Blame Les. All those lower bowl seats are sold to suits. I've always said you gotta move those seats to suite area if they don't wanna show up.
they wouldn't do that, it would be 8 or 830pm still. 7pm would be too early for the west coast viewers
I agree with everything you said, but... I use to be a season ticket holder at the Summit (upstairs in the corner) and at the Toyota Center (downstairs, further in the corner). When I sat upstairs I noticed that when the game got going, all the downstairs fans were on their feet, while the entire upstairs crowd stayed seated. I noticed because I am a stander. but sat to be polite to those around me/conformity/social pressure. When I had the downstairs seats I often looked upstairs and saw the same. Downstairs was on their feet and upstairs in their seats. So the narrative that the real fans are in the cheap seats does not resonate with my experience. And the bit about corporate seats also makes little sense to me. Am I going to be any less excited because somebody gave me great seats that I normally can't get than if I'm sitting in a cheap seat? Do we think the response to "I have a couple of company seats, want to go?" is "Do I have to" or "OK. but only if I get to sleep thur the first quarter!" All that said, the lower bowl does start out empty. But I also see that at a lot of other arenas. Even in the playoffs. And as a digression...Upper level seats at the Summit were closer to the court (and better) than my downstairs seats at TC.
On the bright side, watching it on tv I thought the red shirts acted as decent seat fillers. It didn’t look nearly as empty as it actually was. I also think the crowd is pretty legit once they get there.
For those who went, did you guys get to see this pre-game hype video with historical footage including coin toss for Sampson? Also, has the in-arena video changed, like give Harden a red eye and use footage from this series?
First year we had Dwight and beat the Mavericks in the playoffs I got killer seats to the closeout game at Toyota Center. (4th row) Basically, a friend of mine worked for a company who owned the tickets, and needed to find someone to take, so he just lied and said I was a client. We went bananas, and the guy sitting next to us was very cool and a season ticket holder, but most of the lower bowl was disappointing. Pretty crazy/crappy (but awesome for me) that the company didn't know what to do with these tickets, and that this situation exists at all.
I sold mine... dont be talking down on suits... I cheer harder than anyone there..when i am there lol