Seeing as I've only been to one game this year, maybe I [subconsciously] haven't wanted to attend Rockets' games this year. I was at Game 6 last year.... First time I've ever left a game early. I was pretty sad I tell ya.
Oh, I know that, but what I meant was that if the Marketing side realized that Red and Yellow would make everyone happy, the choice is simple. It's gotta be the ketchup and mustard.
I know this has been beaten to death, but I still can't help but bring it up again. The Toyota Center crowd sucks. It looks like a Comets game out there. The seats are empty. There is no energy. Like Simmons said, everyone looks bored. I had season tickets during the Yao/Tmac era and it wasn't perfect, but it wasn't this bad. I really don't even want to go to games anymore because I don't want to spend a ton to sit in the lower bowl, rush home from work to rush back downtown, drop $20 for parking, drop $50 for a crappy dinner, and then sit there in such a lame environment. It's only worth all that if you can feel the energy of the crowd and be part of the game. Otherwise it's much better to watch on TV. I have no idea what happened or how to fix it but it really is sad and embarrassing. The NBA and Tilman need to get together to fix this abomination. It looks bad for the league.
actually the rockets should probably fix their issues to begin with. if you think it was an issue before, its only going to get worse with the product being displayed on the floor as of late
Yeah, you thought the crowds were bad last year for a 65 win team? Imagine if this team struggles to hit 35 wins. They'll be lucky to have 10,000 people at Toyota Center by the All-Star Break.
I was there last night. It was dead until we hit a couple of threes then it got loud. The thing is you have to give the crowd SOMETHING, ANYTHING to cheer for. The Rockets have looked abysmal so far at home. I do my part to scream and yell at the game, but at some point you gotta give me something to cheer for.
Your right to some point. But it’s dead and empty at tip-off. You look around the league and some teams GS and lakers etc. you can feel the energy in the crowd and the buzz and excitement before tip-off which sets the tone for the players at tip-off.
Frittata must see it and I would assume he knows how to address it. At least, I would think he knows more than Alexander on how to fix it. Truthfully im much more bored watching Rockets games this year than i have been in a long time. I dont think its just the losing either. The chucking is just not skillful.
which is why I doubt we’ll ever see any legit tank strategy here...the city barely cares about the team when it’s a contender when the Rockets become really bad it’s gonna be 12k in the arena, no more national TV appearances, and total irrelevancy CF won’t have to worry about media conspiracies, hate, and bias, because no one will be talking or care about the team
I was at the game and literally had the entire row to myself until almost halftime...there was 1 other dude on the complete opposite end of the row and then a bunch of seats
It's the hangover of a mighty battle where defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory by this team ... WCF games 6 and 7 were the inevitable outcome of the fatal hamstring, like the arrow to the eye of Harold the Unfortunate in the Battle of Hastings while the fight was still undecided. After that, England had new masters. It does seem that 65 wins was a 'personal championship' for the team last year, and they were rewarded for it (some handsomely). From a fan's perspective, Game 1 of the new season should have been a statement of renewed urgency from the team, but they instead showed a war-weariness and a general unwillingness to compete at the level of the previous season... as if they themselves think that last year was a fluke. Game 1 set the tone for this year, and most moneyed ticket-buyers have the good sense to keep it in their pockets until further notice. Blame the fans? Really?
I wouldn't say the city barely cares when they're contending. There was a lot of interest in the team last season. The problem was that people wouldn't show up in time for tipoff. And that did unfortunately extend to the postseason on weeknights(at least prior to the WCF). But some of those weekend games during the regular season had amazing crowds. Especially those ABC games against the Celtics and Warriors. I do agree though that the city seems apathetic towards the Rockets when they're not good. The harsh reality is Houston is a football town, so if they're not one of the top 5 or 6 in the NBA recordwise, it's gonna be hard to draw crowds. But I disagree about tanking being a bad strategy. The Astros did it while suffering through several years of tiny crowds and horrible TV ratings and look where they are now.
I must say I was there last night and had not been to a live Rockets game in 20 years. I watch roughly 20 pro sports live a year (EPL, NFL, NHL, etc) and this was by far the worst effort from a crowd I've ever seen outside of a Knicks-Bobcats game a while back where you could hear what the man across the stadium was saying. Couple of observations: People were only arriving at their seats in the 2nd quarter and leaving at the end of the 3rd!!!!!! CRAZY! This basically makes/breaks the atmosphere. There were A LOT of empty seats (great because I moved from row 24 to 5 but not as great as it looked like a 3rd division Euroleague game). They should allow people from upper bowl to win tickets in the 2nd quarter to fill out the seats. The in-stadium experience to get the crowd pumped is non-existent. Morey & Ferttita stayed until the end, which I respected given the blow-out. The Red Rowdies (awesome) are sitting too high, they should be behind the basket and there should be another Red Rowdy-like crew behind the other basket (created by Rockets org). I also don't want to hear "the tickets down there are too expensive to give away" because I can make you a very easy business case as to why creating a better atmosphere and selling out stadiums generates more sales of other products (source: I work in the beverage industry and work with the biggest stadiums in the world). The overall design of the stadium is state-of-the-art and creates no excuse for this abysmal atmosphere. It was very easy to get close to the hardwood if you were in the lower bowl, which was great. There is too much moving around of fans during the game. I had to get up 6 times to let people through. This doesn't happen in other pro-sports. They should close all the stalls/bars during the game and only allow for delivery of food and alcohol to your seat.
