You remember the games taht were jammed and on TV - because they were the ones on TV. You do not remember the early season day games because you don't remember watching your radio. And using the Oilers own report about how they needed a new stadium is suspect, to say the least. But as others have stated - there were plenty of gameday sellouts, but not 72hour non-blackout sellouts.
There were a lot of blackouts, that was one of the things which always pissed me off so much about the blackout rule, because the games still usually sold out, they just didn't manage to sell out by the blackout deadline. That meant no game on tv, just watching Hogan's Heroes reruns or something in their place. Even today, thinking about that stupid moronic blackout rule pisses me off. In fact, if I recall correctly, there was always a lot of grass-roots rumbling about trying to get it changed, because we got shafted so much by it.
I see, so you're saying it's unfair to say Houston fans are lless passionate than other fans when we compare them to cities with more passionate fan bases. With that condition, I have no quarrel. Compared to other apathetic cities, Houston does not look so bad. But anyway thank you for conceding, in your own exceedingly victorious way, that Houston fan apathy exists.
my god, someone just email nbc and cbs for the freakin info. thanks, I'm gonna say I remember a few a blackouts, and I only started watching when they began their playoff run of consecutive appearances
The transplant theory does have validity. I'm basically a fan of Houston teams because I am somewhat of a rarity: a native Houstonian born and raised. I can remember my uncle taking me to Oilers games at Jeppesen Stadium, went to Rockets games at Hofheiz Pavilion and later the Summit and even Colt 45's games at Buffalo Stadium. I went to lots of Astros games at the dome so I have that emotional attachment that a lot of the transplanted Houstonians simply don't possess. They didn't grow up here and their loyalties were more directed to teams back home. This was especially true during the great migration from the Rust Belt to the Sunbelt during the 1970s. It would have been easy for Houston professional sports franchises to capture the fancy and allegiance of these transplanted Texans had they fielded winning teams because as we all know, everyone loves a winner. Sadly, during this time, the Oilers & Astros were truly horrible while the Rockets weren't much better. This is a prime reason that there are so many Cowboys fans in Houston even amongst the new arrivals because they enjoyed far more success than did the Oilers in those days. It seems to me that they were always on CBS playing the 3:00PM game and were on Monday Night Football far more times than the Oilers. So I really can't find much fault with Houston area fans of the Cowboys because the Oilers did very little to win folks over for a long long time. As for the Texans, to date they, too, have not done a lot to inspire the type of fan loyalty one would like to see in Houston. Perhaps that will come in time as well if this franchise can make it's way to respectability.
it's an arbitray and meaningless deadline, sam. it measures absolutely nothing. why do you think bud adams left, sam? because of a lack of fan support? he wanted a bigger stadium - think about that... its ordinarily not a wise business decision to build something LARGER if it lacks demand. the team was selling above capacity. are you going to continue to try and trump that with your own recollections? max did a freaking thesis on it. i have read (and own) john pirkle's book that details it. see my response to RIET. you're discussing 3 of the most successful and hsitory-rich franchises in the NFL, with roots deep into football's formation. uhm.... sam? i wasn't outside the blackout radius, genius. and between my old college roommate and myself, we probably have every single game on VHS. i'm telling you this as a matter of fact: they were NOT blacked out. there likely are many games blacked out in 1987 since there was a strike that year (i know for a fact the home replacement game with new england was blacked out). 1994-1996 was an awful and then lame duck team; i expect many of those games probably were blacked out (especially in 95-96). but between 88-93, there were no blackouts and every single seat at the stadium was sold.
I'm calling BS on this. I started watching the Oilers in 86 and I was a huge fan in 88-93 and I know for a fact that there were some blackouts. I don't deny that games ended up selling out at the last minute, but I am positive that there were some games blacked out.
LOL, no. Stop lying. Let me guess, the tapes got taken by your girlfriend when she moved to canada too. Your ebay gambit didn't work, nobody here is going to believe these particular lies either.
no, sam - the oilers, or any other organization, is not going to build a ALRGER anything if demand doesn't exist. again, meaningless, but these "others" (RIET and...?) are wrong. I OWN GAMES ON VHS OF HOME HOUSTON REGULAR SEASON, NON-PRIMETIME GAMES.
I don't doubt that you do. But I'm still positive that there were some blackouts from 88-93...unless they just blacked them out on my home television and no one else's
i've not hedged an inch from this. they're all in big green tubs in my attic. if you're only means to combat this FACT is to falsely call me a liar, have at it - i could honestly care less what you believe.
Just a little tidbit here, but Green Bay had a few seasons where they played half their games in Milwaukee because they couldn't get people to drive all the way up to Green Bay. I don't know how many blackouts there were, but to say they were "almost always" blacked-out is absurd. And I haven't seen a thread with such a big pot calling a kettle black. Hilarious.
what am i conceding, sam? did i ever argue that the oilers had the nfl's most passionate fans? did i ever compare them to other teams? did i ever say the fans in green bay had nuthin' on us, sam? did i? huh? well? no. i didn't. i offered only that the oilers had a passionate fan base. even when they sucked, it was passionate; they just chose not to show passion with their wallets. but the amount of coverage and attention the oilers generated in this city trumps the other two franchises. and when they were good... it was pandemonium. so, again, sam - what did i concede?
you'll like this, sam: i was wrong. i went and did a search thru the chronicle's archives (1985-1989) and the first 4 games of the 1989 season were not televised locally. i assume it was not an isolated incident (although the rest of the games that year were sold out and televised and i assume that trend continued once galnville was fired, etc.). frankly, i'm absolutely and humbly shocked and i apologize. i DO have the games; scores of them (likely melted in the attic). frankly, i'm stunned there were large chunks of games not televisied. i guess, now that i think about it, i was AT the games... most of the tapes are likely 90-93 when i went off the school. again, my apologies. hmmmm... yeah.... so drayton mclane sure does suck, huh?
Is that the december 23 saturday night game where they blew the division and Kevin Mack ran through truck sized holes? Why would you want to see that. That was awful - but yes that one was definitely televised. I win another round of the internet. read any of your own posts for more irony.
