I realize it can't be done. But it seems they clearly would have benefited from it. Based on the season ticket prices for this area, I strongly disagree. https://i.cdn.turner.com/nba/nba/.e...eason-ticket-member-pricing-map-201718_v2.pdf I know anecdotes don't amount to much, but every single time I have sat in the club level (1st level between the baselines is "club") it is because someone I know had corporate seats fall in their lap. I cannot imagine that many families of 4 shelling out 24K a year for seats are going to no-show for a playoff game.
Was at the game last night, in the lower bowl. I was there well before tip off and was sitting all alone on my row through the entrances, banner, etc. Two other guys showed up right after tip off so there were four of us. An ENTIRE ROW. Was pitiful. By the 4th it was full because people came down from other seats and took the row. I'll say this, the concessions need to be fixed. The lines at halftime were BRUTALLY slow. I know, why go to a game to eat! Well when you work all day and rush to the game to be there by tip off you need to eat at some point. Line moved super slow and then they "ran out" of food. I ended up just skipping and going back to sit down, but people on my row missed nearly the entire 3rd quarter waiting on them to get more hot dogs cooked. Crazy. The 4th quarter was lit once we got the lead and CP3 starting going off, but the people behind me complained to me that I wasn't sitting down after a timeout in the 4th. Eventually they stood up and I'd say 85% of the lower bowl was up for the final 10 minutes of the game. Honestly though, they were annoyed that I was standing during that great final stretch of a close out game in the series. It's such a weird fanbase.
this was one thing i noted also when i went to game 2 against utah. There's a ton of people at TC but spend much of their time in line due to whatever reason.
Season tickets are expensive in all sports, especially in NBA games. That's why cities that have NBA teams typically have the population size and fanbase demographics to support it. You're basing your assumption simply on how expensive the tickets are. Houston is a huge city that has enough fans who can afford to go to these games... and they're not simply no-showing for the playoffs, they're just not getting there in time for tip-off. I'd further analyze why fans... even season ticket holding fans... aren't as emotionally invested into this team as they may be the Astros or even Texans. There are a lot more reasons for those aspects other than simply blaming all of this on corporations.
Every home game in the WCF will begin at 8 PM. So traffic is not a valid excuse for empty seats at tipoff. Plus, IT'S THE FREAKING WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS!!!
Why is the crowd so flat? Probably because their most excited to see the Texans go 2-14, or more worried about the Texas A&M program director than NBA basketball. This city cares more about highschool football than it does the Rockets
Totally. There is something about the Rockets/basketball that doesn't draw the same investment in Houston from people that the other sports do. I've already said that I think race plays a big role in this, race and racial politics.
Because Rockets fans suck and only get excited when the game is close. They should move the upper bowl fans to the lower bowl.
I expect huge crowds for the games. i know people who have been eating to buy tickets just for the WCFs. They expected the Rockets to be here (casuals). Ticket prices are starting at about $150 for upper level so I guess I don't blame them for holding off.
This is really one of the more mystifying things I have seen. The Astros home games go from 0-100 immediately when the postseason starts. For whatever reason this team hasn't clicked with the fanbase. I keep waiting for the bandwagon effect to kick in, but it still hasn't happened. We've never been a great fanbase for basketball, but we usually had much hotter crowds than this come playoff time, for far lesser teams. These game feel like some February game against the Kings, not a damn playoff game.
Not just even that.... in the world of pro sports, the NBA is still looked at like the new kid on the block, which even though its far surpassed baseball in terms of viewers, its still usually the historic 3rd fiddle in cities that have all 3 major sports. Why is that? Baseball has the historical aspect of generational-type fans. They were Houston's first professional team. There was far more demons exercised with their WS winning accomplishment last year vs any of the Rockets wins. Football will always be king in Texas... and NFL football will always be king in Houston. Its also easier to go to 8 games a year on the weekend vs. 41 games mostly during the work week. Lastly, this Rockets team is composed of a bunch of really good guys, but nobody with any sort of long-standing ties to the city or any true connection to the fan. Part of that has to be that while James Harden is by far the league MVP... he may not be all that likable to the common fan, he certainly is not a role model off the court that parents would have their kids look up to, and while he's committed to being here long term, he hasn't really taken up the task of having either the city embrace him, or he embrace the city (unlike several Astros, and the most prominent Texan).
