Look, with all due respect, a lot of you guys just don't understand.
First, a well-built soccer stadium is very loud and very comfortable. I have season tickets for Orlando City, and it only seats between 25K and 30K, yet the soccer players from all over the MLS say that it is one of the loudest stadiums. I agree with everyone's comments about what a craphole is being planned for Liberty City, but with the involvement of the Mas brothers (and MasTec), and the goal of doing something very special with a stadium in Melreese, it could be a very nice venue (and I do like Hard Rock as it has been renovated, and I sit in a very good 100-level club section).
Second, I realize a lot of you guys are only concerned with how this impacts yourself. But having been an undergrad/grad/law student at UM, and having student tickets for nearly a decade from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, I can tell you that many of you are simply overlooking how important the "student experience" is to building lifelong fans/boosters/season ticket holders. I have a number of friends who drive down from Orlando for every game, and it is because we are UM alums. I realize that a certain percentage of seats can be filled with South Florida residents, but the people who give the most amount of money to UM are the UM alums (not counting when someone chooses to pay for a new building on the Med campus).
Student disinterest may not profoundly impact attendance now, but ongoing student/alum apathy will surely impact attendance in the future. Having a stadium in Melreese would make a huge impact on the UM football program, from student/alum attendance to "no more dirty recruiting" from the player perspective.
As for the tri-county area, there is now a bullet train that will have a station near MIA, which is INCREDIBLY close to Melreese. Literally, across the street from Melreese.
I love what has been done with Hard Rock, but the stadium is already 30+ years old. I never thought that we would lose the Orange Bowl, but it happened. And there is nothing that stops us from playing one big game per year in Hard Rock.
With the Mas brothers involved (UM alums), I am quite certain that they would go the extra mile to build something that works very well for UM. It took us over a decade to get that with Hard Rock, and only because the NFL wouldn't give the old stadium a Super Bowl any longer.
Be honest, it would be amazing to have a place close to campus, with great access to transportation and parking. ****, Hard Rock is giving a huge chunk of the current parking lot to TENNIS COURTS.
Let's revisit this topic in a year.
