Business Monday
Is Miami really a sports town?
Miami most profitable sport at the moment is basketball. Since 2010 this has become a big profit in every way. People in this town are always following the winning team, like in the other hands the dolphins has lost much of their followers big attraction to buy tickets and watch their games since their recent results. The
Michael Lipman runs a ticket brokerage in Miami. By his math, he’s enjoying the country’s most lucrative market for basketball and perhaps the worst for baseball. But he knows those dynamics won’t last forever. “Miami is a great, great town for winners,’’ said Lipman owner of Tickets of America. “But when a team heads south, watch out... We bought a lot of season tickets for the Marlins. We gave them back. They’re an unsellable product.” The Dolphins hope to rejuvenate their fan base with an expensive new line-up that includes free agents Mike Wallace, Dustin Keller and Dannell Ellerbe. The signings came as the team pushes a plan for a $400 million renovation of Sun Life, with the Dolphins funding about half of the work and the remainder paid by Florida and by hotel taxes collected in Miami-Dade County. The renovation is aimed at attracting more Super Bowls and major soccer events. The centerpiece is a partial roof designed to protect spectators against the sort of downpour that drenched the Super Bowl in 2007 when it came to Miami Gardens. But the feature will have the added benefit of shielding spectators from the hot sun during Dolphin games early in the season one of the challenges team executives have cited in trying to boost ticket sales. “There were events we didn’t pursue because we knew the [need for] a heavy local ticket base was something we would struggle with,’’ he said. “There is a passion for every sport in Miami. It just doesn’t always translate into attendance.” At the moment, Miami has clearly adopted basketball as its sport of choice. Tickets for the Miami Heat routinely top out at $3,000 courtside, and $80 for the top rows at the AA Arena. The best winning streak in