Heat to hold first 2 home games without fans. If you had tickets, this is what you must know

Anthony Chiang
·6 min read

The Miami Heat will begin the season by playing games at AmericanAirlines Arena without any fans in attendance amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Heat announced Friday it will play Monday’s preseason opener against the New Orleans Pelicans and its Christmas Day regular-season home opener against the Pelicans in a fan-less AmericanAirlines Arena. Nothing official has been decided yet beyond those first two home games.

As part of an email sent to season-ticket holders Friday, Heat president of business operations Eric Woolworth said season-ticket holders “will be credited accordingly for any home games missed until we decide to host fans at AmericanAirlines Arena in 2020-21.”

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“We’re just not yet ready to welcome fans back to AmericanAirlines Arena,” Woolworth said in the email. “And we will not be ready by the start of the preseason on December 14th or our regular season home opener on Christmas Day. At this time, the amount of games we will host without fans is unknown. Believe me, I’m not happy being the bearer of this news. But I’m optimistic about 2021 and hopeful that in the near future, we will be together again rooting for our team.

“... We will contact you with an update once we’ve re-evaluated the situation and have more information to share. When our plans are solidified, you will learn more about our comprehensive safety measures and your 2020-21 season ticket options.”

The Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and Washington Wizards have also recently announced they will begin the season without fans at their respective home arenas.

The Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz are among the handful of NBA teams that are in the process of working toward hosting some amount of fans at home games when the season begins.

The Hawks announced they plan to allow only friends and families of the team and staff in arena to attend for the first few home games of the season before hosting a limited number of fans (less than 10 percent capacity) for the game on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 18. The Cavaliers are working to begin the season with a reduced seating limit of 300 fans per game, with this limited amount of tickets made available to family and associates of players and coaches. The Jazz will reduce seating capacity to 1,500 in the lower bowl and limited seating on the suite level at Vivint Smart Home Arena.

The Heat’s hope has been to host some amount of fans at AmericanAirlines Arena this season, and the organization has been working for months to create and implement health and safety protocols to make it as safe as possible whenever it has the opportunity to open the arena’s doors to fans.

But the recent COVID-19 spike is certainly a looming factor, as most NBA teams that have formally announced their plan for the start of the season have decided to begin with a fan-less home arena. The United States set a daily record Thursday with 107,248 COVID-19 patients hospitalized around the country, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

The Heat’s email to sent to season-ticket holders on Friday noted: “As we look ahead to the start of the 2020-21 season, we are working very hard behind-the-scenes to plan for a safe and comfortable return to AmericanAirlines Arena for everyone —players, fans, staff, and partners.

“The Heat and the NBA are deeply committed to executing a comprehensive health and safety plan so that you and your loved ones will feel completely comfortable returning to the Arena to enjoy Heat games. As you can imagine, readying our facility has been an extensive and exhaustive process. There is no precedent for this in our industry, which is why we feel compelled to be as transparent and forthcoming about the situation as possible. “

While some teams will be starting the season in an empty arena, the situation remains very fluid. Teams could change their policy to begin hosting fans to home games at any point this season if the pandemic and circumstances allow, with the Spurs already targeting their Jan. 1 matchup against the Lakers to begin welcoming fans back to their arena in a limited capacity.

Each NBA market’s ability to host fans is impacted by different local regulations, relative to COVID-19 concerns. Florida has looser COVID-19 regulations compared to some states.

The last Heat home game at AmericanAirlines Arena that was played with fans in attendance was a March 11 loss to the Hornets, the night the NBA suspended the season before play resumed inside a quarantine bubble on July 30 at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista.

The only event that has been held at AmericanAirlines Arena since that March 11 Heat game is the Latin Grammy Awards show on Nov. 19. No fans were allowed to attend the show, which was broadcast on Univision.

The Heat is set to open the regular season on Dec. 23 against the Magic in Orlando.

Season-ticket holders are asked to call 786-777-1400 or email SeasonTicketMemberships@Heat.com with any questions.

COVID-19 DETECTOR DOGS AT AA ARENA?

As the Heat works to plan for a safe return to AmericanAirlines Arena for all involved, including fans, testing might be offered upon entry.

The Heat is exploring a variety of testing protocols, including COVID-19 detector dogs. Under such a plan, the dog would take a seated position if COVID-19 is detected, otherwise moving past the spectator.

As the Miami Heat works to plan for a safe return to AmericanAirlines Arena for all involved, including fans, testing might be offered upon entry. That includes the possibility of COVID-19 detector dogs
As the Miami Heat works to plan for a safe return to AmericanAirlines Arena for all involved, including fans, testing might be offered upon entry. That includes the possibility of COVID-19 detector dogs

The Heat noted that “there is a lot of work being done around this globally, and researchers are finding that specially-trained dogs can detect COVID quickly, accurately, and in a non-invasive way.” A pilot project at the Helsinki, Finland airport has produced promising early results, as “a canine’s sense of smell is 1,000 to 100 million times more sensitive than a human’s.”

The Heat will likely be the first team in the NBA to explore COVID-19 detector dogs as a testing mechanism for fans.

The dogs will be used on a voluntary basis for media and staff entering the arena for Monday’s preseason game between the Heat and Pelicans at AmericanAirlines Arena.