interesting that Orlando and Seattle are playing so well and are so low in attendance. also interesting to note that there are some really big population centers on that list. it's tickets sold, by the way.
Aruba - To be fair, and Jeff is the master here, unless you stayed in a hotel in Houston, you didn't pay for the stadium, but your guests may have.
the club section draws such low percentage; i find this conclusion very surprising. correct me if im wrong, but i thought the luxury boxes were what kept teams afloat.
luxury boxes, too. these are the areas NBA teams are demanding. they selling the hard liquor...finer foods...a different game experience. and they make money doing it. just because those seats are empty, doesn't mean they're not paid for.
AMEN! Ask those people that do not attend if they will gladly give up their seats. I will yell with you in the club section.
^^For your info I believe the Toyota Center has another full bar downstairs too and you can bring these drinks upstairs. The only place that doesnt have one to my knowledge is the upper deck. In the Club, keep the bar, lose the expensive foods, chefs, and the dozens of overpaid ticket gaurdians to lower ticket prices. I cant tell you how annoying it is to be asked for my ticket 7 times every game when I want to grab something to eat/drink or make a quick restroom run and not miss any action during freethrows/timeouts. If snobs want to rub elbows, and chit chat, and feel pampered let them sit in a suite.
Actually, the club seats are the best seller for the team. They are all sold out all the time. Whether or not people show to the games doesn't mean the tickets haven't been bought. They were the first seats to sellout when the building opened and they have been sold out since day 1. To make matters more interesting, they make more on sales in the club section from food and drink than they do in the other areas of the arena. It is, by far, the most profitable portion of the building for the team so don't expect them to open it up to anyone. I agree that it is a huge problem in terms of noise and I also agree that people down there have the tendency to not yell although I know quite a few who sit down there who are not in that category. But, if someone buys a seat and doesn't go to every game or gives the tickets to people who don't want to cheer, that isn't anyone's business. You can't mandate that tickets be sold to "real fans who yell." Also, allowing people into that section poses a security nightmare. If you pay $180 for your seat and come back from the bathroom and someone who paid $10 for his is sitting in your spot, you are rightfully going to be pissed. The Summit..er...Compaq Center rocked when the team was winning. When we lost, the people who showed up at games stopped caring and cheering. It is the nature of this city and NOTHING we do is going to change that. When this team starts winning again, those seats will fill up and people will yell. Winning solves a lot of problems.
I agree that the fans in the Club section suck (except for me of course)...but the club section is a great thing when you go to a game and entertain clients...and if you take kids (family bathrooms and tables to sit and eat at so you dont have to squeeze in your seat with all your food and drink).
Jeff, I still find it hard to believe that opening up this section to more average or slightly above average fans would put a dent in the Rockets pocket. More people would show up to games, and thus more concessions would be sold making up (or surpassing) the money lost on lowering ticket prices. Also money could be saved from having to pay Ticket Thugs to camp out on EVERY SINGLE ROW!!! Arent the ones at the entrance to this section enough!?!?! It has been said many times in the past few weeks that the thing that makes the NBA so special is the intamacy with the fans and that you can sit so close to the court. It would be nice to have "The Fans Arena", an arean that actually catered to all fans, rather than those who dont really care. When David Stern visits Houston tonight he will find the solution to his security delima. Raise ticket prices until people dont show up to games, and the ones who do will sit on their hands and therefore not throw any cups at players.
I'd like to see two things (or determine why they're not feasible): 1. Ask season ticket holders if they're coming to the game. If not, put their tickets up for sale so that someone will go, and refund the original purchaser. Yes, this could be a nightmare in paperwork, but what if you either billed a credit card/account per game or just plain told the season ticket holders that you get a "credit card" as your universal ticket to every game (and there could be promotional tie-ins as well). When you arrive, scan the card to get into TC, and you'll get a paper ticket if you want one. 2. This is something I doubt will happen because it could irritate the season ticket holder community, but... if there's a waiting list for tickets/suites, at intervals determine those who are not coming to the games. Offer them a refund and sell the tickets to someone else who says they will go. This would get rid of those corporate types who buy the tickets and then never go, or even those who give tickets to employees who *say* they're going but don't.
This isnt feasible because: 1) As a season ticket holder of many teams over the yrs, I want to use or not use my tickets at my convenience. I realize that by not going will leave an empty seat that couldn be taken by a rabid fan who would kill to sit in those seats...but this is why i bought season tickets...to go or not go as I please. Now, if someone wanted to send me an email at 5:00 pm on the day of the game to see if I was coming, I wouldn't have a problem with that...especially if they were going to reimburse me for the ticket if they gave the seat away. 2) If you get rid of those corporate types, you would have all arenas dating back to 1970...there would be no cash flow. The high salaries and beautiful arenas ar apid for by the corporates that usually don;t bother going to games.
Do you really think Im exaggerating? Im speaking of the Club Section. I swear their is a thug on every row, believe me, I try my best to avoid them everytime I have to get up and return to my seat. If your intelligent enough to afford that kind of ticket, I think you can find your own seat.
Guys, it's a no-win situation. Corporate has taken over the sports world and it's not a fan's world anymore.
Well, at the Houston Ballet, where tickets can also be very expensive, they allow you to move down in the second act. I don't see why the Rockets couldn't do that. At the Houston Opera, if you don't take your seat by the time the curtain goes up, you don't sit down, until the next intermission. Both re-sell confirmed cancellations - they release them 15 minutes before the performance. You can get really good seats right before the curtain goes up. Rockets could release confirmed cancellations right before the game. They could offer a promotion for the confirmed cancellation - a discount on the next season or reservation at red and white or a t-shirt or something. At the very least, at the half, they should be able to re-sell empty seats, preferably at a steep discount, especially to ticket holders in other sections that want to move down. Every ticket has been scanned at the door, so they know who presented the seat tickets by then.
Only thing wrong with that...it seems at Rocket games most of the people (in the lower bowl) don't show up till the 2nd half... but hey maybe that'll actually motivate them to get their butts in the building when the game starts!
My plan, should I choose to accept it, is to find a way down to the Club level without a club level ticket, next time I attend a Rockets game. I've been to 2 games this year, which is a stretch by my very very tiny source of income, but I always try to go to as many Rockets/Astros games as I can, and I have been to 1 Texans game every year (that I wasn't working at). If it's me and my bro/sis, I have always moved down when the game starts, cause there's like a 50% chance that no one will ever show up in those seats. I sat in Section 104 last year, 3rd row, for the Rockets/Denver game where we clinched a playoff spot. My tickets were up in 419, Row 10 seats 1-4. I do my part, I was even trying to pump up the crowd behind me. At first they were reluctant. Then, I made my bro/sis and cousin start cheering with me. Then the row, then a few people behind me, then suddenly a few joined me in trying to get everyone behind us to stand up. FINALLY at around midway through the 3rd quarter, they started getting up. It's a chore to get some people to cheer. It's worth it though when they do get pumped up...cause other sections finally start to catch on.
