Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Woolworth optimistic about what lies ahead
Team president says he plans on playing ’20-21 season in front of fans
Amid discussion of the NBA potentially having to play next season in a bubble setting similar to what is ongoing at Disney World, Miami Heat President Eric Woolworth has an optimistically contrasting perspective on 2020-21.
“We plan on playing next season in front of fans and plan on having a sold-out facility, just like we’ve had since going back to 2009, for all our games,” Woolworth said in an interview shown during the broadcast of the team’s Tuesday exhibition scrimmage finale.
“We’re going to keep doing all the things we would do in an offseason. And we’ve been selling tickets right along. I think it speaks volumes to the amount of interest that people in Miami have in our team but also in the commitment that we have in the community and to make sure we do play next year in front of our fans and figure out how to do it safely.”
The Heat have not played at AmericanAirlines Arena since March 11, when the NBA shut down due to the new coronavirus pandemic. The league has since resumed activity in a quarantine-like setting at Disney as a means to avoid COVID-19 infection.
The Heat resume their regular season with a 1 p.m. Saturday “seeding” game against the
Denver Nuggets, to be played without fans at the Wide World of Sports complex.
Shortly after Woolworth’s comments aired, ESPN posted an interview with Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, in which she said, “If the bubble is the way to play, then that is likely going to be the way we play next season if things remains as they are. I hope not.”
Woolworth said the Heat already are formulating a plan in hopes of it being otherwise.
“We have been working really, really hard on the heath and safety plan, which I’m sure we’ll be rolling out some time this fall,” he said. “And right now I think time is on our side. We’ve got a tentative date of December 1st, but that could slide and it might be January before we start.”
The NBA has tentatively planned to start the 2020-21 season on Dec. 1, although the players union has spoken of that being too quick of a turnaround, with the NBA’s current isolation setting at Disney potentially to run as late as an Oct. 13 Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Earlier this month, Woolworth was among South Florida sports executives who spoke about the impact of the pandemic at a virtual Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce trustee luncheon.
During that session, Woolworth spoke about plans in other sporting venues of reduced fan capacities amid the pandemic, at some venues as low as 10 to 15% of capacity, to allow for current social-distancing guidelines.
“It’s financial suicide for us,” Woolworth said. “There’s, I think, a sense among most of my peers in the NBA that we should not be starting next season until we get all the fans in the buildings.
“In a facility like ours, that’s roughly 20,000-seat capacity, that gets you around 2,500 people. What kind of a fan experience can we actually deliver for 2,500 fans?”
With the Heat back in the playoffs after a lottery finish in 2019, Woolworth said the demand is there, amid the hope of a change from the NBA’s current new norm.
“We’re actually pacing ahead of where we were last year at this time with season tickets,” he said in his interview with Heat host Jason Jackson that aired on Fox Sports Sun. “So business is good in that sense.”
Woolworth said the Heat took an aggressive approach when it came to planning for better days ahead — better South Florida days alongside Biscayne Bay.
“When the NBA went on our hiatus, starting March 11, March 12, some of our peers around the league kind of shut everything down, threw up their hands and weren’t really sure what to do,” Woolworth said. “And we did not. We took a different approach, which was to say, ‘Listen, we still have a job to do.’ ”