Ever since they decided to build a bar and grill, the crowds have gotten softer and softer. On the other hand, it attracts a lot of hotties in night out clothing. So that's always good.
Houston fans suck period. We're front runners when it comes to buying a ticket to the game. Take a look at the Astros. When we were legit contenders, we were packing Minute Maid Park 85% or more on a consistent basis. After they lost Clemens, Pettitte, Bagwell, Biggio, etc. we began to see a decline in attendance. After the 2006 season, there was a huge drop and there's been a drop every season since to the extent that the owner is selling the team. It's not so much that the Rockets have bad fans, its just Houston is a poor sports city for attending games. If our teams aren't doing well, no one is going to cough up the money for a ticket, parking, the far drive to downtown during rush hour traffic, the expensive beer, etc. The only reason the Texans sell out every game is because they only play 8 games at home! Let's see what the Texans would draw if they had 41 home games or 81 home games like the Rockets and Astros do. You think people would fill up the seats on a regular basis for that terrible football team? I dont think so. Basically, if you want to see a packed Toyota Center or Minute Maid Park, we need to acquire some big names and get back in serious title contention.
He has a good point. We should draw better than those teams listed. Especially now with e recent surge. Fact is, Houston is a bandwagon city when it comes to basketball. This is a football town. Plus we don't have any players right now that fans ate clamoring to come see. I honestly think the team alone is good enough to come see.
I don't believe attendance figures are affected by those corporate types that people love to hate because their tickets are already bought and included in the attendance totals. Whether they come or not, it doesn't matter - they're counted because the corporations have already bought their tickets. As for the Summit, if they ever sold out that arena, it was maybe the year or two after the '86 championship run. Even with Hakeem and Ralph, early on, I don't think they came close to selling out the Summit regularly.
I think your lying, There is no way you can go from the upper deck to lower bowel. They have ushers at all entrance. No way.
Houston fanbase is a fickle bunch. While on one side no worse than any other fanbase. They like winners. They dont reward sports teams for mediocrity. On the Texans as your case? Well let Kubiak be mediocre for one more season and see how it turns out for the Texans soon. They are still riding the honeymoon period of having football in town and everyone being happ to just have a team. Continue to be mediocre? Fans will start to not show up. Rockets have higher standards. So obviously if we are not competing for playoffs and championships then fans stop coming.
Normally I would agree with the OP, but when almost the entire roster has been turned over in just a few years, and the front office is constantly talking about everyone being expendable, they're basically giving you reasons not to support the current team. If they're actively trying to move everyone on the team, why should I pay money to watch these guys? Just like DoD's sig, who wants to go watch a bunch of assets play? Why anyone would buy the jersey of a Rocket player at this point is a mystery to me. At least the FO is honest about it, but they shouldn't be surprised when people don't want to pay to watch their 'team'.
While I agree with your premise there is a fundamental flaw in it. Yes that is true he would trade anyone and thinks of players as assets. We also need moves to get better than we currently are. So that kind of flies against your logic that Morey should do nothing. If we wnt to continue to get better than we were the last few years. Which we are. We are an above 500 team which we were not before the trades and the year before. So While I do agree for now Moreys strategy of assets makes this team of players a bunch hard to get attached to at the short time moment. Its because long term when you reach his plan it will become more stable when have the roster that is competing. So I do agree with Morey as long as that is where it is headed.
I have always said, the Rockets strategy for selling lower bowl and luxury boxes should be the same as what NFL teams do. If you want to maximum the value of you Luxury Boxes, you must limit lower bowl accounts to 4 adjacent tickets. Those who want more than 4 tickets are corporations, and they should call the damn Luxury Box account managers. Since the Rockets did not do this, all the corporate accounts wanting 8+ tickets renewed from Compaq, bought cheaper seats in the lower bowl and so did not buy the luxury box. This completely hinders family purchasing and the two buddies who want lower bowl. Plus, all the companies who can afford Luxury Boxes won't need to buy them. So, what did we end up with? Only half the luxury boxes are sold and no one shows up for the lower bowl. What infuriates me about this is two fold: (1) we have the 5th most expensive lower bowl in the league (thank you Yao), and (2) why the HELL do we need two levels of luxury boxes (pushing the upper bowl up another 20 feet), when we can only sell half of them....in a freaking football town. grrrr
the rockets ticket sales people are sad middle school educated idiots.Ticket sales manager gretchen is so dumb - she couldn't pour piss out of a boot even if the instructions were written on the heel. It's bad and sadly les probably doesn't even know. It's what happens when the lowest form can continue to be around.
Where is the stat for NBA costs of lower bowl seats? I guess the upper bowl is the thing that gets the Rockets so low in average seat costs? i think they are 20th in the NBA in that.
Dude, there are probably 100 ushers working the lower bowl at any given time, and it's not hard to find one that's busy, disintersted, or just looking the other way. If you get turned away by one usher, just walk down a few rows and try again. It helps it you're dressed like you can afford a front-row ticket, but believe me, these folks are not as invested as you might think in keeping the plebes out of the money seats. I justify it by telling myself that I bought a perfectly good ticket (in the upper bowl) and am just taking advantage of a seat that somebody (foolishly) decided wasn't worth their time. I've also spent about a trillion dollars on Bud Light at Toyota Center over the years, so they're definitely making a profit off my ass. It's obviously trickier when, say, the Heat are in town. It takes a little balls to "act as-if." But most games, there are plenty of very nice empty seats just going to waste. I highly recommend filling one.
First off, you should be looking at % attendance, not number of people. If you look at that, Rockets are 16th. The only teams ahead of us that shouldn't be are the Clippers, Warriors, and Cavaliers (self-explanatory for Clips and Cavs). Honestly, 90% attendance isn't bad for a .500 team. Even if you look at two years ago, we had 97% attendance and were still 15th in the league!
though I didn't buy everyone ticket, but at least I bought 3 Rockets tickets for you, but do you ever buy me even once ??
Yeah, the Rockets have the 5th most expensive seats -- face value....not counting courtside or luxury box. By every measure, our Lower Box is 5th most expensive. Yeah, it's a stat. Actually, I might be out of date on that stat -- as Les might have put a hold on price increases during Yao's injuries the last two seasons. But it was true for all the rest of Yao's career in Toyota Center...partly because new stadiums usually have higher prices, anyhow. The upper bowl prices actually went down from Compaq to Toyota, because the two tiers of Luxury Boxes pushed us 30 ft up and 20 ft back. They were significantly worse seats than Compaq, and so they dropped the price of best upper bowl by $5 and froze them...I believe. I had 2nd row center in upper bowl over 10 years, spanning both stadiums. Those are the best seats in the upper bowl (1st row has the glass or a bar in your way.)
According to yahoo we are Tied for best fans in the NBA... Can't provide link now cause I'm on my phone
Actually it is a lot better than before. I used to see people leave 5 minutes before the game is over. Now they only leave 30 seconds before the game is over. Me? I always wait for the 13 points in 33 seconds to happen again. Martin scored 8 points in 23 seconds tonight. That is close.:grin:
I agree with the title. We kinda do. I mean just LOOK at the quality of the threads in the GARM. WTF is happening to our fan base???
