The night’s the Heat aren’t on the floor are those that concern Mike Walker.
As executive vice president of HEAT Group Enterprises, the umbrella that owns the team and the arena, it’s his job to fill the arena on the team’s off nights.
The lights are on about 200 nights out of the year. With the Heat only accounting for 60 of those, depending on how deep they go into the playoffs, he and his team have his work cut out for them.
When he first came to Miami in April 2001, after stints at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, the arena wasn’t doing too well in bringing in non-basketball events.
“It was obvious to us that the old building was still open and some of the business that was there was staying there as opposed to coming to here,” he said. “A lot of it was the Latin shows and I wanted to figure out why didn’t they want to come here and the reality was that nobody really asked them.”
Since then, Mr. Walker said the venue has become the premier stage for Latin artists to perform on in North America outside New York City.
In between making sure the arena hosts a variety of events for South Florida diverse population, he’s also working to bring back large-scale events like the Latin Grammys or the MTV Video Music Awards.
Mr. Walker discussed the challenges and opportunities of brining events into one of the region’s largest venues inside the arena with Miami Today reporter Zachary S. Fagenson.