Hmm, let's see here. Who should the coverage be focused on at this moment in time? A.) A team that had the best finish in baseball in the last 50 years to make the playoffs and have now won the first game of their first round series. This win will make it more likely that they will win their first ever series. B.) A team that's been around for only three years and fans are still extremely excited about. They just won back-to-back games for the first time in franchise history and are playing very well right now. Contending for a playoff spot is definitely within the realm of possibility. C.) A team who got more than ample coverage during the offseason due to one huge trade, two significant signings, and one newsworthy trade for a backup center. This team just started training camp and the media's already given us mind-numblingly dumb stories about Juwon Howard/Mo Taylor's relationship and how players are, gasp, actually learning something in training camp. The vast majority of people want to read about A and B. People will care about C in about a month, but I think it's complete idiocy to hope that one of the hometown teams lose so that one can read a little more about Ryan freakin' Bowen.
I disagree about ample summer coverage post the TMc blitz. Fans of basketball, and the Rox particularly, should not have to wait a month. That is silly to me. That is too late for the Rox and their sales or for me and my peculiar fan interest.
You're saying that you won't want to buy tickets unless you know exactly what Spoon weighs in at?? C'mon... please... "fans of basketball" are not getting slighted in any way. Hell, I am a "fan of basketball" and I perfectly understand that there is really NOTHING newsworthy with this team right now, and there are other pressing matters at stake in the sports world. Hell... even JVG was blasting the media for making such a big deal about travelling to China, saying "yea... getting wined and dined on a flight and staying at a top-notch hotel... yea, its reeeal tough "
Like Jeff, I am not a baseball fan either. But for the city I hope the Astros contine to win. But I am an out-of-towner. The ONLY Rockets news I get is what is here on the BBS and on the Chronicle website. I dont have access to the Houston TV stations or Houston Radio. So MY Rockets sources of coverage is even SMALLER! And like Jeff I am jonesing for coverage. I REALLY look forward to my daily read of whatever the Chronicle is covering since that really is all I get. I too wish that Rockets.com had more info. Seems like the only stuff up there is to make the site a giant marketing piece to sell tickets. True that is a big purpose of the site but the FANS that want to know Rockets info are getting screwed there! Like it was said above, there needs to be a person dedicated to covering the Rockets and filing "daily" reports and sometimes video on what is going on. Take us INSIDE. Otherwise the site is one giant Commercial for Rockets Season Tickets. Whoop-de-damn-do! Get with it Tim! Give us something we can sink our teeth into!
Its sad that we're debating about when our local news should start more coverage on the Rockets, when rockets.com, the official website is doing NOTHING. rockets.com have nothing to do with choice A) or B), their job is focusing on C), and Ryan freakin Bowen.
I agree with this 100%. To me, at this point of the pre-season, it's completely up to the Rockets to get this info out to the diehards, of which I'm one. However, you can't fault the Chronicle or sports radio for focusing on the Astros and Texans right now.
Timeout. Please. I buy tix, I support Rox sponsors. I like my daily 'fix' of stories. Walk up sales in any sport is poor. Not all fans or supporters are as (sillily) fanatic as I (or we, from this site). The populace needs to be motivated. The motivating starts early and builds on itself. 'Tomorrow' is too late. I liked reading about Gaines today. He was here all summer? Who else was? Stories like that slake my thirst. They can be more frequent and more plentiful throughout the dog days of the off (and pre) season.
Correct. You would think with this being the first training camp with the "new" team they would get some more coverage. Maybe JVG is not allowing media? I passed by TC yesterday and Channel 2 was there with their satellitte truck. If they arent getting more attention by Sunday I will be
What the Houston media could be doing is to saturate the news with more sports in general, rather than trying to stuff all this coverage into the same tiny box. Inevitably, someone is going to lose out. This is a peak time of the year in sports, especially for Houston right now. Why not just up the overall coverage?
BTW, I just flipped through a nice 35 page photo slideshow of the Orlando Magic that the Orlando Sentinel provided on their website. Has lots of training camp photos. Very nice. Houston Chronicle, where is YOUR slide show?
