MDA "Our crowd doesn't usually get their till 8 and we didn't start playing till 8"

In this city if it's not football, they only have capacity, early arriving crowds for playoff games or when another popular team comes to town. I think it was poor timing however for MDA to be calling out the crowd after the effort the team showed tonight.

 

So glad you voted no change. it would make a BIG difference to our attendance. I personally applaud the earlier time start.

 

Attendance has dropped vs last year, which is the crazy part. Most complaints are the standard complaints for any given season. But why is our attendance, ranked 20th, in the bottom half of the league, when our record is the 4th best?

 

i dont think 8pm start will matter much. we've had one recently and it looked the same to start the game lol but I will gladly welcome an 8pm start from here out

 

I don't buy the issue is the location of the stadium as the Mavs arena is also located somewhat centrally, along with a lot of current arenas. I go to about 5 games a year with the old man and the upper bowl is always pretty full.

 

Well, I think you would need to figure out how many fans are buying the tickets vs non fans. Fans of the team will be more likely to watch the team for 4 quarters, people who have little vested interest in the team probably won't.

The other problem, that I alluded to earlier was that many of the people who go to games probably live/work in the suburbs surrounding downtown. Places like Katy, Sugarland, The Woodlands, Kingwood/Atascocita, etc. These are 30-45 minutes drives just to get home for most of these folks, where as in cities such as Chicago, NY, DC, Philly, Milwaukee, Oakland, you can get to or from the arena in 20 minutes or less.

No doubt, the cultural issue you bring up is a factor too but only because many folks who live in Houston are transplants. So, they don't have the same level of dedication to the team because they weren't part of the culture back when we won b2b in the 90's. Most of those people who followed the team in the 80's/90's probably don't even live here anymore.

 

17 teams tip off at 7:00pm (their local time); 13 at 7:30pm

As @Tha_Dude pointed out, the two other Texas teams at 7:30pm.

Spoiler

(Excluding weekend & national TV games)

CST:
Bulls: 7:00pm
Mavs: 7:30pm
Rockets: 7:00pm
Grizzlies: 7:00pm
Bucks: 7:00pm
TWolves: 7:00pm
Pelicans: 7:00pm
Thunder: 7:00pm
Spurs: 7:30pm

EST:
Hawks: 7:30pm
Celtics: 7:30pm
Nets: 7:30pm
Hornets: 7:00pm
Cavs: 7:00pm
Pistons: 7:30pm
Pacers: 7:00pm
Heat: 7:30pm
Knicks: 7:30pm
Magic: 7:00pm
Sixers: 7:00pm
Wizards: 7:00pm
Raptors: 7:30pm

MST:
Nuggets: 7:00pm
Suns: 7:00pm
Jazz: 7:00pm

PST:
Warriors: 7:30pm
Clippers: 7:30pm
Lakers: 7:30pm
Blazers: 7:00pm/7:30pm
Kings: 7:30pm

 

I applaud you, I wish there were more fans like you to support the team. Also, I never blamed the fans for the Rockets poor performance tonight. That was MDA and I think it was a low blow, tbh.

 

Problem with houston is that no one uses or houston has a lack of a train system i live in NY and msg and barclays is 1-2 train rides from conneticuit, NJ, upstate NY, and long island. Houston lacks a train system so 100% of people must drive and dont have easy access to a train like up here in NY. If you had a train it would take 20-40 mins to get to arena from all sides of city and people wouldnt have to sit in traffic, or find parking. This is the biggest thing i think houston is missing.

 

I personally know 3 corporate company sponsored seats and they will dine their clients outside of TC and then attend games later. That is IF they have not given the tickets to employees that don't care to attend. Those lower bowls will look empty until TC can figure out how to move the corporate accounts up to the suites or change the lowest level suites to regular seating

 

i dont know if that would work. houston is so big and spread out. we do have a rail system and that helps a bit. I wouldn't say its faster to get there but its cheaper than finding a parking spot near TC.

 

Houston is too spread out to have any sort of mass transit system that would be cost efficient. Maybe, once some of these outlying areas start to grow enough we could see a light rail project but it would take several counties to come to an agreement because not everyone lives in Harris county. We currently have a rail system but it only connects downtown to the medical center. Personally, I long for the day when we no longer have to drive on I-10/I-45/610 loop, etc because these freeways suck ******* and always have.

Some of Houston's most affluent areas are nowhere close to the arena, and this is certainly a problem both for the Rockets and the Astros.

 

Unless you work downtown 7 is not a routine time to make if you get off at 5.

I have to brave 290 to get to Toyota Center and even inbound usually sucks from 5 to 7. Swinging by my apartment to shower or get something to eat is a no go. So I usually stick to weekend games.

 

start time doesn't matter. the only thing that matters is that the great fans(way more of them) are priced out of the lower bowl. that's why the upper bowl is usually full. if those folks could afford it they would fill the lower bowl too but they can't. so instead we get to see row upon row of empty corporate season ticket holders who rarely show.

 

The Summit had true energy

 

Yep, it was a noisy arena even if it wasn't sold out. TC has been a mortuary in comparison. The loudest TC has ever been was during the Rockets 22 game winning streak, and that was the only time it rivaled the Summit.

 

I try to shoot for 3, that's a reasonable time, and it's just more efficient.

 

Where is Stephen Silas? Where is that man

 

This is true.

Houston is also missing being surrounded by people from Connecticut, New Jersey, Upstate NY and Long Island. That's not a bad trade-off.

 

While all the traffic and start time problems have some merit, it's the empty lower bowl that is the problem. It looks and feels dead to start the games. It isn't an excuse for playing poorly, but it certainly isn't helping them play any better.