T-Mac was advertised as an injury prone loser with a lazy eye who never made it past the first round by the national media. Fair weather Rockets fans believed that. Yao Ming isn't flashy, he was more of a I gotta see this 7'6" Chinese basketball player live at least once. After he went down (this was after the T-Mac back injury) ticket sales plunged. Stevie only took the Rockets to the playoffs once and he was bounced out of the first round. Go check the ticket sales during 03-05 and get back to me with your apology.
The economy is bad excuse is 100% wrong: http://www.chron.com/business/article/Houston-economy-faster-growing-in-North-America-2591026.php Houston has always been a football town first then baseball and finally basketball(exceptions of course include when one team is doing better). However that does not excuse this pitiful attendance, come on Houston!
Excluding LA, America prefers: 1) Football 2) Baseball 3) Basket ball 4) Soccer 5) Hockey OT: The rest of the world prefers Soccer, and then basketball. Considering Houston is a major city with 5 national sports teams, the lack of attendance makes sense when the Rockets aren't winning. Especially since the Texans gave us a playoff victory the day after the Rockets got blown out by the Thunder.
This is the after effect of the lock out. The NFL ended their lock out much sooner, and their season was much more successful as a result. Also, Houston is a football town first and foremost. The Houston Texans are having a banner year. Ordinarily the Texans season has fizzled out by now, and the sports fans turn to the Rockets. Not so this year. Once the super bowl has been played and there is no other game in town, other than the astros, the Rockets fans will be back.
Well to be fair, IMO watching the game isn't as exciting as it used to be. All the rule changes, refs, and injustice done by sperm has turned me away from the league. My last year in Houston, I only went to a couple of games. Years before I'd often go and get all excited and even went to those useless open training days. Then things went south for me. I think in his attempt to further globalize and rake in fair weather fans, sperm alienated some of the die hard fans. But hey it brings in money, so I'm sure no one noticed.
Apathy is the worst case scenario, and that is what rockets fans has coming into this season. Consistent mediocrity, on a treadmill with no hope to compete for a title any time soon. Houston has always been a mediocre basketball town anyhow. Teams that don't win, or don't have immediate hope for winning, don't draw with only a few exceptions. Pistons attendance rank, fans bail quick 2003 1st 2004 1st 2005 1st 2006 1st 2007 2nd 2008 1st 2009 1st 2010 8th 2011 18th 2012 30th (dead last by a wide margin) If the rockets keep winning we'll creep up into that 15-20 range where we usually are. But we're a football town, sold out every texans game despite sucking for a decade. Fair weather in the other sports, like most towns.
Personally I can barely afford directv, without the sports packages. My wife works for a Toyota affiliated company. Occasionally some of the suits give her tickets and I get to go to the game. Good tickets too. The same happens with the Texans and the Astros. I have other priorities in my life: tithes & offerings at church, truck note, dog vet bills, Wifi, my own health bills, eating, etc. Let the big spenders with the big degrees, and comparable pay checks pay for the season tickets and keep the sports franchises happy. Me, I'm happy with the sports crumbs.
Economy has nothing to do with why I don't go. The team is average. I would keep going to the same average movie. Les wanted the stuffed suit coporate dollars, but when they give their tickets away or just no show, you see mt lower level seats.
what the org needs to do is initiatives during these games why not give better seats for dirt cheap...better something than nothing
Not complaining about the ticket prices, there are ways to get tickets on the cheap. However, I will complain about the price of Beer. 8 dollars a beer is just ridiculous, and there are few to no bars around the TC you can make a night out of going to. -One of the things Dallas did right was the location of the AAC. They made it right down the street from alot of the best bars and restaurants. So going to a Mavs game is just a part of "going out." Its a social thing, and the trendy botox and implant crowd fill the stands on a nightly basis. However, their crowd sucks even worse than the Toyota Center fans and some nights you could hear a pindrop because the crowd is soooo freakin lame. I would rather have 10 rowdies than 1,000 Dallas socialites. The problem with the Toyota Center is that its not located in one of the cool parts of Houston like the Heights, Midtown, etc. So when people go to the Rockets games, its really only because the Rockets are their main interest. There is only so many promotions that Les can throw out there to fill out the upper bowl. The only chance he has is to put a winning product out there on the floor and slowly but surely the fanbase will come in.
I doubt people care that the op thinks they are fair weather fans. Just start winning, they will come. DD
