LOL, fine, The Summit it is! Is that what we'll call the new arena too? I'm not British or American, not living in a British country, or in America, not in a colony of either, so over here, it's centre or center, you can't go wrong! Wow, if we hit 15,000, that's just 1000 less than max capacity, which means we're going to sell out a lot of games? basically, any games against 6th+ seeds will be sold out right? Good job. The drop in ticket prices, the addition of a Euro, winning the #1 pick, putting up billboards, and a larger Chinese/asian fanbase due to Yao Ming will do that for ya!
Yeah I would bet that at least 15 games sell out next year. You know the Lakers, Kings, Spurs, Jazz (only because they're our rivals, not because they're good), Magic, Raptors, and some other teams will probably sell out no problem. Now games like the Grizzlies and Cavs may still get 10-11,000 like they used to.
Actually Rockets front office screwed the season ticketholders royally... They announced this price cut after season ticket holders paid in full theirs... Here is kicker some seats people paid 19.50 for went down to 13bucks AFTER they finished paying for their seats... can we say screwed.... Rockets have no comment
I was notified of the price drop before I paid for my tix. I was able to get the $34.50 tix for $20.00
Who is your season ticket rep? Mines Brandon Im too damn lazy MOSS.... He is about as worthless as hell, does not call ya back, makes promises he can't keep Knows jack about basketball and will even tell you he is a baseball fan.....why the hell they have this guy on the payroll still is anyones guess. Whos your Rep...I want him to handle my account from now on.
Well, we have to have corporate naming rights, it's de rigeur nowadays. If "The Summit" happens to be the name of a giant corporation on the brink of collapse, with HQ in Houston..."Enron" and "Compaq" have already been taken, of course.
MovieManiac, That's not our policy. Any season ticket holder who was in a seat that changed price gets the lower price. Even though we only announced the price change to the public last week, we made the decision to do it some time ago, before we issued renewal requests. All season ticket holders that were affected should have been notified at the time of their renewal. Please note that not all $19.50 seats changed price. Some became $13 seats, and some remained at $19.50. We also don't have a "no comment" attitude on issues like this. Our season ticket holders are very important to us. I've spoken to Mark Norelli, our VP of Ticket Sales. He's aware of your concern. You can call him direct at 713-963-7370. On a side note, I think Brandon does a great job here. If you have concerns or feedback, we'd like to hear it, because it's important that we provide the best service possible. But I'd appreciate it if feedback about specific individuals was sent via an e-mail and not published via a public forum. You can always e-mail me at timm@rocketball.com and either I or someone else (depending on the issue) will get back to you. Tim McDougall Vice President of Marketing Houston Rockets and Comets timm@rocketball.com
No big fuss, really. MovieManiac is a season ticket holder, and doesn't feel he was treated fairly. It's pretty important to me that we do right by him, so I wanted to clarify any confusion about ticket policies and give him a direct route to contact us and get his concerns resolved quickly. We're passionate about being a fan-oriented team (that was the reason we made changes to this year's ticket options), and MovieManiac is a fan. Put that together, and it means we want him to be happy. At the same time, I wanted to make sure that everybody else understands our ticket policy so there isn't any confusion. We have great fans, and it's great to hear the positive feedback so far. Tim McDougall Vice President of Marketing Houston Rockets and Comets timm@rocketball.com
Good job Rockets! This will get us poor diehards back into the arena. Not only will they sell more tickets, but having more cheap seats will defintely raise the excitement and noise level. We may even get the rich guys in the lower bowl to stand up and shout. I'd love to see the Rockets have the home-court edge we used to see in the Summit in the playoff years. I'll be there for this playof year to help make it happen!
Amen! Any noise in The Summit is welcome, I think it is one of the quietest arenas in the league at times. Most of the people in the lower deck act like they are at a funeral, and not a sporting event. Have you heard how loud it is when Mario introduces the starting 5? Its pathetic, I think Im the only one that stands in the building.
