With start of season approaching, how will the Miami Heat handle home games?
With the NBA set to begin the 2020-21 season in three weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still plenty of unanswered questions.
The league attempted to answer some of those questions in a comprehensive 134-page health and safety protocols guide, which was sent to teams this past weekend.
However, there’s still uncertainty surrounding the unknowns that come with playing games during a pandemic without the safety of a quarantine bubble, as the schedule for the first half of the regular season (Dec. 22 – March 4) is expected to be released in the coming days.
The tentative Christmas Day schedule includes a matchup between the Miami Heat and New Orleans Pelicans at noon at AmericanAirlines Arena, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Tuesday night.
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What will the Heat do regarding fans at home games this season? The Heat has not announced its plan yet.
But with the Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder recently announcing they will begin the season without fans at their respective home arenas, the likelihood is the Heat will also begin the season by playing games at AmericanAirlines Arena without any fans in attendance, according to a league source.
The Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies and Utah Jazz are the only three NBA teams, as of Wednesday morning, that have announced they plan to welcome some amount of fans for home games when the season begins.
The Hawks announced they plan to allow only friends and family 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 Grizzlies are planning to allow about 20 percent of seating capacity, which is a little more than 3,600 fans seated six feet apart. 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.
According to Brad Townsend from The Dallas Morning News, the NBA encouraged teams during a Wednesday morning conference call to begin the season with no fans in home arenas. But the league is leaving the decision up to each team.
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 have yet to formally announce whether they will begin the season with fans in their home arenas. The United States set a daily record Tuesday with 98,691 COVID-19 patients hospitalized around the country, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
While some teams will be starting the season in an empty arena, the situation remains very fluid. Teams could change their policy to begin welcoming fans to home games at any point this season if the pandemic and circumstances allow.
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.
If the Heat does officially decide to play home games in a fan-less AmericanAirlines Arena to begin the season, the next question is: How will season-ticket holders be compensated for unused tickets?
For games not played at AmericanAirlines Arena in 2019-20 after the season was suspended last March, the Heat issued a credit for those home games and applied it toward the 2020-21 season. Those who preferred a refund for those remaining home games were asked to contact their season ticket membership representative.
The Heat has not begun issuing credits to season-ticket holders for this upcoming season yet since an official announcement on its plans for 2020-21 home games is still pending.
Even if the Heat did allow a limited amount of fans to attend games at AmericanAirlines Arena, other teams around South Florida have had some trouble selling tickets during a pandemic.
The Dolphins have set Hard Rock Stadium capacity at 13,000, which is about one-fifth of available seats. The longest-tenured season-ticket holders were given the first chance to claim tickets.
Even with that limited capacity, the Dolphins have not filled every available seat.
The Dolphins’ home opener against Buffalo drew 11,075 and Miami’s third home game against the Jets lured 10,772. Miami’s second home game against Seattle was closer to capacity, at 12,369, as were the fourth game against the Los Angeles Rams, which attracted 12,397, and the most recent home game against the Los Angeles Chargers, which drew 12,751.
As a Hard Rock Stadium tenant, the University of Miami is following the Dolphins’ ticketing policy, with capacity set at just less tgan 13,000 for football games.
Selling tickets has been even more difficult for the Hurricanes than the Dolphins, with attendance at three of UM’s four home games so far failing to crack the 10,000 mark.
UM’s home opener against UAB drew just 8,153. The FSU game was very close to a sellout, at 12,806, but subsequent home games against Pittsburgh and Virginia attracted 9,000 and 9,940 fans, respectively.
The Marlins and MLB teams did not have fans at regular-season games last season, but that is expected to change at some point in 2021. A limited number of fans were permitted to attend neutral-site league championship games and World Series games during the 2020 postseason.
UM’s basketball teams have begun their seasons with no fans in attendance for home games at the Watsco Center through at least Dec. 31.
The last Heat home game at AmericanAirlines Arena that was played with fans in attendance was a March 11 loss to the Charlotte 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 pandemic-shortened 72-game NBA regular season is scheduled to begin Dec. 22. The Heat will play two preseason games, with one coming at home against the Pelicans on Dec. 14 at 7 p.m.
Miami Herald sportswriter Barry Jackson contributed to this report.
