This is my first post to this site, but I have been checking out the articles and game summarys (much better than anywhere else) for about three years now. I just couldnt help wanting to rant about the terrible fan and media support of the rockets this year. It sounds to me like people are just a little whiney after losing Hakeem to the Raptors. Dale Robertsons column in the Chronicle is my case in point. All he did was p*ss and moan about how bad he thinks the Rockets are, even though when I heard the game on the radio last night, it sounded like we did win the game! With the amount of people at the game (9500) it sounds like he isnt the only one with a bad case of loneliness for the Dream. Shoot, I wish Dream was still here too, but would he make us a better team? NO! We've sucked the past few years even with the big guy, and pardon my saying so, but I think this is the best team we have had since 1997, and I think we have an excellent chance of making the playoffs this year, despite the local Houston medias best efforts to prove otherwise. So my question is what's the deal? Does Houston just not like Francis? Are they sore about losing Dream? Or are they just buying into the media hype that says the Rockets stink?
Dude, relax. The team will bring in fans as they play better. Oh, and this thing called the World Series was on last night. By the way, if you havent heard, NBA tickets are really expensive, and we may be in this thing called a RECESSION, so people aren't running out to buy a $46 ticket to sit in nosebleed seats (where I was last night). Give the fans some time to rediscover the team, get a little consumer confidence, and get over baseball. As far as the Chron writers....I cant defend em. They irritate me too. But I had a blast watching the team and I have to admit that I took advantage of the corporate vacancies and moved down to the 3rd row in the 2nd period. Nice game Cato.
I live in Houston now, and I've been a huge fan of the team for years, but I did not go to the game last night. Instead I watched it on a big screen TV and flipped to the Wizards game and the World Series during commercials. For several years I was only able to listen to games on internet radio and catch the few national broadcasts on TV. Last year I bought league pass in October, and ended up moving to Houston before the season started. I went to 5 games last year, and I hope to see at least that many in person again this year. But to be honest, I enjoy watching the games at home quite a bit, since I can watch the game, sneak into the chat room, check fantasy stats, etc. The only tickets I can afford are the $10 ones, and when I go to the game I yell and scream and get tons of strange looks from the people around me. I do agree that the Rockets crowds are really lifeless, and it's really bad on the first level. Once in a while I get lucky and get invited to a game and get good seats, and then I feel like I can be heard much better than the $10 seats. I think if the tickets were about 20-30% less than they currently are I think you'd see a lot of sold out games. One of the things I've noticed about Houstonians is that we are a very thrifty group, and will not pay for things unless we think we are getting our money's worth. Being in Chicago for a year really opened my eyes to why Houston has such a poor attendence record. Chicago has a terrible team, but they still seem to get good attendence figures. I went to Steve's first game in Chicago, and it was a full house, even though the team stunk, and the Rockets weren't known as a team to go see at that point. (Barkley was already gone for the year, and I think Hakeem was hurt) On the whole I think Rockets fans are great, just that most of us can't make it to the games due to financial concerns, or our location (I'd guess that 80% of the people on this board live outside of Houston). I don't think any of this has to do with Dream being gone, or it does to a very small degree. I personally think the Rockets are much more entertaining to watch now, compared to the past 4 seasons. B
Do we need so many threads complaining about the fan support? We already know Houston fans are iffy. If Rockets start winning they will come. Personally I stopped caring about whether fans come to the game or not. I am going to try to be at every game cheering like a mad man.
The team will bring in fans as they play better. Oh, and this thing called the World Series was on last night. Strange that the Phoenix Suns managed to pull in 16,000 fans for their opening game. You'd think that they'd all be watching this thing called the World series. I guess there are a lot of Yankees and Diamondbacks fans here in Houston... By the way, if you havent heard, NBA tickets are really expensive, and we may be in this thing called a RECESSION, so people aren't running out to buy a $46 ticket to sit in nosebleed seats (where I was last night). There was a recent article that NBA tickets on average have actually decreased in price. This is one of the first times that one of the major sports leagues has actually had a decrease in ticket prices. There should be plenty of people out in Houston that can afford $10 tickets. Anyway, I think that Houston fans in general suck, and the media isn't helping things by constantly blasting the Rockets and making them out to be contenders for the first pick in the lottery.