I have sent e-mail about specific individuals, and made phone calls, and have met them in person. I'd also like to repeat it one more time in a public forum, especially since you and Mark are now reading this. Shelita Young is an outstanding Acct Rep. She has frequently called me and come to my seats to make sure I was enjoying the season. While I do give her 100% credit for doing this, I'd also like to thank you in person Tim. There is no doubt in my mind that the Rockets, as an entertainment service, has improved greatly since your arrival. I do appreciate it. My partner and I spend nearly $150/gm (counting tickets) for all games, and covering 3 yrs, we probably have 95% attendance. I've also swung a few group parties for cc.net friends, so any price break is much appreciated. Aside from the positive feedback, I'd also like to point out that we still have a very steep ticket pricing structure for the NBA, especially a non-playoff team for 3yrs. My biz partner is rather upset about the empty prime upper bowl seats around us, and it is difficult to convince him things will get better this season. I might have to give up my seats, because of it. Seriously, the empty seats of people who didn't care did hurt the entertainment value of the club. I can appreciate that Les does not have the benefit of all the revenue streams other owners do, but wow, Tim, did you see the offers from Utah, Seattle and GS. They did a 50% discount across the board in the upper bowl for renewals. You know Utah did that to keep that stadium full in the twilight yrs of Stockton and Malone. They also know food/drinks can easily offset that discount. I definitely spend more in food/drinks than 50% of my tix price each game. My biggest wish as a season ticket holder is for you to keep the seats full. I certainly do my part in promoting the Rox and getting as many people to the games as I can, ask anyone here. So does R0ckets03! I hope you consider this when moving into the new stadium. You have a great chance to sell out the upper bowl by offering discounts for the 1st yr, because, at that time, you will have the other revenue streams to cover it. <B>I measure your success by Home Record</b> Consider this: 2 years ago (before you arrived) the Rockets missed the playoffs by a mere 2 games. Do you realize we had a worse home record than any of the 16 teams who made the playoffs. We had a better road record than 2 Western Conf playoff teams, and just 1 game off 2 others. here are the standings: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/stand...ision&column=playoffs&order=null&seasontype=2 I am convinced us missing the playoffs was due to poor attendance, directly tied to Les raising prices for that season after a miserable 1999-20 season, and having his worse renewal yr, because of it. Francis and Mobley certainly said they liked the louder crowds on the road, especially early in the season when our home record was really bad. Think about it: if we had the same home record as the worst playoff teams...we MAKE the playoffs, and Les gets playoff revenues and more renewals. I feel fortunate to have Ming to fill some seats, and I know Les does, too. Let's get them 100% full in the new stadium, for Steve and Mobley, Les and the fans. In bandwagon-town Houston with a football team now, that means aggressive discounts like what Utah and Seattle gave. ----------------------- Kevin W 210 row L 13-14 ps: please inform us as soon as possible what the upgrade plan will be for the new stadium. Please give us more forewarning of pricing than normal. ie, it looks like the lower bowl will have more seats. I'd like to start saving for them now, if they are reasonably priced. Thx for posting. Keep it up!
Okay, I stand corrected. I always like to see those kinds of comments about individuals. I printed it out and showed it to Mark Norelli (VP of Sales) and Shelita right away. (I do that with any comments here about our service, good or bad ... it's just always more fun to bring over the good ones.) Great to know you're feeling good about your service rep, hp. And although I appreciate your comments, I really can't take any credit for that specifically. Mark arrived about the same time I did, and he's done a fantastic job leading that group. There's actually a lot of people over here doing great things. I'll probably remind people here of that from time to time ... we're all working hard; I shouldn't get undue credit just because I'm posting. As for the empty seats in the upper bowl -- of course we're concerned, too, and the idea that empty seats can lower the entertainment value of fans sitting near them has very much entered into our plans. That's why we instituted some pretty deep season discounts in certain sections (large chunks of $29.50 and $36 seats in the upper bowl corners are available at discount rates of $16 and $20 for anybody who buys a full season) and increased the size of the $10 and $13 sections. As for more noise -- that also something that's a high priority with us. We're working on a number of ideas, but I'd love to hear the thoughts of the fans here on ways to do it best. If I need to start a new topic for it or buy everybody here a round some night at a local watering hole to get the discussion going, I'm all for it. If we got something like that together, I'd be happy to share some of the ideas we've been talking about as well. Our building needs to be a hostile environment for visiting teams. It's been that before, so I know the fans here can bring it. As for anybody's ideas on how we as an organization can spur that along -- I'm all ears. Also, you're right about the new arena having more lower bowl seats. We deliberately built the new arena that way, based on feedback from fans. We'll have one of the larger lower bowls in basketball. (And if you need any more proof that the whole organization is taking fan-friendliness to heart, that decision was made well before I got here. Again, a lot of the stuff that has been going on behind the scenes, especially a lot of the information about the arena, just isn't in the forefront of the public consciousness yet.) Phew ... that was a long post. Just a lot of good stuff in the last several posts to respond to. Tim McDougall Vice President of Marketing Houston Rockets and Comets timm@rocketball.com
Tim, I'm glad your on the board, and from the last post, both starting a new thread AND the watering hole suggestion sound really nice! Here's some suggestions, some maybe stupid, but what the hey: How about donating unsold tickets to underpriveleged children's groups for certain games to fill up the arena? Bring back that jazz band the Rockets had for Hakeem...that was cool, and maybe not for every game, but for the important ones, or maybe the Saturday games only or something. $1 beer days...let's see how many you can pack in...makes people louder too Buy 1 ticket get one free nights (walk up only, limit 2 free). Random Rocket Autograph in each of the programs...every program has one...seal them up...totally luck of the draw...one night only... I went a few years ago to a playoff game with the Timberwolves and we got clappers...I've never heard a stadium so loud! Yao Ming lifesize door poster for kids...(might be scary!)...put a growth chart on it.. Petition to get Yao Ming on a McFarlane Toys figure...I would say Starting Lineup, but they stopped making those... A buddy of my dad's works for Miller and got us tix to go to a game including a meet and greet before the game with Rudy T...allow regular ticket holders a chance to do that...maybe by random drawing or something like that.... When the Rockets used to do the lineup announcements there used to be that really loud POW! firecracker that went off...it startled everyone in the building not used to it, but it got people's hearts racing and the place went wild...that went away...maybe bring it back...or find someway to replace it... That's all I can come up with right now...but make that new thread happen!!
