The Miami Dolphins hosted the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night for the home opener at Landshark Stadium. Before the game, Jimmy Buffett performed for a few thousands fans outside of the gates:

Jimmy Buffett did a pre-game music set outside the stadium that attracted the Estefans, Williams, rapper T-Pain and race car driver Helio Castroneves.

Buffett got the tailgaters in the mood with his concert on the promenade, fans coming right up to the stage to wave their aqua foam fins to the left and to the right.

“It’s almost game time. Let’s send ’em in in the right mood,” he told a crowd of some 3,000 or more.

The Jaws theme started and then he broke into Fins, which he has remixed into a Dolphins theme song, this time slipping in, “We’re going to dine on horse meat tonight,” a warning to the Indianapolis Colts.

[Dolphins owner Stephen] Ross came on stage at the end of the concert and toasted the crowd – with a LandShark Lager.

Despite the good karma from the pregame Buffett concert, the Dolphins fell to the Colts by a score of 27-23.

The Palm Beach Post expects Jimmy Buffett to performs outside of the Miami Dolphins home field before Monday night’s game against the Colts:

Come Monday, Colts will be invading Land Shark Stadium, and so will Parrotheads.

The Dolphins plan a series of festivities before their game against Indianapolis on Monday Night Football, including a “surprise artist” performing on the Land Shark Tailgate Stage near Gate F at 7:45 p.m., nearly an hour before the 8:40 kickoff.

Sources said the artist is Jimmy Buffett, whose breakthrough hit in 1974 was Come Monday and whose fans are known as Parrotheads. This summer, LandShark Lager, the beer Buffett promotes, attached its name to the former Dolphin Stadium. Buffett also rewrote the lyrics to his song Fins to accommodate the Dolphins, who plan to play it after some scores.

Buffett is a friend and Palm Beach neighbor of Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross, who is attempting to enhance the “game-day experience” with an influx of starpower to premiere Monday. Marc Anthony, Gloria and Emilio Estefan and Venus and Serena Williams are new limited partners in the Dolphins.

Festivities begin at 5:15 p.m. when Broward-based Jimmy Stowe, who occasionally sings with with Buffett, performs on the Land Shark stage.

Other activities include the “celebrity orange carpet” walk near Gate G at 7 p.m. (the celebrity list is to be announced) and a video presentation featuring Buffett’s Here We Are at 8:15. Immediately preceding kickoff will be a Thunderbolts fly-over, pyrotechnics and coin toss by honorary captains Bob Griese and Dan Marino.

As for the Parrotheads, 600 also are scheduled to dance to Fins at halftime.

The South Florida Business Journal has an article on how the relationship evolved between the Miami Dolphins and Jimmy Buffett:

Ross, recalling the familiar tune, then turned to Buffett, a Florida icon with national appeal. Talks started last year about a promotional partnership, and Buffett bought into the concept immediately. The relationship grew to include naming rights to the Dolphins’ home field. Buffett explained the attraction in early May at a concert when the lid was taken off the deal that rechristened the Dolphins home as Land Shark Stadium.

“What’s Miami about?” he asked. “Entertainment, celebrities and lifestyle. So we have to play to those strengths. I know what puts people in the seats is winning, but you need to do these things to compete and get people in the stadium.”

The Dolphins have sold 6,000 to 7,000 additional season tickets this offseason. Whether it was the addition of Buffett, or the turnaround from a 1-15 season to an 11-5 playoff squad ¬ tying the biggest single-season turnaround in league history ¬ isn’t important. If NFL football is the steak, then Ross sees entertainers like Buffett and his new minority partners, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, as the sizzle in the Dolphins brand.

The parallels between Ross’ interest in expanding the live experience at an NFL game and the popular music business forged an early bond with Buffett.

“There’s not as much money left in recorded music, so our emphasis has been to make the live experience something fun and memorable,” said John Cohlan, Buffett’s manager and CEO of Margaritaville Holdings, the singer’s marketing and merchandising company. “The tailgating that is now such a big part of our shows originated at football games. So maybe we’ve come full circle.”

Read the full article here.

We have received some more information on changes to the 2009 Fall Tour since we first posted a week ago.

The Las Vegas Parrothead Club reports that the Vegas shows in October have indeed been canceled. A source at the Margaritaville Cafe in Las Vegas told one of our members that the cancellation has to do with the Landshark Stadium deal. It’s possible that the shows could be rescheduled.

There has still been no official word from Jimmy Buffett or Margaritaville.com.

(hat tip to Chris and ParrotheadJones NC for passing this along)

Here are some photos from today’s performance and press conference where Dolphins Stadium was renamed Landshark Stadium:

View more photos in our Photo Gallery.