By Alex Trickett BBC Sport Online

The teams:

Baseball: Florida Marlins
American Football: Dolphins
Basketball: Heat
Ice Hockey: Florida Panthers

The Florida Marlins were a classic expansion success story, investing heavily after start-up in 1992 and winning the World Series five years later.

Renteria won the World Series for Florida

The road to glory has been harder for the Dolphins, who have often compiled among the best regular-season records in the NFL only to falter in the play-offs.

Basketball's Heat showed promise in the 1990s with Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning setting the NBA ablaze, but Pat Riley's men have slipped back of late.

The Florida Panthers, meanwhile, are still trying to make a real impact on the NHL.

The venue:

Home to the Florida Marlins and the Miami Dolphins, Pro Player Stadium is one of the busiest sporting arenas in America.

Fan fever: World Series 1997 at Pro Player

It is also regarded as one of the best, having staged three Super Bowls and one World Series since opening in 1987.

Two very different seat configurations make it suitable for baseball and American football and the Miami venue has seen its share of local success in both sports.

Entertained for years by Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, Pro Player had its finest hour in 1997, when the newly-formed Marlins reached the World Series.

Down to their last at-bat in the 11th innings of game seven, Florida's Edgar Renteria hit an RBI single to beat the battling Cleveland Indians and send the home fans into rapture.

The legend:

That Pro Player Stadium is located on Dan Marino Boulevard tells you something about the regard in which the former Dolphins quarterback is held.

Marino broke all the NFL passing records

A Dolphin for his entire career - which spanned the 17 years from 1983-1999 - Marino broke just about every NFL passing record.

His total of 61,361 yards thrown eclipses the second-best mark of 51,475, set by John Elway, while his touchdown count of 420 dwarfs that of nearest rival Fran Tarkington (342).

The fact that Marino never won a Super Bowl is a blot on his copybook, but should not detract from his right to be recognised as one of the NFL's greatest ever players.

Man about town:

Nearer to the Tropic of Cancer than a reliable source of snowfall, Miami is an unlikely home for ice hockey.

Bure: Russian ice man

Although its Florida Panthers are languishing in the NHL standings, the team boasts a genuine star in Russian forward Pavel Bure.

Since migrating south from Vancouver in 1998, Bure has reinforced his reputation as a deadly marksman, scoring 117 goals in his last two full seasons.

Bure turned out for his country at the 2002 Winter Olympics, where he formed an exciting partnership with younger brother Valeri, who has also now moved to Florida.