About

THE EARLY YEARS

Dolfans NYC was formed in 2008 after a small group of Dolphins fans who would watch games together started looking for a new bar. They discovered a bar called Third and Long that already had a few Dolphins fans. By the end of the season our group had grown from a handful to more than 30. That offseason our co-founders Michelle and Igor launched this website, a Facebook group and a Twitter account for NYC’s first Dolphins fan club and Dolfans NYC was born.

Michelle and Igor me at the Miami Dolphins Web Weekend, a now defunct yearly gathering of people who ran Dolphins websites so they already had connections to the Dolphins and both had a lot of experience with online marketing and by week 1 of the 2009 season there was a line out of the door at Third and Long.

The club quickly out grew Third and Long and needed to find a new home. Luckily we found Slattery’s Midtown Pub, a bar in need of a football team. They offered to create a Dolfans NYC museum in the back, donate a cut of the bar every Sunday to the club and even created Dolphins inspired menu items. Originally Dolfans NYC was going to just have the top floor of the bar, but we quickly took over both floors.

GIVING BACK

The owner of Third and Long, Matt, had started an injury recovery foundation (The I Will Foundation) following his own inspirational journey of rehabilitation from a horrific bus accident.  Igor and Michelle wanted to do their part, so they pooled together a few pieces of Dolphins memorabilia, sold some raffle tickets at their first watch party and were able to donate close to $200 to Matt’s foundation.

A few weeks later, after finding a few more pieces of Dolphins memorabilia, they hosted another raffle and raised close to $100. After the game, they walked past a grocery store and noticed that they were collecting money to provide holiday meals for families in need. They used all the raffle money and paid for several meal kits. It felt awesome!
It was at that moment that they realized that Dolfans NYC could be way bigger than football, wings and beer. They invested in a jumbo sized roll of raffle tickets and just a few years later Dolfans NYC was a 501(c)3 charity.
Over $100k donated to dozens of charities around the globe in 15 years, and they aren’t done yet.

#METLIFETAKEOVER

2022 #MetLifeTakeover

The #Metlifetakover is a yearly group trip we organize when the Dolphins play the Jets at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

In 2009 our group trip was neither a takeover or at MetLife (Metlife Stadium didn’t open until 2010). It was just a group of the original Third and Long crew watching the game together. Michelle brought her laptop to the bar one Sunday and we all pooled money to buy about 30 tickets together. The next year we had 70 and then 200 and it just kept growing and growing.

These days the #Metlifetakeover is a huge bucket list item for Dolphins fans all over the globe. We average 1000 Dolphins fans sitting together and that doesn’t include all the thousands of fans that buy tickets all over the stadium, but come and party with us at our massive tailgate event.

Not only is the Takeover a blast, but it’s our biggest fundraiser, with a few dollars from every ticket sale going to charity.