If you were a Rockets executive how would you get more people to the games?

They can come to my fencing tournaments

 

Putting stripping poles in the Lexus Lounge having $5 lap dance promotions. I can only wonder what Bill Walton will say about that next time he commentates a Rockets game.

 

Trade Steve Francis.

 

You beat me on that one!
How about let steve be our mascot.

 

less seats, less corporate seating, less executive suites and lowere the upper bowl and audits


the game tonight was awesome and a sellout, well kinda....you should have seen all the lower bowl mid court, $100-120 seats with no one sitting in them, as usual...

who are the owners of these seats? they have to be corporate seats in which some schlepps do not get the tickets into the right hands, because I know there are thousands of clutchcity members who would kill for those mid court gems...

it blows me away that the majority of open seats are in the lower bowl during a sellout....give the tix to charity....the rox ought to start auditing what season ticket holders are not attending and calll them to let them know that they can give the seats away to charity or others...it is a damn shame...

 

I like No.4---good idea!

Not yet in this season.

LOL.

 

With Houston sports fans........either build a contender or move the team.

 

Fire Tim..... Just kidding.

Put blow up dolls in all the empty seats until folks show up to make it look sold out. Overcharge for the tickets. Show scalpers selling fake tickets outside to get people thinking they need to be there.

 

Unfortunately, not in most Houston fans eyes. Houston fans are notorious for being band-wagoners, so I think we're going to have to make the playoffs and have a strong showing to get the kind of mass support we had in the mid-nineties.

As far as some gimmicky stuff to get some more people out, I think these might work:
- post-game concert/event with real, marketable entertainers
- have a half-off concessions (or just beer) night
- some sort of ticket-discount packages (probably unlikely)

 

Actually, just don't show it on TV.....

 

I like idea 4 about the Rockets' players attending events around H-Town. The best way to get ass in seats is to lower the ticket prices.

 

The only time when I go to the Stadium I go to see my Team win a Game . No other reason. The Team need more Paying Basketball Fans to watch fun exciting WINNING Basketball.

 

how about not catering to corporations and try to have real fans come to the games, but ticket prices are so outrageous that there is no way this will happen.

 

Exactly. The tix most fans can afford are so high up, that people would rather watch the game at home. Then the high-priced tix are only half full for most games. What I would do is have the family packs for every weekday game. I would be a bit less strict on people moving down into empty seats. If someone didn't show up, I would rather have the image of a fan in the seat, than an empty seat on TV.

 

AB -

#4 (the obscure events to show support for Houston idea) truly rocks. It should have been part of the commercials leading up to the Super Bowl reminding Houstonians that we are more than a sports town. That would be crazy.

The idea for 24-second violations by the other team being rewarded by some giveaway (Big Macs for a section) is great. This would lead to more chanting/yelling on D.

Big one: Get the focus on fans, not corporations. Set up a ticket bank where corporate buyers can sell their tickets the day of the game to an average fan as an auction. They won't get all their money back, but if they're not going they get SOMETHING in return.

brocktoon - do you even live in Houston? They DO have discounted packages.

In the end, it comes down to whether the team becomes a part of the community. Everyone identifies with the Texans because of the football culture.

What if the Rox did the same by... hmmm...
1) selling tix / concentrating some marketing to local universities? UH, TSU, Rice, St. Thomas... come on. So many schools and future fans with disposable income!
2) discount to those who work at NASA. Rockets -> NASA. Duh. Build a following in the community. Even better because NASA people are in a suburb, so it may help in bring people to downtown to see the new stuff.
3) I don't see why there is no brightly lit sign outside Toyota Center that says "Rockets vs. XXXX - Tickets available!" that is visible from the surrounding freeways. Come on! It can be an impulse purchase, especially for those single people working downtown. They used to have it at Compaq...

 

Normally I'm not one to complain about cross-class economic issues, but when it comes to selling arena tickets it just seems logical that you should want those seats to go to sports fanatics and not the casual, middle to upper class game attendee (fan did not seem to apply based on personal experiences). It goes beyond selling out the arena. Exorbitant ticket prices is still relatively new to the sports world so we really haven't yet had the opportunity to see what effect having such high ticket prices is going to eventually have. While the middle to upper class game attendee might be willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for tickets, is he/she going to buy shirts, videos, etc. Most probably not. And if you continue to alienate your real fan base, it seems that eventually your exorbitant ticket prices are not going to be able to offset your losses in team merchandise sells. Of course the day that problem emerges will be the day when the franchises come running back to their real fans and the nature of sports fanatics tells us that the real sports fans are so fanatical about their teams that they will probably not stage much of a protest and return.

 

...Moochie bobbleheads?

 

lap dances during half time and free lapdances if we win!