High Heat, Low Heat

The biggest news story for Summer 2010 was where was Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh headed to upon their free agency. The answer as we all know was they took their talents to South Beach.  The hype for the acquisitions was unlike anything seen in sports. Including one basketball fan by the name of Jonathan Zairi. Jonathan Zairi is a 21 year old college student who purchased two season ticket packages after the Miami Heat signed Chris Bosh according to the article written by Darren Rovell.( http://www.cnbc.com/id/42218592)   Shortly after the signing of Lebron James, Mr. Zairi was more than elated and thought "Wow I am going to make money off these tickets as everybody is going to want to see them play."  This did not pan out the way he imagined.



To begin with the Miami Heat have had an up and down season with the all drama to fill a daytime soap opera. The current record for the Miami Heat is 50-22. While this is great by any means, this was not the expectations set by the three acquired players.  The media was hyping them to be as great as the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls of the late '90s (whose record in 1997 was 72-10). With the Heat losing the first two games of the season and him trying to sell the third game of the season against the Utah Jazz he ended up stuck with tickets and lost his money.  With all these expectations why wouldn't a young student try to make an investment  and cash in on it during the season.

Here are my reasons for the loss of money from the tickets purchased:

1.  The way that all players came about and threw a big party celebration did not go well with the national sports audience.  The general public felt if they had held a press conference and been more professional about it the outlash would not have been so severe.

2. The travesty of the single press conference held by Lebron James to announce his "decision" as to his NBA future, took a major public relations hit for him and turned him into the NBA villain of the year. Lebron James did not need to do a one hour special just to make a simple statement.  The manner in which he left his previous employer was one in disgust.  Any other employee who works for a company and accomplishes how Lebron left would be labeled as "not rehirable."

*While reasons 1&2 are related, reason 3 is where Jonathan Zairi did not do his research.

3. As a Miami Heat fan myself, when the announcement of the Big Three was made I said to myself, "Well I guess I will be watching the games at home this season."  With the contracts of the Big Three near $110 million the ticket prices would go up for all the seats.  This of course was expected but by how much is where I think Mr. Zairi did not expect. The whole entire marketing department was let go after the guys were signed, so all the ticket specials that were being offered in previous seasons were gone!  Then Mr. Zairi did not expect to see second market tickets sell quickly. Secondary market tickets are tickets which are sold through person to person or scalpers.  In the article he was quoted as saying that the Miami market is a "soft market." I guess somebody forgot to pass along the memo to Mr. Zairi that in Miami there is always another way to get something for less.

Mr. Zairi has lost a total of $2.200 for his purchase.  My message to you Sir is the following: Wait and see before you count all the chickens that have been hatched.