As a fan who doesn't live in Miami, I've always wondered why nobody goes to the games. I've heard lots of reasons like: Very few people graduated from there since it's a small school. There's so much else to do other than that. The team isn't good. It's hard to get there. Parking is inconvenient. Not everybody is a football fan since a lot of the Hispanic people are soccer fans instead. The dolphins game is more important, etc. But the metro Miami area has 6,110,000 people. The stadium holds 76,100 which is 1.06% of the population. There are only 7-8 home games a year. Yet, the stadium is half to 2/3rds full most of the time. It's been like this for a long time too. Most of the roster are local kids from local high schools.
I know people from Lakeland, Orlando, Sarasota and Ft. Myers that go to every game.
Will Miami ever support this team by going to the games? Is college football just not an interest there? Is the University doing a poor job marketing the team/school?
What gives?
Miami is an events town, not a sports town. When the teams do well or have big moments, people show up. When things are in the crapper, they don't. It's that simple—and will always be that way.
Look at the atmosphere when the Canes played Notre Dame; had the look and feel of a national championship game that would've rivaled any big time SEC match-up.
Look at the atmosphere when the HEAT were deep in a playoffs run or had a championship-caliber squad; a rabid crowd. Everyone was a hockey fan in 1996 and that whole Year Of The Rat nonsense when the Panthers made the Stanley Cup. Same for those two years of Marlins' Fever; 1997 and 2003 when making a playoff run en route to a World Series' titles.
The 2001 Miami Hurricanes played the Temple Owls—back in the ol' beloved Orange Bowl, with the best team in the history of college football.
Miami was 7-0 and atop the polls, chasing a national championship, riding a 17-game win-streak and a decade removed from it's last national title, after a five-year probation-fueled drought.
Only 31,000 people were in the stands for that November 3rd showdown.
The Canes have to start winning again—and even when that happens, needs to realize its still gonna be sparse crowds for the likes of Duke, Florida A&M or some other bottom-feeders coming to down. Fans will show up to see Miami play the big Florida schools, Virginia Tech (as long as both teams are ranked) or any legit out-of-conference game against a big, traditional Power 5.
People show up for EVENTS, not sports.