Umm... yea... the sports department in Orlando is really dedicating a lot of time to the Magic, despite all their other multiple professional sports teams that play there... Honestly... I'm glad I don't live in a one-team city like San Antonio, Sacramento, or Orlando... even if you can't get cool slide shows during training camp. Its just more fun this time of year watching meaningful sport week in and week out.
I don't blame the general media for not covering the Rockets much. The Astros and the Texans are bigger stories right now. I probably would have done the same had I been the sports editor. I do blame Rockets.com for not doing a better job. If the Rockets organization itself doesn't cover themselves, then they have noone else to blame when the fan support is poor.
My opinion. If that makes me an idiot, whatever. This is a board for the Rockets after all, not the Astros. rhester: I think you may still be missing the point. Clutch cannot go and we are not asking for press access for someone to go for a number of reasons. 1. The NBA is really, REALLY stringent about what fan websites are allowed to do. They have greatly restricted access to fan sites because they don't want the competition for official team sites and, most importantly, if they grant access to one fan site, they have to grant it to ALL of them and not all are deserving. 2. This site is difficult enough to maintain without having to monitor, edit and manage reporters on location. That is just more work for a site that barely can manage the load as it is. 3. There are plenty of people who, no doubt, would love to go, but that doesn't make people qualified and it doesn't mean they will have the time to dedicate to it. Since access is usually limited (espcially in our case) to one person, we'd have to find someone who has journalism/reporting skills, is EXTREMELY trustworthy AND would be able to go on a daily basis. Not only is that a rarity, but it means looking, doing interviews, checking people's background (yep, that's a big deal), etc. We don't have the resources for that. So, when we CAN, there will be reports from camp or games. When Clutch or one of the other of us who help him CAN'T, we have to rely on the local media. ----- Now, getting back on topic, I can live with the lacking coverage in the Chron and even on the broadcast DAILY news. I know that editorial space in a paper is limited based on the big stories of the day. Fine. But, there is ZERO excuse for Rockets.com to not be covering their own team daily and ZERO excuse that a 30-minute Sunday sports show would not even be able to spend 30 seconds discussing the Rockets. 610 has done a decent job of giving moderate daily reports and I commend them for that, but they are the only one's. Fox Sports Sunday? Nothing. Channel 2 Sports Sunday? Nothing. Channel 13 has 10 minutes of sports on Sunday nights before doing a 30-minute show dedicated to the Texans. They can't do one 15-second segment on the Rockets??? On top of that, where is the weekly Rockets wrap on local TV? The Astros have gotten a Fox Sports weekly show in the past or a show on KNWS. The Texans have the Sunday night show on 13. Where is the Rockets version?
Jeff, I understand where you are coming from. I was pushing out of a love for the Rockets. Hey I emailed Tim and volunteered to do some coverage for Brazoria County Newspapers (where I live) I know the local publishers and I would be happy to write a weekly blurb for the Brazoria County folk. I work close enough to downtown to get to TC in less than 10 minutes and I work a flexible schedule also. You can tell it has been a long wait for this season. Just a little desparate and edgy I guess. After the first pre-season game I will be feeling better. And Jeff- I totally agree with your post concerning local media coverage.
Actually they led the Phillies in 1980, the Dodgers in the "strike" playoff series in 1981, the Mets in 1986 and the Braves in 1999.
1. The Astros have led a series before . 2. There's nothing happening. Only so much you can say without a game being played.
I am very disappointed with the Rockets coverage. With this new team, you would think they would want to hype them up, but there are some other factors: 1. Astros are probably taking most of the spotlight, well deserved. 2. Texans are going for 3 in a row! 3. Does anyone remember JVG saying he doesn't allow outsiders into his practices? I remember him saying he doesn't allow cameras into the practice court or something like that. But besides the Chroncicle's repetitive articles, there is no coverage what so ever.
i have been thinking the same thing ever since training camp started. you would never know we just pulled off what could turn out to be the biggest trade in franchise history (and even in some ways, league history). the media usually takes any chance it gets to overhype things so this feels pretty weird right now.
