I just don't understand the mentality of going to a game and not watching the game. If you are going to hang around a bar, go to a bar. I mean, WTF?
I dunno...sounds like you should take it up with David Barron. The bottom line is that there is a distinct lack of buzz in the city surrounding the Rockets this year... which happens to be their best regular season performance in the history of the franchise thus far. It goes beyond simple participation/attendance at games... and extends to how much fans are tuning in at home. Again, regardless of how you break it down... Rockets viewership is down. Not all these games are on national TV. All elite teams have a bunch of national games, and their RSN numbers aren't this bad. Anecdotally, I have seen a generalized apathy for this Rockets team throughout the city... in a variety of ways (bars/restaurants not even aware there's a game on, tickets available for below face value on secondary market, sluggish merchandise sales). Granted, the Astros winning it all and setting a new standard of "excellence" amongst the sports community here certainly doesn't help... but anybody who thinks Houston disinterest is just a by-product of funny math, or mis-reported numbers, is fooling themselves (or just hans't lived here long enough).
It's like that at Toyota Center. It's setup more like a happy hour for business people than a basketball fan experience. Went to the summer league at UNLV with some other Clutchfans here and it was hype, and these were rookies and scrubs of the team.
I don't either but it seems there is an abnormal amount of tickets that are "club" that is basically catered to companies for showing clients a good time. Other arenas have these two but not nearly as many large sections or they are suites only. To me it just adds to the poor atmosphere since the 6 sections are the side view and closest to the court. While it can't be enforced who buys the seats since money ultimately is what talks, it would have been a lot better if they had a middle sections above the lower bowl and below the suites that were more the "exclusive" areas.
I agree with this 100% put this team in most other NBA cities and home games would be hype, but in Houston it’s like the Rockets are a 35 win team with no star
The crowd is definitely no where near it needs to be for a team playing on this level. There are some changes needed to be made after this season and implemented becuase at the rate we are going it's kind of embarrassing. The should implement some type of upgrade system sort of like Airlines based on how many games you have been to which is easy to track via FlashSeats or whatever. Give thanks to the fans in the upper area that come all the time and move them down at the second half or whatever when they realize people have not shown up. I know it will be dicey since someone might get mad if they show up after the half or something, but definitely should be some type of way to fill in those seats with fans using a points or loyalty system and get real fans in there.
"get real fans in there"... If money wasn't an issue, I'm sure they'd have plenty of them. And I'm sure the people who can afford those seats for season tickets will start showing up more consistently if this team is literally on the cusp of winning, or wins, a title. Likewise, Houston is not unique in terms of the price of its tickets... and not all those non-seated fans are having a drink at the bar. Some choose just not to go to a random regular season game against the Grizzlies. At the end of the day, the city of Houston needs to support the team better... not just the fans that go to the games. The generalized apathy at the Toyota Center is a snapshot of what has settled in around the city, largely due to not having a serious championship contender for more than 20+ years.
It would be great if they had this and i think it being said in the media more will have an effect. I have to hope some of that will matter to the new owner since he is a business man and understands better about marketing and branding. I think what looks really bad though is on the national TV games where the arena looks half empty at the start. The announcers have mentioned it several times and it looks even more empty coming back from half time. In the past the Rockets (good or not) did not have to worry about this because they didnt really have too many national TV games, but thats not the case anymore. Houston is good enough now that they cannot be ignored. They are on 4 of ABC's 9 primetime Sat night games. (the most is 4 along with GS and OKC). If they are on more national tv games and it keeps getting brought up I am sure (well hope) Tillman will try to do something to fix that. I mean even Les tried to do dollar beer/food to get people in early last season.
i am seeing almost empty lower bowls in almost all arenas recently..if i recall well even in roaracle
I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure the atmosphere at an arena's bar is better than most sports bars. The patrons' status is probably different too.
i don't remember the summit being so dead when i used to go. probably because the arena was smaller and a lot less things to do than watch hakeem dream shake.
I may be wrong here, but I think one of the biggest hits on the attendance this year, is the fact that flash seats removed the bidding option. Flash seats were very quick, and easy way to unload tickets at the last minute and it worked out well for both parties. You could let them go for cheap if its against a crappy team, and at least make some of your money back, instead of being forced to charge a certain amount, and nobody still buy your ticket. Now you have to either set a stern price, or find other ways to sell your ticket (like craigslist, etc). My friend who has season tickets if he can't get anyone he knows personally to go, throws them on flash seats and if nobody takes them they just go to waste and its an empty seat, before if no one bidded 30 mins before the game he would give the tickets to the highest bidder. They really need to bring that back imo. It won't help significantly, but it'll at least help to fill some of these empty seats against some of the not so good teams.
Of course if money wasn't an issue then real fans would buy tickets lower. When I say "real fans" I mean true Rockets or NBA fans that want to cheer and enjoy the game or at least be in their seats and enjoy the game. Not the ones that got free tickets from work, etc that could care less and will just drink and not even come to their seats or don't even show up at times. We are the best team in the NBA right now and have been on multiple long runs and we can't even fill out the stadium. Everyone knows that if we get to the playoffs, championship or whatever then all the fair weather fans and random corporate people will come out becuase it's the "IN" thing to do that night and say you were there. The fact that we are this good and people still don't make it out to games or care to be in their seats is a problem. We all know that a majority of the good seats that show up on TV are corporate bought ones so unless something can be done to adjust for that or figure a way to fill those seats when they are empty with other fans then we are always going to look weak as fans are concerned.
My point is that the BBS overestimates how many of “these” fans there are. There are plenty of typical sports fans that have season tickets to all the Houston sports teams. They just don’t necessarily get into all 41 of the home games, nor do they sometimes even make it out to all of them. Houston is not some corporate Mecca that is different than any other major sports city. If you want to fix fan passion at the game... and how many seats are filled... it has to be fixed on a city-wide level. The city has to become overly passionate about this team again.... that hasn’t really happened since the late 90’s. Even the Yao era was somewhat artificial given the lack of long-term fans it created.
