Are Miami Heat fans the most fair-weather fanbase in the NBA?

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  Ravi6d ago

  As someone who grew up going to games with my abuela in the late 90s, this conversation always stings a little. We weren't wealthy, those tickets were a sacrifice. The Heat meant something deep in this community before the glamour arrived. The fanbase got diluted by money and real estate booms that priced regular Miami families out of those seats. That's the real story nobody wants to tell.

  188Reply
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  Omar6d ago

  Born and raised in Liberty City. I been a Heat fan since Zo and Hardaway were running things in the mid-90s. We had HALF an arena back then and we still showed up. Don't let the transplants and the tourist tickets define an entire fanbase. That's lazy analysis.

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  Feli6d ago

  My uncle had season tickets from 1989 all the way through 2018. Thirty years. Fair weather? Please. The problem is Kaseya Center is surrounded by bars and restaurants now and people roll in at the end of the first quarter because traffic on I-95 is genuinely a public health crisis. That's an infrastructure problem not a loyalty problem.

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  Maya6d ago

  Every city has fair-weather fans. You think Cleveland was packed to the rafters in 1997? The difference is Miami gets called out because the cameras always find the empty seats near celebrities instead of showing the real fans in the upper deck going nuts. It's a media narrative, full stop.

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  Reese6d ago

  The Heat actually have one of the highest season ticket renewal rates in the entire league, consistently top ten. People love to repeat the empty arena thing but they're always talking about one or two nationally televised games where the camera crew made it look worse than it was. Look up the actual attendance numbers before you parrot ESPN takes.

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• RM

  Ravi M.6d ago

  Nope. Hard disagree. Watched game 7 of the 2013 Finals from a bar on Calle Ocho. The entire street erupted when the Ray Allen three went in. You cannot fake that. That was a whole city losing its mind together.

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  Diego L.6d ago

  Genuine question for the locals defending this — what was the attendance like for the 2007-08 season when they went 15-67? Because I looked it up and Kaseya (then AmericanAirlines Arena) was averaging like 14,000 a night. That's not unfair weather, that's a BLIZZARD. Someone explain that to me without mentioning LeBron.

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  Avery6d ago

  ok but can we be honest for like 5 seconds. i went to a game last february when they were like 4 games under .500 and left at halftime because half the crowd was on their phones and the energy was DEAD. sat next to a guy who didnt know what a shot clock was. that's just facts

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  Morgan S.6d ago

  I moved here from Chicago three years ago and I'll say this diplomatically: the culture IS different. People go to games to be seen as much as to watch basketball. That's not wrong, it's just Miami. The food is better than the United Center anyway so I can't complain too hard.

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  Casey6d ago

  lmaoo the same people who left early in the 2022 ECF when the Celtics were up big are the same people who bought championship shirts the next morning after the Heat came back. i was THERE. i saw yall walking to the parking garage in the third quarter. respectfully, the reputation is earned

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