Miami Heat give ‘electronic and visual face-lift’ to arena

Editor’s note: This article was written by Tom Friend and first appeared in Sports Business Journal, the industry’s leading source of sports business news, events and data.

Miami Heat fans are notorious for arriving late and leaving early — just ask Ray Allen. But heartened by electric crowds during last year’s run to the NBA Finals, Heat ownership is upgrading Kaseya Center with its own money in a two-phased attempt to turn the 24-year-old arena into a must-see, must-stay-all-four-quarters destination.

Calling it a “an electronic and visual face-lift” for the benefit of fans and sponsors, the Heat are quadrupling the size of their corner video boards, adding three levels of LED entrance signs, inundating the concourse with roughly 500 IPTV screens, building a Dr. Jack Ramsay Memorial Broadcast Center for telecasts, and operating it all with a high-tech control management system. As a result, primary team partners such as Kaseya, luxury auto marketplace MPH, and scent technology business Aroma360 — and any new sponsors — can have enhanced “moments of dominance’' on game nights, particularly on the 45-foot-wide, 18-foot-high corner boards.

But that’s just the inside. On the perimeter of the arena, the outdoor color palate will change like the wind, courtesy of Kansas City-based Dimensional Innovations. Known for designing the oversized LED screen on the SoFi Stadium roof, Dimensional Innovations has created proprietary digital signage at Kaseya Center that can match the exterior of the venue with whatever theme or uniform the Heat are sporting in the inner bowl.

“When you’re in Miami at night and you look at our skyline, the vibrancy of colors you see — it’s got its own vibe,’’ said Michael McCullough, the Heat’s executive vice president and CMO. “Now we just have way more tools to create that vibe at the arena.”

Miami fans go to the games to be seen — or that’s their reputation — and McCullough doesn’t deny the fan base is also “punctuality challenged.” A former executive for the Sacramento Kings who came to Miami in 1998, McCullough said “it drove me crazy at first” when Heat fans would arrive late in the first quarter until he realized “This is how they do it here in Miami.”

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They leave early, too, most famously when — down 5 points with under 30 seconds remaining — a hefty spate of Heat fans left Game 6 of the 2013 Finals only to miss Ray Allen’s miracle 3-pointer that sent the game to OT. Many pounded on doors asking back in, but were denied and missed Miami’s victory.

Since those 2013 Finals, John Vidalin, Heat executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said the franchise has annually updated suite levels, courtside clubs, its “LED 360″ system and more. But this summer’s multimillion-dollar upgrades were the most extensive, with a tech-driven Phase 2 scheduled for next summer. The team used CAA Icon as its owner representative, Perkins & Will as its construction architect, and Daktronics for the LED video boards. Add in the success of last season’s playoffs — which Vidalin said led to a “high” sponsor renewal rate — and the venue seems more dynamic than when it debuted as AmericanAirlines Arena in 1999.

“People love taking shots at Miami fans,” said McCullough. “But we could not have a more rabid Heat Nation. When they walk in this season, they’ll have an enhanced experience compared to the last time they walked out. And last time they walked out, we were in the NBA Finals. That’s not a bad experience, and this is going to be better from the start.”