Then if they dont check in they get credit for their seat back at the end of the season. Problem solved. The season ticket seats are where the problem is.
The question i have is... Do other teams sell lower bowl seats primarily or mostly to corporate folks? I wonder how the Rockets approach this compared to other teams. I would really really love a breakdown and comparison of each team and how every seat in the building is accounted for. That's something Darren Rovell or a major magazine with sources would have to do. It's hard to compare to cities and teams where basketball is everything or all they have like S.A, OKC, even Golden state
Tonight was the loudest I've heard it in there this season actually, I was in the lowers and people were really excited after every make, wherever players flopped they would booo real Loud at the refs, when players hustled it was loud, when bev checked out he got a standing ovation actually People are always late because of traffic & there were two wrecks on 610 today, and the game actually started right at 7 I guess because of TNT it usually starts at 7:10-7:15 Op where you at the game or watching on TV ?
Rockets already have that for season ticket holders, we can miss up to 5 games that we can get credit for other games towards the end of the season, they understand things come up and we can't make every game, don't worry when playoffs come around it won't be a single seat open just like OKC last year.
another problem is the pr group the rockets have as an organization. i hate comparing the rockets to any team especially the team up hwy 45 but they do such a better job of getting the crowd involved. every rockets game ive been up to up there, theyre always handing out some kind of a promotional noise maker, be it thunder sticks or those plastic hand clappers. all that assists in crowd noise with minimum effort from the lame fans that attend. rockets need to take notes in the crowd-pumping-up-noise dept. they also have that annoying announcer on the mic that sits at the scorer's table and get every chant started.
The whole lower-bowl-fully-occupied-by-corporate-types is a complete myth. There are always lower bowl seats available. Yes, they are expensive -- but so are lower bowl seats at AT&T Center, and Chesapeake Energy Arena, and Oracle Arena. If you want a more hype atmosphere, buy more tickets. Go to more games, and get hype. *shrug* But traffic and parking are major issues I don't think can be discounted. I went to the Rox/Warriors game in Oakland back in December, and parking was easy breezy. My friend has season tix, and there's a parking lot just steps away from the arena, plus a quick valet option. With Rockets season tix, while I know I have a guaranteed spot in the Tundra garage, I also know it's going to take me 30+ minutes to get out of there after the game -- not counting how long it's going to take to navigate street traffic once I finally make it out of the garage. Definitely an issue.
Cities like OKC and San Antonio only have 1 pro sports team. So their fans are going to be die-hard. And the Bay Area is known for having crazy fans... so that isn't surprising.
Get a team that actually makes a real deep playoff run (or two), and you'll see some louder cheering. Rockets couldn't even sell out playoff games during the first chamipionship run... as a #2 seed that had the regular season MVP (which technically made them the 1 seed since Seattle was beaten in the first round)... coming off a season the previous year where they were the #2 seed, won 50+ games and had the MVP runner up. After the title runs, Rockets had total sellout a with rabid fans till 1999 (a good 4 years). That was the best solution to getting die hard fans at the game. I'm actually impressed that they're doing as well as they are, attendance wise. The team has literally not sniffed a championship in nearly 20 years, in a league where more teams make the playoffs vs. those who don't.
The company I work for is listed there, and they don't buy any tickets. I've asked everyone everywhere, but they don't have any. Sucks... Anyway, yeah, the crowd sucks. Maybe they could discount ~10 seats in each lower bowl section and only make those tickets available to people who answer questions about the Rockets or basketball in general. Or people who write an essay on why they deserve to be able to buy these tickets. They'd be nonrefundable and nontransferable. If a day (or week?) before the game, the tickets had not been purchased by someone in this select group, then they'd be released into the regular ticket pool. The select group could have people added to or taken away from at the Rockets discretion.
The real problem is more than half the fans can't watch the team on television unless they use illegal streaming or it happens to be a nationally televised game. It is much harder to get behind a team you can't watch regularly. Once the CSN debacle is over(if the nightmare will ever end??) and everyone can watch the games, excitement will pick up and so will the energy in the Toyota Center.
Most teams have this problem, it isn't just the Rockets. Some cities do have great crowds (Oakland,Chicago and most of the northeast) but most other fanbases are fairweather passionate. Trust me if the Spurs and Mavs start losing they will be just like us.
I hear you....literally everytime im at the game i leave with a raspy voice and everyone else just looks like.. Spoiler
i've sat in the lower bowl for a few games this season and quite honestly it was sad. sections 119-121 are empty through most of the first quarter and during the first laker game i felt like the laker fans were louder than any rockets fan.
ive had a guy turnaround and tell me to keep it down bc his wife (who was sitting next to him) was getting a headache, I just looked him like are you kidding me! And then they kept looking at me everytime I cheered, which only made me want to cheer louder
that could just mean they are used to the rims at toyota center, play better when sleeping on their own beds, are used to the shooting view at home it is less hostile at home vs the road for them .all those reasons can make the diff of 3 losses... really if you are only 3 losses better at home its not really a home court advantage
This team doesn't have problems winning because of the crowd. They have probelems winning because of effort and coaching.