Two things that have to be taken into account with the Stros: 1) Playoff baseball is a rarity. Very few teams make the postseason in MLB. In the NBA, 16 out of 30 teams qualify. That's more than half. This city went a decade between playoff appearances by the Astros. So it's a much bigger deal than the Rockets appearing in the postseason. Hell, even during the Francis era and the injury-plagued Yao years, the longest droughts were 4 and 3 years respectively. 2) The MLB postseason is much shorter. The first round(not counting the Wild Card one-off) is 5 games. Then it's the LCS and World Series. And the teams play every day aside from when they're travelling. The NBA playoffs have 4 rounds and each are a Best-of-7. Plus there is an interminable layoff between games, especially in the first round. Hell, even in the Warriors-Rockets series, Games 2 and 3 will have 3 days off in between. The end result of this is a far more engaged fanbase. We're more appreciative of playoff baseball than playoff basketball. And with far fewer games packed into a much more compressed schedule, it ramps up the intensity. Think of the ALCS where the Astros went up 2-0, found themselves down 3-2, and came back to clinch the pennant in 7. Now imagine that rollercoaster of a series had taken 2 weeks to play instead of 9 days.
It's a great post. NBA is also closely associated with hip hop culture and that definitely plays a role.
The Yao/Francis crowds... and Yao/McGrady crowds were much much better than what they have now. Those teams did connect to the fan base better. ... now whether that's because Yao was more of a translatable superstar vs Harden, that remains to be seen. Hakeem also transcended between simply being a basketball player to being a civic role model. James Harden may get there one day, but he isn't the same brand of relatable superstar vs. guys like Springer/Altuve/Correa/Watt/Watson. Not sure what you're getting at here. The two sports still have, on average, the same number of home games. Astros played 2 home games in the wild card round, Rockets played 3, Astros played 4 home games in the ALCS, Rockets only played 3 in their 2nd round. Yes, the NBA has one more full round to go... but why aren't the fans as passionate in the games themselves, vs the rabid atmosphere at every Astros home playoff game? Also the Astros first 2 home games in the playoffs were on WEEKDAYS during the work week, with 1-2pm starts. And still fans were in their seats, engaged, far more than any Rockets game. And not to mention that selling out more home games with 41,000 passionate fans seems like a harder task than a 19,000 seat arena. Like I said above, this is not the Rockets fan base's first experience with the NBA playoffs. Its just that for whatever reason, the Rockets fan base is not gaga over THIS current team.... even though this very well may be the best Rockets team the city has ever had, with one of the greatest individual players in the league.
There has been a big change since the Yao era as well Nick. Obama became president and political polarization got extreme. The NBA, more than any sports league ever has, embraced a coziness with Obama and political issues. The NBA began taking up social justice issues, commenting on race, etc.
I don't buy that as an explanation for subdued crowds. Sparse crowds, maybe. But people who show up for games should be loud and into it. The NFL has had its own issues with social justice BS, but people are still attending games(well, at least for winning franchises) and cheering loudly. Maybe I'm downplaying the numerous playoff disappointments and the toll they've taken. The Rockets fanbase was rabid in the years following the titles. But then the Francis era came along and killed a lot of that enthusiasm. Then it was revived for a brief period by Yao and T-Mac, but those teams never accomplished anything aside from in 2009. And the crowds were amazing for those playoff games, but playing the hated Lakers certainly helped get the fans into it. Unfortunately any excitement that postseason run could've generated was wiped away with the next 3 seasons all ending with lottery picks. The Harden years have been better in terms of postseason success, but not markedly better. 2013 was a quick exit in the first round. 2014 was a major letdown against the Blazers. 2015 was a solid run and the crowds were great, especially in Game 7 vs the Clippers. But before the fans could even get excited about the first WCF appearance in 18 years, the Rockets found themselves down 3-0 with the team basically not even showing up for the pivotal Game 3. And which Rockets fan wasn't in shock at the way the 2017 postseason ended with Harden quitting on the team? Hopefully the 2018 postseason run is exorcising some of those demons. This team has a legit shot at winning it all this year. And whatever fears we had about Harden and CP3 in the playoffs have been at least partially alleviated in the first 2 rounds. I do think the fans will be far more into it come next Monday night.
I can say this, I have been to a game each round so far and plan to go to at least 1 game each round. But looking at tickets for game 2 this morning and the cheapest tickets are $150 for upper deck behind the goal. That is an astronomical price for the worst seats in the building. I’ve been able to swallow the $100 per ticket after fees it’s costed me so far, but this is ridiculous. To get the section I’ve been getting (412), it’s going to be about $200 per ticket after fees. I promised myself, because I’m convinced this is the year we win, that I would go to every round but this is unpleasant. Right now I’m just going to wait it out. I’m hoping that come Sunday/Monday some tickets will still be available and come at a cheaper cost . At this point I can’t afford the luxury of trying to get slightly better views and will have to take what’s cheapest even if it leads to a bad viewing experience. Totally disappointing.
