I don't live in Houston anymore so I don't go to games. :-( But from watching on TV, the crowd is DEAD and SPARSE. There is no force. There are passionate Rockets fans, but it does not translate. Feels like the crowd is a front runner. Excited on the "high stakes" games or at the end but blah on everything else.
The main reason is all the corporate seats. People don't show up in the lower level because those club seats are usually owned by businesses. They give the tickets out to employees or other businesses as a sales tactic. Combine that with a ton of people that aren't native Houstonians and you get a pretty bad crowd. I usually only go to 3ish games during the season for this reason. I prefer to save my money for the playoffs, when the crowd is actually decent.
My theory is this. 1. Football is popular because it's the most popular sport and there are only 8 games a year and they fall on Sunday. It's easy to draw big, loud crowds. 2. With baseball, a lot of the fans are older and/or wealthier. They can afford to go to many games and they get loud because they are real fans of the team and the sport. And really, regular season Astros games are usually pretty laid back too. 3. Basketball is more of a young and/or urban sport. Not as many older and/or wealthier people who are really FANS. They will still go to the games for entertainment and fill up the seats, but they are more laid back because they aren't true fans like they are for baseball and football.
Simmons is right. The org needs to incentivize attendance better and track how often the seats are actually being sat in in the lower bowl.
Like what? All the downtown nightlife anyone wants to be around is on the opposite side near Franklin and Main.
Yeah seriously, SD is a gigantic market and people there have money to boot. I don't like the idea of them moving nor do I think it would happen but if the people in Houston can't show pride in such a great team, then wtf...
I'm not sure why people are defending the Red Rowdies. When I go to the games, the Red Rowdies make things worse. Their "organic" chants are done at the same time as the PA sound effects and chants, reducing the effectiveness of both. Fans don't participate with either one for that reason. Not to mention the fact that the game experience has slowly gotten worse - the hype videos suck, they removed the Dream On history video, the halftime entertainment is worse, the new Clutch sucks. The only thing that gets any fan participation with the game itself is Matt Thomas yelling "Defense" to get the crowd started.
theres plenty of places to go around the house of blues area which is a few blocks away from TC. htx tavern area has places to hang around as well. even just the opposite side where the dynamo stadium has bars. midtown is a few minutes uber ride away. lack of downtown nightlife around TC just isn't a valid excuse.
ill defend them over some lameo sitting in their seats acting like theyre too cool to cheer and get excited or make noise at a sporting event. you're not
Not all other cities have NFL, NBA, and MLB. So OKC, for exampe, is the only show in town. Also, Houston is a city that has MANY people who have moved here from somewhere else. A lot of people are fans of other teams, or at least didn't grow up as Rockets fans. So they will go to games for entertainment, but they aren't real fans.
Went to WCF game 4 against the Warriors a couple years back. Sat lower bowl, got hammered in anticipation, and was rowdy as hell. People looked at me like I was a ghost. They were petrified that someone was actually cheering loudly and obnoxiously... Actually the only people that I got along with was opposing fans... They understood my enthusiasm. It was gross... I do think its gotten better in recent years but man that was weird.
What your seeing is alot of people with 8 to 5pm jobs that work in the surrounding buildings. They have miserable lives as it is.
I read an article a while back about how one of cuban’s first decisions after buying the mavs was to make nosebleeds affordable to create a strong fan experience
Make the experience more urban. More Slim Thug and Travis Scott courtside. Less lights, it’s too damn bright in the arena. Bring in the theater style lights and make the game feel like an experience. Play better music, get better on mic personalities during timeouts. The fact of the matter is that if the game isn’t close, Toyota Center is boring af. You need to be able to feel the energy from the outside before you set foot into the arena. Make people, like me, regret that I got there late. By the way, I’ll try really hard to get there on time next time I get tickets. Promise.