Good question. This is worth thinking about cause I think it has alot to do with our city's identity at large. I mean, other cities have teams that are just pathetic compared to the Rockets, so why did we have the lowest attendence in the league. You can't say it's because of Dream's departure because he was with us, and you can't exactly pin it on not turning out exciting basketball because we were in the playoff hunt for a good part of the season last year. Even when the Astros were fighting for their lives at the end of the year, before they started their nose dive, there were empty seats at Enron. So why don't Houstonians support the local teams? Why is the city so apathetic about almost everything it seems except property taxes? Anyone So why don't Houstonians support their home teams?
By the way, out of curiosity, I thought I'd check out some Comets attendance figures. In their first home preseason game they drew 8,858 people, that's not too far off from the Rockets opening day number. Also for their season home opener, the Comets drew 16,285 people, according to wnba.com...
First, Houston is and for the most part, has always been a baseball and football town. Fans will flock year in and year out to see the Astros and the Oilers (when the were here) have good regular seasons only to screw it up in the playoffs everytime. Basketball, as hard as it is for some of us to believe, has always been the 3rd sport. The Rockets championship runs in the mid 90's changed that a bit - 5 straight sell out years - but when the team returned to mediocracy, so did their attendance levels. As the Rockets get better, they will come back, but not as fast as many here might predict. This worries me because I think Francis sees how fans in other cities appreciate their up and coming (heck, even their crappy) teams. Fortunately, those fans who do show up are generally die-hard like the folks on this board. Additionally, Houston has never been known for its great fan-support in any sport. Going to a game, even for $10 tickets, can be quite an ordeal for a lot of people. It is more than just hoping on the subway (as I can do here in Philadelphia) and going to the Compaq Center. For the most part Houston fans suck. But I've always been a big supporter of all our teams by going to as many games as possible.
I lived in Houston for 14 years and I am a diehard fan of the Rockets and Astros. It wasn't until I moved to NJ did I realize what a crappy sports town Houston is. I am not talking about the quality of the teams...Im talking about fan support. It has nothing to do with the World Series being on TV (the Cowboy-redskin game had higher ratings than a Yankees-As game 5 for God sakes), being early in the season or anything else you may want to blame it on. There is a reason that Houston lost the Oilers, almost lost the Astros and was also close to losing the Rockets. The fan support STINKS. The NY Jets and Giants (both of whom play their home games in NJ) are far from dynasties. Neither are the NY Rangers (hockey), or the Mets or Knicks. Needless to say, if you want tickets to see these teams, you had better have season tickets because there is a 20 yr waiting list for the Jets and Giants. The ENTIRE stadium/arena are all season tickets. There's a 10 yr or so list for the Knicks and Rangers(i believe it is about 90% season ticket holders). The Mets and Yankees (granted they ARE the Yankees and always win) are always about 75-80 % full. Not to mention that the ticket prices up here are far more ridiculous than they are down there. I mean, even a Tuesday night game against the Grizzlies is sold out with very few no-shows. What surprises me even more about Houston is that even the playoff games aren't sold out. Now granted, from what I understand, Enron got some decent attendance for the penant race (Im sure Barry Bonds had something to do with that) and playoff games ( I could be wrong) but to see the Compaq center with 8-10 thousand people on opening night is a joke. Check out Directv if you have it...or even TNT or TBS when there is a game in NY, Minny, Portland, or even Seattle and you'll see how pathetic our fan support is in comparison to other teams in the league.
First, the NBA is by far (not even close) most expensive season ticket there is. Not even counting per game, just total season invoice for your seats, view-for-view the Rockets are nearly 2 times more expense than the Astros. B, Les did not drop prices this year...he just froze prices for his FIRST time, but only for the $59 and below seats. He has averaged over 5% increase every year. over double inflation. If those god-awful 2-3 stories of luxury boxes coming our way (pushing the upper deck even higher) don't bring in enough extra revenue to get Les to seriously drop prices for "family seats," I'll be a pissed off customer. The lower level, prime seats better drop to the $60-70 price range to come in line with the Astros field box at $29 for twice the games. III: there are not too many $10 seats in the arena, only the worst ten sections about 4 rows only. That is roughly 500 total tickets. These seats sell out before any other section sells out in the upper deck. This is a marketing gimmick to fool you into believing the Rockets have cheap seats even though many games are sold out of $10, and most all at game time...and you are falling for it BGM. What we are really talking about is $13 tickets (which sell out next), then then $20 through $46 seats...all in the upper deck. Compare this to $29 prime field box at Enron. This marketing gimmick using $10 tickets as a lure, will get you to walk up to the ticket window and expect $10, but end up being told ony $26 tickets remain...and you will buy it. This has happened to nearly every person who I took to a game who did not buy ahead of time. Ask Nolen. Ask Behad....although I recall maybe behad bought a scalped one. I don't like to b**** about lack of fan support. All I ask is that fans sitting around me to allow me to cheer...our season ticket neighbors love it...but when we move down, sometimes they don't. jammie was actually told to stop cheering in the 4th quarter of the Indiana 3OT game by a guy in 5th row. Eventually, that guy had to stand up to see over everyone who was cheering....fan justice is sweet!
