Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium bringing gondola transportation

Miami Dolphins fans and any other sports fan venturing into Hard Rock Stadium will have a new way to get there. Gondolas!

Miami Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel announced via Twitter today that gondolas are coming to Hard Rock Stadium and if you go to the games, you should be thrilled with the new way into the stadium.

It is unclear where the gondolas will run from and exactly where the drop off spot will be but we have to assume that if they are putting in this kind of money, it has to be transportation from the far lots to somewhere nearer the stadium. It most certainly will not be a long ride.

The Dolphins have already put in pedestrian bridges that ease traffic congestion due to fans walking across the road to the far lots. There have been rumored discussions about potential “tunnels” that would provide more ease of egress from games.

Now comes word that the gondolas will also be in play.

For those of you who have gone to Disney World in the past two months, you will have noticed and potentially ridden their gondola system which looks identical to the one in the pictures posted by Garfinkel.

Having ridden the Disney gondolas, several times actually, I can say that it is quite the treat. They are smooth rides that don’t need air conditioning inside. There is a flow of air through partitioned vents that were quite cooling on a day that was in the mid-’90s.

The gondola system is designed for continuous motion which makes long lines flow quickly. In addition, special cars are designated for handicapped persons. They are set off the main track which is then swapped out by the next “specialty cab”.

Overall the experience is pretty cool but how they will actually integrate into a football stadium parking lot will be interesting. Again, at Disney, it took about 10 minutes to go from Hollywood Studios to Epcot. I would imagine we would be talking about a 5-minute ride from point A to point B.

Another interesting prospect for the gondolas is that they can have an image affixed to the windows and doors. Disney has character cars and the Dolphins could easily do player cars or even gondola cars with images of the Ring of Honor members or HOF members. Or they can simply sell the space as advertisement boards.

One thing is definitely certain, the Dolphins are going above and beyond to give fans a quick way to get into and out of the stadium whether it be land…or air.