People suck at driving in Houston. We made it from the southwest side of Houston to the Toyota Center in 35 minutes. That's pretty good considering rush hour. People don't use alternatives when trying to get to their destination and that ends up not saving them time. The roadways would be a lot better if people were just a bit smarter about using alternatives. The whole lower bowl was late arriving for sure tonight. The upper deck was pretty good as it normally is.
I was at the game and so embarassed the empty lower seats were being broadcasted on TNT. The upperbowl got packed early because they were REAL fans. Les has to re-think the corporate business seat model **** he has going because it's reflecting badly on the fanbase.
https://www.espn.com/nba/attendance NBA Attendance Report - 2017 Season: 2017 Attendance Home RK TEAM GMS TOTAL AVG PCT 1 Bulls 18 388,927 21,607 103.3 2 Mavericks 17 333,498 19,617 102.2 3 Kings 15 264,120 17,608 100.6 4 Raptors 17 337,850 19,873 100.4 5 Heat 18 353,633 19,646 100.2 6 Cavaliers 21 431,802 20,562 100.0 7. Warriors 18 352,728 19,596 100.0 8. Clippers 19 362,319 19,069 100.0 9. NY Knicks 18 356,616 19,812 100.0 10. Thunder 19 345,857 18,203 100.0 11 Trail Blazers 16 310,886 19,430 99.9 12 Lakers 18 340,657 18,925 99.3 13 Spurs 16 294,895 18,430 99.2 14 Celtics 15 276,902 18,460 99.1 15 Jazz 19 371,061 19,529 98.1 16 Magic 19 337,637 17,770 94.3 17 Pelicans 21 333,976 15,903 92.5 18 Suns 16 271,609 16,975 92.1 19 Rockets 18 297,520 16,528 91.6 20 Pacers 19 315,297 16,594 91.4 21 Hornets 19 326,879 17,204 90.2 22 Grizzlies 20 323,215 16,160 89.2 23 Hawks 17 276,498 16,264 86.8 24 Nets 16 246,947 15,434 85.3 25 76ers 20 333,704 16,685 82.1 26 Bucks 18 276,217 15,345 82.0 27 Wizards 19 289,810 15,253 75.2 28 Timberwolves 18 253,003 14,055 72.6 29 Nuggets 18 243,173 13,509 70.5 30 Pistons 19 290,576 15,293 69.3 NBA Attendance Report - 2017 Season: 2017 Attendance Road GMS AVG PCT 1 Warriors 18 18,850 99.2 2 Cavaliers 13 19,005 96.5 3 Mavericks 19 18,131 95.2 Lakers 20 17,941 95.2 5 Raptors 18 18,128 95.0 6 Clippers 19 17,814 94.6 7 Spurs 20 17,969 94.5 8 Thunder 18 18,062 94.5 9 Pelicans 16 17,752 94.1 10 Bulls 18 18,021 93.6 11. Wizards 15 17,799 93.6 12 Timberwolves 17 17,610 93.5 13 Rockets 19 17,933 93.2 14 NY Knicks 17 17,874 92.6 15 Hawks 19 17,724 92.0 16. Nets 18 17,601 92.0 17. Suns 21 17,538 92.0 18 Trail Blazers 21 17,343 91.9 19 Celtics 20 17,597 91.3 20 Grizzlies 18 17,617 91.2 21 Pistons 19 17,478 90.9 22 Heat 19 17,466 90.7 23 Pacers 18 17,752 90.5 24 Jazz 18 17,142 89.8 25 Hornets 18 17,164 89 26 Bucks 16 17,649 88.9 27. Kings 20 17,016 88.9 28 Nuggets 18 16,794 87.0 29 Magic 18 16,539 84.2 30 76ers 13 15,421 81.6
Outside of clutchfans, Houston is not a basketball town. Hard to believe we are so low - Dallas sucks and they are above us, and Spurs have a much smaller population to pull from. I wonder if a team has ever been 28-9 or better and ranked worse
This is definitely true. Saw this while I was in the club section from last night's game. Seems like the nature of the people that are in the club section, it's a little more casual fans compared to the other sections. You can even tell they aren't as loud.
The other issue is that the club is walled off. In the old Summit, even if the lower bowl wasn't sold out, it would fill in during the game by people changing seats. Due to the club, that is prevented, so you don't get people coming down to fill in.
The Spurs are an unfair comparison. Setting aside how good they've been for over a quarter century(save for the Duncan tanking season), there's nothing else in that town. And BTW, I've seen plenty of home games of theirs where the lower bowl is half full at tipoff.
I don't think thats the case, at least not with me. Basketball is the only sport I would rather attend than watch on tv
Take Louisiana exit and then find your way to your parking space near the Toyota Center. Even having to deal with signal lights, you'll end up getting near Polk faster than if you did via Polk exit. It's not a huge shortcut when there's traffic, but it'll save you some time.
I'm not talking about filling seats but people going to the game - turnstile counts. That's what these attendance number measure. And we have always been incredibly low no matter the season. I remember going to Rockets games in the mid-80's and seeing how low we ranked in attendance where even crappy teams got better attendance. Back then it was because the Summit sucks, Houstonians are as rich as other people, or the team doesn't have as much history, etc etc etc etc. No, it's not the stadium, it's not the parking, it's not the drive, it's not the population, it's not the ticket prices or the incomes, it's not the corporations buying all the tickets - it's the fans. I don't knock anyone on Clutchfans - you guys are amazing fans. I'm talking about the city of Houston as a whole. It's not just the Rockets, the Astros lagged in attendance as well. Houston is a football town. SA is a basketball town (yes because they only have one team). Dallas is an everything town. Houston is football. That's what people care about. The Rockets have had so many awesome players, 2 championships, and a relatively new arena - they just aren't a basketball town. I am sure if we keep winning the fans will follow but that's the point. There's a ton of losing teams with better attendance - I mean what the heck?
I don't think the start time is the problem. Same happened when games started at 7:30. Those club seats are hanging in the club, until later in the game regardless of start time. The ticket prices are too high for fans (but not too high for ticket holders that can tax deduct them) and the upper level seems to have more in their seats at game start. What I want is a more vocal fan voice during the game, make noise! Even in 3rd quarter when most have found their seats, the place seems to be filled with clients that want to be dignified and not stand or yell. If you know the family section, you can tell they don't even stand up or get loud for team. The Rowdies do a great job trying to get the place noisy, but only works when it's a premium game or a close down to the wire ending. Guess fan base will get better after football season.
The Rockets should start their games at 7:30, instead of the absurd starting time of 7pm. Give people enough time to get to the games after work. It might even help fill the lower bowl a reasonable amount before the games start. The 7pm starting time is simply stupid. Mr. Alexander needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
I know some people that have season tickets and would only go to 1/3 of the game and doesn't even give away or sell the tickets
When it comes to this years Rockets- the action doesn't really start until the 4th quarter anyhow when their 15 point lead goes down to 4