I think it has something to do with the spread out quality of the city and I'm not talking about folks being tired once they've made it out to the suburbs and not wanting to go back into the city. I think it has to with the size of the living room. In Houston, the living rooms are larger per capita then any other city in the country, a well known fact , and why go sit and scream with a bunch of strangers when you can spread it out at the homestead? It may also have something to do with the absence of Calvin Murphy's color commentary at the live event. Houstonians just aren't into rubbing elbows. That's why they moved to Houston to begin with, or why they stay, and thats why our fan support at the live events sucks! On the good side however. It seems that people are enjoying going to Enron however, and did even when the Astros were wretched last year. Maybe the same thing will happen with the new arena and the football stadium and in the next 5 years we'll be a city which goes to support its teams. Imagine if the Olympics did come to Houston, but nobody went.
You know, I don't think that it's beating a dead horse to have posts about the total lack of fan support at the games. I haven't been a member of this BBS for too long, and I haven't posted much, because pretty much EVERYTHING Rockets related gets talked about on here sooner or later. Eventually all angles are covered. I have lived in Houston all my life and I know just as well as any of you about the "what have you done for me lately" mentality of Houston fans. But, does that mean that we have to be complacent about it so that we don't burden someone on here with a post about how disappointed we are when we don't see fans in the seats? And a lot of the ones that ARE in the seats act like they couldn't care less about what's going on on the court. It's sad really. Why waste your time going to the game if you aren't going to get INTO the game? I wonder what would've happened if Rockets fans would've been complacent about the Arena issue? Thanks for letting me rant. The Rockets have some of the most knowledgeable fans anywhere. We are very fortunate to have such a great website to voice our opinions and thoughts.
I know just what you mean crispee! Last year I managed to get the only good seats possible for the spurs game(the one steve didn't play in ) which were the vips behind the spurs bench. Sweet seats, but me and my gal(who isn't a fan, but wanted to go just to 'go' ) ended up sitting next to some suits that didn't give a damn about the game and just talked to each other and on their cell phones! I was loud the whole game and all those pathetic excuses for fans just kept looking at me like I was nuts! I swear I was just waiting for one of them to say something and I would have shown how Severe I was ! Its these damn corporate losers and ticket companies that are ruining fan support...its pretty sad.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but $10 tickets have always been available. You cannot buy them as season tickets, either. Certainly, there was no decrease in price in *any* other section...I know that for a fact. And actually, the best seats did increase in price....these are always sold out buy season tickets holders.
What if they got Gene Peterson to do the play by play live in the Compaq center, over the P.A. system? His excitement alone would fire the people up, which should cause more people to want to go to the game (read, rich people wanting to be seen).
Sorry to point out the negative, Hottoddie , but wouldn't he reverb? A reverberating Gene Peterson is a painful thought. I can barely handle a vibrating Calvin Murphy.
I think the fans in the chat room are louder than the fans at the Summit, er...Compaq Center. I went to the game last night and the only time, I thought, that the fans really got into it, was when Mobley raised his arms up and basically TOLD everyone to make some noise and that was at the end of the game before OT. Hey... I was hollering for DEFENSE, whistling and cheering as loud as I could. My wife was embarrassed. I told her, "don't bring me next time!" I love to go to games by myself. Cause I don't care how loud or obnoxious I am. rH
Blah...I should have just stuck with my "well other nba arena's are selling out" argument. The freaking Cavs sold out their game for the Celtics on opening day. We did manage to outdraw the Nets though... Aren't hockey games the most expensive ticket out of the big 4 sports? Also doesn't it make sense for the Rockets package to be nearly 2 times as much as the Astros tickets since they have half as many games?
Wow. That is amazing. So we outdrew the only team that had the World Series to contend with and no Michael Jordan to make up for it. Not to mention half as many seats. It looks like the Rockets could be in for another lousy home record this year.
