Winning trumps everything in Miami (or Florida in general)
Isn't this true for many places? Its really sad - the Dolphins have always had the strongest fan base in Florida. However, since the Heat have become good, many people have jumped off the Dolphins' bandwagon and on to the Heat.
As for tarping off the upper deck - I think that extra 8000 upper deck seats is the EXACT reason why they keep saying they are below league average on ticket prices. Go ahead, tarp off a chunk of the cheap seats and proceed to tell me how your average ticket price isn't about to skyrocket and expose the overpriced nature of your ticket plans.