My son had a school event get cancelled because of the weather last night. It was brutal on the west side of town from about 5:30-6:30. I'm sure that had an effect on the crowd early in the game.
Pretty much like usual with people not getting seated til like halfway through the 2nd. There was about an equal amount of cheers when the Lakers scored as when the Rockets did throughout pretty much the entire first half. WTF I had Lakers fans immediately in front of and behind me in 115. Taking pics of Kobe and Howard on the big screen when they were at the stripe. I wanted to smash a camera on more than one occasion. Anybody hear the Rowdies chanting "NO MEANS NO" when Kobe went to the line the first time? This REALLY pissed off the LA fans in front of me. Good God it felt good to celebrate this win. Even bust out my "Sucka Dance" for the LA fans around me as they were trying to escape after the final buzzer.
It's an embarrassing that lakers fans are as vocal as the hometown fans. And who the hell are all these lakers fans? They can't all be LA transplants. Bunch of bandwagon b****es if you ask me. Nothing pisses me off more than seeing kids as Lakers fans. Bad parenting at it's finest.
It took me nearly 90 minutes to get from Westpark @ Beltway to Toyota Center. And I left before rush hour really hit, even. Attendance in the corporate section always blows, but last night there were other factors at play. It did fill in after halftime, though.
Rockets attendance is still average compared to the rest of the NBA. That's what it'll always be. People shouldn't expect anything more.
It makes me jealous that game tickets are always offered cheap at TC. If I lived in Houston I'd go to as many games as I could. When the Grizzlies were in Vancouver we paid $13K a year for a pair of season tickets and made sure that someone went to every game. I was at the Knicks game last month, it was supposed to be full but there were lots of empty seats. My friend and I were cheering the whole game and I lost my voice the next day. The two people sitting next to us looked really bored and left after the first quarter. That's almost $600 wasted. And the arena was never really loud, even when the scoreboard asked us to "make noise" or "bring energy". Don't think our players can feed off the energy of the fans at TC.
One thing I didn't like is clutch the bear messing with people. I'm trying to enjoy the game and he comes over trying to clown on you. Is he still walking on the front rails acting like he's going to fall on you or holding a cake to throw at you.
The Lakers game was another sellout. Not sure what people could want of Houstonians beyond purchasing every available seat. Stop enjoying a rich lifestyle that doesn't place as much value on a Rockets ticket as we might? Turbo boost over traffic or control the weather?
Man, on TV the crowd sounded awesome. When they interviewed Shaun Cody he made a comment about how great the atmosphere was.
It was apparently sold out so all is well according to Leslie and the Rockets organization. To the general fan at home and especially (die-hard) Rockets fans, it is embarrassing. Did you see again how a player had to wake the crowd up?? I mean, it was an exciting though ugly game but come on, it was against LA and we know the crowd is basically what home court advantage is all about. Not in Houston though where players have to beg the crowd to cheer, the look on Delfino's face said it all when he was walking back when Dwight had to shoot free throws. He threw his hands up several times and just looked like come on people, what do we have to do to get you to cheer?! Even during the 2009 playoffs Battier screamed for the fans to get loud! The 2008 streak was the sole exception but during any other playoff series or reg season game, it's quiet. It has been like that for ages though, even during the championship years in the Summit. Just terrible.. I truly believe what makes teams like Portland & OKC hard to beat at their home is the place being packed and always loud.
One trick pony towns. They compete with no other pro sports team for their city's entertainiment dollars. The atmosphere is very much like a college atmosphere, because those are very much like college level markets.
I fear the Bobcats, or Wizards playing here, it will be our low attendance game. Once we win consistently and become an upper echelon team, we will have a full house. Remember the Texans (has sold-out since '02) had a lot of empty seats at the start of games when they were a not too mighty of a team.
