that really doesnt help your argument much, considering we are the 5th best team in the west on national tv. im going to chalk this up to the late start time. i trust and have experienced the better crowds during the playoffs. but ya the crowd wasnt that great last night, me and 3 others were the only ones on our row...sec 120 row 18
i dunno bout you guys but theres no excuse for this. Houston is one of the largest cities in America. Houston is also one of the few teams that have won championships in the past 20 years. Even though the bulls haven't won much lately i'm sure they still have a strong following. The laker tickets are always sold out and San Antonio doesn't have a problem filling in their seats considering how boring their team is! hehe Anyways, we have 2 superstars on this team.... we are better then most teams in this league and we still have problems filling in the seats? Theres only 1 reason for this and they are the HOUSTONIANS!! It's an embarrasment when your coach and player have to pay for a bunch of seats just to get a bunch of fans in so theres a lil noise in the stadium? I don't see any other coach do that in this league! Not even in college or in europe do they have to do this!!!! Stop making excuse for them and just admit they suck! simple as that! before you guys get mad i'm a ex-houstonian and im proud of it!
Oh please, I went to watch the Rockets vs. Knicks at MSG. Obvious Rockets win of course, and paid $250 for a decent ticket. I didn't go home to change first, didn't even have dinner. Went their in work clothes by myself and plopped down and cheered for my team - the only chance I have to watch my team play each year. If I have to pay $250 to watch the Knicks play the Rockets in NYC, then none of the excuses work for Rockets fan not to go watch the Knicks play the Rockets in Houston. To those of you in Houston who go to at least a few games - inlcuding against the really crappy teams: I tip my hat to you. You are awesome fans and I envy you. I'd have a drink with you any day of the week. For those of you who make excuses - and wouldn't spend a few hundred bucks to even go see the Rockets play regardless of who the opponnent is - then you're just fair-weathered fans in my book.
i agree with you NEWYORKER. I live in california now and i still see the clippers vs rockets and the lakers vs rockets..... I sometimes pay a couple of hundred for tickets and sometimes i only pay 60 bucks for the nose bleeds. So there is no excuse for it. I probably see the rockets more time in person then the average houstonian! hehe j/k but seriously You guys in houston need to support our team! We are winning and we have a great chance to do something BIG this year!
Houston fans have always been fickle about their teams ~ win, play hard, be exciting - then fans will show up and be loud. The Rockets are winning, but the JVG offense is never going to really rev up the crowd. I remember Maxwell b****ing about the lack of fan support during the 94 run ~ this is nothing new.
I remember that too, after that, the fans showed up! and the rockets won the championship! thanks for your bravery Vernon, your rally cry sparked all of Sparta to rise against tryanny!
as for my 2 cents, I also blame the late start time and it was the Pacers, hell in comparison, 2 season ago, they played the Heat and started around the same time, hell it may have even been 9pm, but that place was packed, but then again ITS THE FREAKING HEAT. Pacers didn't have the same hype before the season started and well pretty much suck now. EVEN FIFTH GRADERS made it out to the game, granted they sang the national anthem, but were at least there until halftime, once the left, section 416 became an empty section.
I think the Rockets / Toyota Center deserve the crowd they get, it is fine. Neither here nor there. The Rockets may throw the non-uber wealthy a bone here and there, but the vibe is just sort of antiseptic. It's not really the team, it is the Total Rocket Experience. I blame the fans for precisely zero. You're shelling out massive caishe for a very modern and not-warm, non-historical, non-triumphant experience - nothing transcendent and exciting has happened there yet (other than McGrady's 13 in 35). The uniforms, the building, the experience - it does not conjure up "mayhem" in any way. It's got more Shandon Anderson-like mojo than it does Hakeem Olajuwon-like mojo. They have blanched out the spirit of the Summit many many times since then (uniforms, building change, ticket prices, uninspirational ball, mediocre community relations...) Yao is great, Tracy McGrady is great... but they have not done anything to rally a community yet, and they are battling some lean years and big changes. It's not like the old days.
the biggest reason there is nothing wrong with the rocket fans at toyota center.... because there are 15 other arenas just as subdued in the NBA.
