Texans are by far and away the metro areas most popular team The Astros and the Rockets probably have similar hard core fan bases Edit And of course the Astros and Rockets currently are run better no debate there this is just pure number of fans
The data on this for the last 20+ years had the hierarchy with the Astros in 3rd place behind the Rockets, with them both a huge distance behind the Texans. Of course the recency effect being what it is, the Astros may hold a small edge, but it will likely soon fade.
What data? What metrics? There’s no doubt that Houston is just not as passionate about this Rockets era (Harden/Howard/CP3) as they have been about past Rockets eras. They don’t dominate the fading sports talk landscape. They’re not a “hot ticket, and plenty of corporate seats available on any given night. In the end, Houston supports winners well regardless. Passion is more with the Astros now... not only do they win, but they have a young stable core that have grown up together with the team. Also, MMP is by far the best stadium Houston has. NRG and TC are as generic as they come... on purpose.
You'll have to take my word for it as these are things that I've just casually observed since about 2000 that have since obviously faded into the ether. I can't remember seeing a single thing that ever put the Astros ahead of the Rockets from a Houston mindshare perspective. A few things that may support the idea: -local tv/radio broadcast rights cost -informal surveys about the most popular sports in Houston (as I said before, I remember seeing baseball in 3rd) -the Rockets having over a million more followers than the Astros on Twitter -franchise valuation I feel like we could probably easily get a handle on this question by posting a straw poll on r/houston
Were they though? During Yao and Mac's first year, as exciting as duo as you could hope for at the time, we were 23rd in attendance. During the damn clutch city years we were in the bottom half of the league. During the Francis years we were at the very bottom. The Rockets fielded an amazing squad 2 years ago, and at no point did I feel like anybody cared outside of the usual Rockets fanbase. The atmosphere in the 90's was certainly a little livelier, but it didn't seem as if they were a fervently supported squad townwide. I was reallly young in the mid 90's so I can't speak with any confidence about how the city felt about the team outside of my little bubble, but over the last 20 years save for a flicker in 09, at no point did I feel any real passion for the Rockets among the casuals. From 04-06 and over this recent run, everybody was suddenly an Astros fan.
I would say Astros. I feel like I only hear people talking Rockets and rooting for them when they are in playoffs and making a run.
I think it's hard to say in Houston because of our diverse population. You can poll Indians in the city and they will say Texans + Rockets. Ask white people and they will say Texans + Astros. But overall I think Texans are a lot more popular just because it's football. Basketball is just an afterthought here. I would say Texans > Astros > Rockets > College football > Dynamo. Also when people talk about the Rockets, I feel like it's more negative. Oh how will they disappoint us this time? Harden is soft. Lebron is better. blah blah. Win a championship and you will hear a different tune for sure.
Just walking around town now, you see Astros hats and shirts all over the place.....more than even Texans gear now. I literally never see Rockets gear out unless I'm a block from TC on a game night. Part of that is the winning, part of it is the fact that the Astros now have some of the best branding in American sports in my opinion.
Yeah, when they rightfully blew the whole thing up in '11 (the original Process), coupled with fan anger over the move to the AL, everyone including the Astros knew attendance and fan interest was going to tank until they had success on the field again, and you started seeing attendance slowly getting back to normal in '15 Fun Fact: 16 of the Astros top 20 total attendance years have occurred in MMP, '65/80/98/99 being the exceptions.
I think the ws appearance helped with visibility and lagging crowds. Similarly, the rockets sold out four five years after the repeat. But yeah, that era was no slouch.
Texans runaway with it by far it's not even close. It's because of the tailgating which attracts all kinds of casual fans. If baseball and basketball had a tailgating culture it would be interesting.
6 of the Astros top 10 attendance seasons were from '04-09, ranging from a little over 2.5 million to a little over 3M
I'd say Biggio's chase for 3000 hits helped with attendance in 2007. 2008 team was competitive until Ike happened.
Between the two it's not even close. Astros > Rockets. That's not my preference, I hate baseball. Nontheless undoubtedly Houston is more of a baseball city than basketball. Saying all that.. IF the city had to choose between A) The Texans with No Astros or Rockets and B) Astros and Rockets but no Texans The city would choose A by a landslide. Again, not my preference. We're a football city through and through though. They would give up both sports teams to keep 1.
I find it a bit ironic that the order of favorites is inversely proportional to the number of championships each organization has won.
