Attendance always seems to be fairly low to these rockets games at least from my perspective watching them on TV. Also for the people who are saying its too expensive can't you just go get cheap tickets for like 10-20 bucks ? If that is still too expensive then i guess the times are really bad.
Beat me to it. Not only are the Spurs a perennial contender, but their largest competition for market share in sports are the UTSA Roadrunners. On top of that, the lockout and this condensed schedule has interest at a low. Rightfully so too. I'm more interested in college basketball than the pros this year for the first time in my life.
Yeah, but the $30 tickets suck. You get a better view from the TV. Sure it's live, but it's lame paying $30 per ticket just to watch the Jumbotron.
All of the pro-tanking fans are either avoiding the games, or if they go, they are careful to be quiet so as to not inspire the team.
I ended up going to the lower bowl in 102. Big mistake. We sat in front of some kids. The Scola buddies or whatever it's called. You've seen those shirts. Those kids kept kicking my chair and ****. So I stood up for like five or ten minutes to block their view. I got into it with their mother. I was going to tell her ass to parent all 12 of her kids. I don't think it's all the same kids thank goodness.
Sheesh, I knew it was bad, but fifth worst in the whole league over a whole decade? Embarrassing. I agree with what one poster said though: the team is bad, the coach inspires no hope or optimism and the future looks very bleak considering the talent level on the roster and who's running the show. And it doesn't help the home base is the epitome of a fair-weathered sports city.
5th worst isn't that bad when you consider the Rockets didn't make it to the conference finals once in those 10 seasons. Something else to consider is the Rockets only made the playoffs 5/10 times and they were bounced out of the first round four times in a row. The first time we made the playoffs in that span our coach accused the league of having a hand in the officiating...and the last time our second star player was injured into retirement.
I'm not buying it. There's no excuse for teams like Toronto, Washington, Philly, Minnesota, Milwaukee, the Clippers to all have significantly better attendance.
The entire state of Texas generally has pretty terrible sports fans, with some exceptions here and there. Houston IS, however, among the worse examples I think. It's really sad how little support our fans give our teams, even though they're pretty solid, and those guys are clearly playing their hearts out at home every chance they get. However, when the team is winning, they get pretty decent support. I remember The Summit was pretty ridiculous during the primetime Hakeem years, even though it only had a capacity of like 16K... Then again, most cities support their team when they're winning. On the rare occasion that I get to go to a game (since I'm in Dallas), though, my throat is usually in pain by halftime, heh.
You can't just stop going because the team aren't winning conference championships. Thats called being a fair-weather fan. To enjoy the good times you have to sit through the bad. I've never been to see the Rockets as i live in England, but I am planning to come over for a few games in the 50th Anniversary year.
The front office is more terrible than any Houston fan including texans,Astros, and rockets. Either there cheap,racist,favoritism or just dumbasses.
Toronto received a first pick. They are pretty much all of Canada's team. Washington had a star player in Arenas (and a little-big 3 with Butler and Jamison), got a 1st pick in Wall, and they continually made the playoffs. Philly has Iguadola to put on a show every night. Before that they had Iverson. They've made the playoffs 8 times between 1999-2009, three of which they went to the ECF, and once to the semifinals. Minnesota has the self proclaimed best PF in the league, a recent second pick along with Rubio and some other early picks, and before that they had KG. They made it to the playoffs 6 times in that period one of which they lost in the WCF to the Lakers. The Bucks have a 1st pick in the Australian big man. They also have Jennings. They had Michael Redd, and Ray Allen before that. They made the playoffs 6 times, and once to the ECF. LA is basketball city. The Clippers had many 1st round picks including Blake Griffin. They also landed Gordon, CP3, Butler, Jordan (dunks sell tickets), and Kaman. Sure they only made it to the conference semis once, but they always have high draft picks and hope of becoming better next year based on that. The fans watch the Lakers for winning, and the Clippers for hope and entertainment. The Rockets did not make it to the WC SEMIS in that span, their stars are always injured and/or faded away with nothing in return. They only had one high first pick who did not take the Rockets anywhere and already retired (I don't blame Yao). We have no star players, or consistent high fliers (the verdict is still out on Parsons). We have four major sports teams and not one of them brought a championship to Houston in the last 17 years. If you still don't buy it I don't care. Fair-weather fans are what sell out games. The only way to bring fair-weather fans to sporting venues is to have their local team winning games, making the playoffs, or having a history of making playoff runs.
If you look on stubhub or flashseats you can get tickets as cheap as 2 bucks, and Rockets are pretty much giving tickets away this yr if you are on facebook or twitter with them, so its not as expensive as people think.
Ppl spent all the money on Texans games. Win & the fans show up. Plain & simple. I honestly just never have a chance to get out there because of my schedule, weekend game are good for me but like a few posters said .... the atmosphere at the game is just depressing. Ppl look at you crazy if you are cheering too loud. We need a superstar player. Gasol & Nene def wouldn't have brought ppl to their seats.
Wow, are you serious with this? Are you trying to say that Gilbert Arenas, Kevin Love (who has never had a remotely successful season team-wise), Andrew Bogut, and and freaking Andre Igoudala have more ticket-selling power than TRACY MCGRADY, STEVE FRANCIS, AND YAO MING!??? And you realize that the Clippers only JUST got Paul and Griffin, right? My god dude, take the blinders off. You don't have a leg to stand on here. I don't know why you're in denial about this, anyways. Does it offend you that your city has terrible fans? Or are you trying to justify being a terrible fan? I love the Rockets as much as anybody, but you have to face it: they have completely terrible fans. Some great diehards, but way too many fair-weather/bandwagon fans.
Just ranking by attendance doesn't seem right, because not all the stadiums have the same capacity. The Toyota Center, I believe, is the third smallest in terms of capacity right now. A better ranking would be what percentage of the seats were filled. Of course, even by that we'd probably rank towards the bottom because of all the no-shows in the lower bowl seating.
