Heat fires season ticket sales staff of about 30 people, as there are no season tickets left to sell.
Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James getting together on the Heat eventually meant lost jobs for Miami's ticket sales staff.Cleveland -- LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are now together on the Miami Heat, the result of apparent plotting by the trio to join forces, and egomaniacal journeys through the free agency process by former Cleveland Cavalier James and former Toronto Raptor Bosh.
We've heard that the three have each made a "sacrifice" to allow the Heat to fit their contracts into the salary cap structure, and to help Miami sign other players.
The "sacrifice" was that James and Bosh each settled for six-year, $110 million contracts, while Wade will try to get by on a six-year, $107 million deal. The maximum contracts for the players would have been worth about $126 million for each James and Bosh, a few million more for Wade.
Maybe those guys can help out the Heat's ticket sales staff a little (We do understand that might be beyond James' means. He's famous around his Akron hometown for not leaving tips at restaurants).
With the arrival of James and Bosh, the Heat quickly sold out its season tickets. Guess who's not needed anymore?
Douglas Hanks writes about the Heat's can-you-believe-it? cost-cutting measure for the Miami Herald:
With the arrival of Lebron James, the Miami Heat rapidly sold out all their season tickets. That turned out to be bad news for the ticket-sales staff, which was fired Friday.
In a statement, the Heat confirmed the dismissals Friday afternoon, saying that with an ``exhausted'' inventory of season-tickets ``we no longer require a season ticket sales team to sell tickets.''
Stephen Weber, vice president of sales, delivered the news to about 30 ticket sales people Friday morning, according to one of the staffers who asked not to be named because he is seeking another job in sports.
The fired workers didn't just sit around as the ticket frenzy for Heat games grew. The staffer told Hanks that they made calls to potential ticket buyers and secured deposits from what is now a waiting list of about 6,000.
Hanks writes:
The Heat did not release details of the dismissals, except to say the sales force ``ebbs and flows'' with the supply of tickets.
``While the decision to release part of our sales force was a difficult one, we greatly appreciate their contributions to the company,'' the statement continued. ``We have also hired a placement service to assist those individuals find new employment.
``Should any season tickets become available, they will be handled through our season ticket deposit program. We thank those employees for their time with the company and wish them success in their future endeavors.''