenon. I understand the concerns voiced by OP, and they even seem logical on their face. But when you really zoom out and look at the world/country as a whole, this set of concerns is laughable and ridiculous.

Forget about percentages, for purposes of this conversation they are meaningless. What matters is sheer numbers. This is not a zero-sum equation. Blacks and whites aren't disappearing because the percentage of the population is changing. I haven't done the research and could be wrong, but I would bet that the african-american population of Dade county is higher (by sheer numbers) than it was in 1983.

People keep looking for reasons that Miami can't again do what it has done before. These people are looking at the problem upside-down. How can Miami NOT return to greatness is the better question. The tide has turned, OUR time will come again. Rest easy, my friends.

Good points.

For the record I wasn’t equating any of this to our chances of continued success, just commenting on the topic itself.
 
Guys, thanks for the thoughts.

I’m looking at the long term impacts of this, and perhaps even looking a generation or more away.

Full disclosure - I’m Hispanic, and to the last point about “certain races being good at football”, it’s deeper than that. From a height and athletic potential perspective, not many Latin Americans could be potential football players, let alone the cultural dynamic of futbol vs football.

Even if the number of African Americans is still maintaining steady, as incomes go up the desire and hunger to succeed tends to fade. You can see it in 2nd generation players who are the kids of superstars - Irvin II being a prime example.

I’m thinking 2040-2060-2080, at what point does this make an impact? Projecting trends out, Little Haiti, Wynwood, Overtown and Richmond Heights will eventually be completely gentrified and more Hispanic/international.

It’s great that the demographic that is a FAN of the Hurricanes is so diverse, but we need players as well. You cannot think that “Miami is the most fertile recruiting region in all of CFB” and then casually ignore the massive demographic changes. What is the impact of those changes?
 
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