That all plays into it too. I can tell you in Chicago a lot of the lower level tickets are sold on the secondary market to tourists that were Jordan fans. It is really odd.
That's mostly a myth. European teams play in multiple competitions and play around 70-80 (sometimes even more, depending on the team) games in a season. Take Real Madrid as an example: 34 regular season games in the Euroleague 5-10 playoff games in the Euroleague 34 regular season games in the ACB 5-10 playoff games in the ACB A few games in Copa del Rey
I’ve said this before but they need to revamp the entertainment experience at Toyota Center. I think it’s gotten slightly better but, come on, enough with the “Everybody clap your hands“ and that wack ass organ.
Les brought us those sh*tty cartoon jerseys and that sh*tty blue and red court after the championships...no surprise he also built an arena and designed it to be as conducive as possible to having a sh*tty atmosphere
Chicago has always run circles around Houston as a basketball city. The Rockets, minus the 95-99 run, have always been entrenched as the "third" pro sports team in Houston. The time period where they "owned" the town also co-incided with the Oilers leaving and the Astros playoff failures mounting in a dilapidated stadium. I give them all the credit for winning it all and single-handedly creating generations of future Rockets fans... but there was also a reason why they were still having trouble selling playoff tickets in 94, even after they were the sole favorite to win it all when the Sonics were eliminated. Then, Enron opens in 2000 and becomes (and still is) a game-changer for watching baseball in Houston. Then the Texans come into existence and generate blind devotion overnight in 2002. Meanwhile, the Rockets move into a new arena that has no specific wow factor, no "first of its kind" technology or architecture, and Houston had largely already gotten over the "new stadium" craze that started in 2000 with this being the last of the three buildings built, and it was (and still is) the least impressive of all the new buildings.
The summit routinely used to draw 9,000 fans/game... during the early 90's with prime Hakeem. They weren't selling out games in 94... including the playoffs. Even 95 was having plenty of no-shows, despite being a defending champion, and it took the Drexler trade AND an improbable playoff run to buy them the subsequent 3 years of sellouts (which still also benefitted from the Barkley trade as well as the Pippen signing).
The summit still didn’t need the rowdies During big matchups against Boston , LA or Chicago the summit was the summit of basketball
the rockets have the worst crowd ever they over price the tickets so the real fans sit in the nose bleed while the uppity folks buy all the seats In the lower levels and dont show up or they sit in the Lexus lounge the entire game
It a seating issue simply. The higher bowl is always loud and supportive. Most lower bowl seats are for season ticket holders . Who are these season ticket holders? Some actual fans but majority are companies who buy them and give them out to clients as a sign of appreciated business. My last employer would give them to us(employees) because the clients hardly ever attended the games . The Red Rowdies can’t carry the lower bowl alone. Has been an issue for as long as I can remember.
Isn’t this true for every single team though ? Yet our crowd is very clearly one of the worst if not the worst in the league
Maybe in the 80’s.... in the NBA finals.... but not in the early 90’s. Check out the summit during the Rockets-Lakers playoff series in 91.
Honestly the Bulls were never that big in Chicago until Jordan and within the city really are not that big now. Football is by far first in Chicago. The Bears are incredibly popular and you will see as much Packers gear as Bulls gear. The Cubs are second in town. The White Sox are pretty popular too and you will see more Sox gear than Bulls gear. Recently the Blackhawks have been more popular than the Bulls but that isn’t going to last.