They never really give the Rowdies and the fans a chance to get any real cheers going as they are always playing some dang music real loud for some entertainment like 8 year old girls dancing on the court during TO, gymnasts during TO, RPD's during TO - hey wait a minute - that's OK! Ball throws, tee shirt throws, etc etc etc. It is never quiet enough for the Rowdies to get the crowd excited and cheering. Because the "backup" cheer music is about 3X louder than the crowd. So which came first the apathetic crowd or the loud music to cover up the apathetic crowd. I find myself not bothering to cheer anymore because the PA system drowns me and the crowd out. But hey no-one can yell and JVG or the players and say something they don't want to hear..... Not like baseball or football at all.
As a fan that goes to a crapload of games every year, in the lower bowl, I'd also like to add that it is NOT a requirement, nor a necessity for being a good fan, to stand and cheer like a hooligan every second of every game. Not that the fans down there do this, but it is a common complaint on this BBS. Going to a Rockets - Pacers game is not the same as going to a UNC - Florida State, and a Rockets - Mavs game is not the same as a UNC - Duke game. Nor should it be. Nor should the players need it to be to gain any kind of advantage. I cheer like crazy at appropriate sections of the game, and more so during bigger games. But sometimes I sit down, sometimes I leave ealy even if the team is winning by only 10 points with under a minute left, etc. I have a job I have to go to the next day, I can't go back to my dorm room, take bong rips till 3 in the morning and blow off class the next day. Leaving with one minute left in a game the team is either guaranteed to win, or to lose in a most unbelievable, heart-crushing way (especially if against a less exciting opponent), in order to beat traffic doesn't make me a bad fan. HOWEVER, overall, the atmosphere at the Rockets games can still be improved for sure. But the Red Rowdies have helped a lot this year - I think it'd be great to have a competing rowdies section at the other end, also. And, having been to playoff games at the TC, and to playoff games at the Compaq Center (well, the Summit, I was fortunate enough to go to games 6 & 7 against the Knicks), I can say for certainty that the TC can be every bit as loud, exciting and crazy as any arena in the league. And playing the Jizzholes this year in the playoffs, you can be sure that it will be.
I don't think the energy will ever improve dramatically at the TC. Our biggest hurdle to energy is architectural; we have two huge freakin bars that one must walk through to get to the courtside lower bowl seats. They're exposed to the game, they've got great flatscreens, they're limited use only, and they're a great place to entertain and network for the large corporate crowd in the buidling. I hope other frachises entertaining the possibility of a similar feature in an arena think twice; it absolutley kills crowd energy (not mention making our attendance appear dismal on TV).
I think having a mediocre crowd or better yet a less enthusiastic crowd somehow favors the rockets. It gives our opposing team less motivation and energy when they come to the Toyota center. Look at the Staple center, and all the other hostile arena, where the opposing team is always at its best when playing home teams. But, i could be dead wrong because i haven't been to an nba game since Pauly Shore had a decent hit at the box office.
I have never seen a crowd as worst as Houston. Seriously, we have 2 superstars, Yao and T-Mac, it should be a sellout every game! Forget all that "Oh, we haven't won for a while, thats why the fans aren't all back yet.", because the Bulls continued to sell out even after the Jordan Era. Sure we have good crowds against the better teams, but against lesser teams, we have the crowd of a team thats headed for the lottery. Whoever does not think we have a crowd problem must be blind and deaf. There is a big reason by JVG bought tickets to create the Red Rowdies. Thats how bad it was in there last season, the coach actually had to take money from his own pocket to make the arena more lively. Honestly, if Yao and T-Mac played for any other team, they would sell out just about every game. Even if it was a lottery team because Yao/T-Mac can fill up seats like any other superstar.
The Summit. Houston vs the Lakers in the playoffs. Magic Johnson, James Worthy.. The Houston crowd with the "BEAT LA" signs yelling "BEAT LA BEAT LA!" Give the Rocket crowd a real game, then they will cheer.
Oh MAN nice call. When the Rockets took Game 4 against the Showtime Lakers (all healthy, in their primes by the way) in the Summit - I remember Allen Leavell came down with a rebound on an LA miss that sealed the game to put us up 3 -1 - it was total toal pandemonium. I mean total. Almost scary. I have never ever heard a noise that loud. There was no fake applause, no over the top announcer, no fancy 'game presentation' BS - just basketball mayhem and lunacy. Also, in 96 when we lost to Seattle in 4 - the end of game four, the weird comeback - that was insane.
