Heat increasing AA Arena capacity this week. What will that change, what remains the same?

The Miami Heat began the season at a fanless AmericanAirlines Arena, as the organization worked to create and implement health and safety protocols to make it as safe as possible for the eventual return of fans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, about 100 family members and team and player guests were permitted to attend home games starting in late December.

Then about a month later in late January, about 1,500 fans began being allowed inside AmericanAirlines Arena for a stretch that included six straight home games.

Now, that capacity number will double to about 3,000 fans for the upcoming four-game homestand beginning with Wednesday’s matchup against the Toronto Raptors at AmericanAirlines Arena. It will mark Miami’s first home game since Feb. 9, as a 4-3 trip kept the Heat (14-17) on the road for the past two weeks.

“It has taken a full team. It has taken everyone to do this, to make this lift happen,” said Jarred Diamond, who is the executive vice president and general manager of AmericanAirlines Arena. “We have a call that happens every day that we get 20-30 people from the leadership team on the arena side on the phone to talk this through and make sure that we’ve got every box checked, every detail covered just to do this right.”

Takeaways from the Heat’s win to cap successful trip, and what was accomplished on the road

This stretch with increased capacity of about 3,000 fans at AmericanAirlines Arena, which has a usual capacity of 19,600, will include the Heat’s final four home games before the All-Star break: Wednesday vs. Raptors, Friday vs. Utah Jazz, and Sunday and next Tuesday vs. Atlanta Hawks.

But just because more fans will soon be allowed inside the arena doesn’t mean the COVID-19 health and safety protocols that have been implemented will change. Seating will remain limited and physically distanced, masks still need to be worn at all times unless consuming food or a drink in designated areas where it’s allowed, and COVID-19 sniffing dogs will still screen those entering the building.

“It really just becomes that more areas are open,” Diamond said. “The physical distancing, the seating, all of that stays in play. It’s really just more signage, more areas that the public will be in, more areas in the bowl that we’ll have seating available. So we obviously need to ramp up with our resources. We’re opening more square footage for folks. That’s really it.

“I just think there will be a few more locations that are open. There will be more people. The processes of coming into the building, that won’t change. There will just be more areas that are open and available for the guests to enter and exit in the venue. Our plans in these locations, how we’ve treated these areas and these spaces, that’s not going to change.”

Gates 1 and 5 will be open for fans as an arena entrance, and Gate 3 will be used as an entry point for those with disabilities.

Wednesday’s game is also the first that tickets were made available to the general public to purchase directly from the team. A few hundred individual game tickets went on sale to the general public Saturday for each of the upcoming four home games, but most of the roughly 3,000 tickets still went to season-ticket holders as part of a pre-sale.

While the majority of the 1,500 fans previously allowed inside AmericanAirlines Arena were seated in the 100 level, more seats will be scattered around the 300 and 400 levels with capacity doubling this week.

“The use of the floor decals have been really important,” Diamond said of what has been learned since fans returned to Heat home games just one month ago. “The over communication, making sure that folks are aware of what to expect before they arrive. It’s really, really important. Trying to get folks to arrive early as opposed to right at the tip is always going to be a challenge. But that’s something that obviously helps for us. The experience inside the building, the pod seating and the distancing, folks respecting the mask policy. That has all gone well 99.9 percent of the time.”

To help accommodate a larger capacity and keep the entry process efficient, the Heat is ramping up from four COVID-19 sniffing dogs to 10 dogs and handlers this week.

“I think the feedback from the guests is that they appreciate it,” Diamond said of the dogs used to screen fans. “Listen, it’s another measure taken for our mitigation plan. So, overall, it has been pretty popular and it has gone well. We still have the masks, we still have the cleaning and disinfecting. We still have the social distancing, people are still sitting in pods. And then there are the K-9 detection dogs as another level of safety here, and it has been going well. The peak times of getting people in the building, it’s the same thing. If you’re showing up at tip, it’s going to take a little longer to get through it. But the way that we have it set up, it has worked out really well.”

As far as food and beverages, the selection of what’s offered to fans to consume on the East Plaza is expected to continue to grow. Soft drinks and water were the only beverages sold when fans were first allowed back, but beer and wine began being offered earlier this month.

“One thing that we notice is that folks, they miss the hospitality,” Diamond said. “They understand why the food and beverage options are limited to outdoors and those sort of areas. I think they obviously appreciate that we’re putting health and safety first. But at the same time, they’d like to get back to a night out. So I think from the hospitality side that we may be hearing from them. But again, everybody gets it. Everyone understands why these measures are in place.

“Little by little, we are going to start to incorporate more and more of that into it. But it’s one step at a time for us.”

Nearly half of the NBA — 14 teams to be exact — are now allowing some amount of fans in attendance for home games, with the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks opening its arena doors to fans beginning Tuesday. The Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Pelicans, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and Heat are the others.

“For me, it has really taken everyone and it feels similar to opening up a new building,” Diamond said of allowing fans back inside AmericanAirlines Arena. “That’s really the lift that it has been.”

For more information on what to expect while attending Heat games at AmericanAirlines Arena this season, visit Heat.com/FanSafety.