He'll never sell. The only people Tilman is ever passing this team to is his sons. He's also acknowledged this on several occasions. And being a local family, they'll never let this team leave Texas even if they continue to ruin the franchise like they have for the past 2.5 years and counting.
If you followed the team to Seattle/Vegas, you'd still be rooting for a different team. I pretty much feel like the fanbase doesn't deserve these teams anyways. Houston fans are the most disloyal, spoiled fans in the league. I have no idea where it comes from. The Rockets should be a team supported by diehard cult fans who just don't quit supporting it. I'm sure Tillman thought that the team operated in that way. Then he probably saw the operation numbers and got shocked at how unsupportive the city and the fans are. We can all predict that all mainstream media hates the Rockets, that can't be news to anyone by now. But the lack of financial support from a fanbase or the city is a problem you can't easily solve. O&G is a dying sector now and nobody is buying club seats and season tickets for entertaining like they used to. So there's that factor. It could be worse, I guess. I remember seeing Phoenix Suns being this way, also asking the city council to bail them out from financial problems... This is a super low bar.
I may watch occasional games. Might adopt a team that has some Texas players or something. But I would never watch religiously if Rockets left Houston. I don’t even think championships, banners, jerseys etc should transfer with teams. It may be the same legal entity but if you move cities, it’s a new team and a new org in my view. I especially hate teams that keep names that clearly are associated with the original city. There is only 10 black people in Utah. You know damn well nobody listen to Jazz there!
Having grown up in the desert I might go back to being a Suns fan, but I kinda grew out of that after the Barkley trade in '92- and in-law pressure from living in HOU to pull for the Rox ultimately prevailed. Would be more likely that I'd stay regional and start following the Spurs- that's a well-run organization, and it's the only game in town. That pretty well guarantees a loyal following.
Haven't lived in Houston since 91, so it wouldn't effect me. Would just watch them when they come to San Antonio or Dallas.
Since I live an hour south of Seattle, I'd be one of the few CFs who'd get season tix. And Seattle deserves an NBA team after the Sonics were blatantly stolen with David Stern's complicity. That said, it just wouldn't feel right to me.
way too many people in this city who don’t even pay attention to the team until playoffs...so many casual fan tendencies in Houston, and the level of bandwagon is off the charts people out here dropping their fandom for GS or LA when Bron went there with no hesitation...it’s gross put these teams we had the last few years in some other NBA cities and it would be raucous and booming at every home game u really don’t see the Rockets getting repped like that throughout the city...let the Texans go on a 2 game win streak tho, and everybody will be wearing Texans gear while grocery shopping at HEB on Sunday
I never understood how the Harden-led teams routinely won 50 games and always made playoff runs, yet struggled with attendance. Even during marquee matchups I would see a bunch of empty seats, in addition to the lower bowl section. The Yao/McGrady/Brooks/Battier/Scola teams accomplished far less than the Harden teams, yet at least from what I remember, games were always packed back then. It clearly seemed like Houstonians grew tired of the Harden era.
Brokeman and broke jr will never sell the team. He has no reason to sell. Its the only thing that he is relevant for and most fans are content with him as owner. From here on out he will likely continue churning out low effort low salary rosters year after year with the easy excuse that we are still rebuilding
TC sucked a lot back in the T-Mac-Yao days too...it was always being complained about the only time I really remember it truly rocking were during the 22 game win streak and the 09 playoffs...I went to the games we had against the Hornets and Lakers during that streak, and TC has never been like that during a regular season game since the energy wasn’t bad Dwight’s 1st year here, and it was cool for some big games in general during the Harden era, but for the most part, TC’s atmosphere is just disappointing we seem to get the support and energy of some 35 win team with no star
If they move, that's it. I don't even live in Houston anymore, but my ties are to the team & city combo. Unless there was a particular player I was really tied to, my fandom would die with the city change. I mean how many Oilers fans root for the Titans?
Tilman isn't the best owner .. but he's what we got. I'm ok with Tilman doing what he does, because I know the line of succession goes to Patrick. And Patrick is lowkey putting in some work in the front office. He is the anti Cal McNair. Place your faith in Stone and Patrick.