Of all the images captured during the first game of the NBA Finals at home— heroic three-point baskets, seemingly impossible passes, energetic dunks — it was a different kind of shot Tuesday night that warmed the heart of Miami’s image boosters.
“When they do the cutaways and they show the skyline and the downtown shot, you see the water glistening, these are Chamber of Commerce moments,” said Rolando Aedo, chief marketing officer for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Those aerial shots are manna from heaven and hopefully we’ll see lots of them.”
While not necessarily rooting for a seven-game series between the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks, local tourism officials wouldn’t mind the extra exposure — as long as Miami wins, of course.
This year’s finals will be the most widely distrubuted in NBA history, the league contends, reaching fans in 215 countries and territories. Ratings for Tuesday’s game were the highest for a first NBA Finals game since 2004. And more than 2,000 members of the media are credentialed to cover the series, including 315 from outside the U.S.
After Thursday’s game, the championship moves to Dallas for the next three match-ups. A full series would mean four games in Miami, which would equal millions of dollars in brand exposure for home-sweet-home.
Front Row Analytics, a sponsorship and naming rights evaluation firm, calculated that the exposure the city garnered from the live coverage on ABC Tuesday was worth more than $900,000. A 7-game series would result in overall media exposure for Miami of $3.3 million, said Eric Smallwood, the firm’s senior vice president.
While the immediate impact is far less than a Super Bowl, which packs hotel rooms at high rates around the region, four potential nights of Miami-centric coverage could do more for the area’s image. The region’s last experience in the national sports spotlight — the 2010 Super Bowl in Miami — was heavy on sports and light on shots of palm trees and beaches.
“The Super Bowl was about two teams coming here to play a football game, so the focus was on the two teams that happened to be playing in Miami,” said Bruce Turkel, a brand consultant whose firm is the advertising agency for Miami-Dade’s visitors bureau. “The difference here is that Miami is the team. People don’t separate the team from the community.”
He said he expects the impact of the NBA finals to be “off the charts.”
“When the game is over, people have a relationship with Miami,” he said. “I want to go to Miami. Why? Because Miami’s cool. Look at those guys.”
Aedo said he’s hoping potential visitors around the world will have just that reaction.
“The huge payoff is the Miami brand being broadcast throughout the U.S., throughout the world and the halo effect of the Dream Team being in Miami,” he said.
For now, hotels surrounding the AmericanAirlines Arena say they’re seeing a bit of a boost from the finals.
Eric Jellson, sales and marketing director at Kimpton’s Epic hotel downtown, said between fans and guests put up by corporate sponsors, the hotel is seeing a 5 to 7 percent increase in business.
Miami’s InterContinental Hotel, where plenty of Heat jerseys could be spotted in the bar on game night, is flying a Heat flag out front for the finals.
“We have a lot of Heat pride,” said spokeswoman Aurelia Vasquez. “If I could drape a jersey over the side of the building, I would.”
And the new Tempo Miami, across the street from the arena, is offering half-priced food and drinks on game nights at Amuse Lounge to encourage Heat frenzy.
Hotel manager Ryan Roche said he has spoken to basketball fans from Orlando, New York and Washington, D.C. — Heat supporters all — who have come down for games.
Despite being from Cleveland just like LeBron James, Roche said he’s rooting for Miami.
“What’s good for the city, what’s good for downtown is good for Tempo Miami,” he said.
Unlike 2006, when Dallas and Miami last battled for a championship, downtown Miami has established itself as a place to do more than watch a basketball game. The district has added several new upscale hotels, a booming restaurant scene and thousands of residents in condos that surround the arena.
Tadd Schwartz, spokesman for the Downtown Development Authority, said his firm went on the offense to remind the national media that the Heat play downtown, despite James’ announcement last year that he was taking his “talents to South Beach.”
The message, Schwartz said: “Take notice of where the Heat actually play.”
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