Ok, now that I have been to a couple of pre-season games and a regular season, I feel that I can comment on what I like and dont like about the TC this year. Hopefully coming from a long time season ticket holder this means something. Excellent: Food Service has gotten faster (last year I would wait a long time for fancy food. The Player Screen Animations (when they score) showing their stats The Godzilla clapping (we will rock you) HA DEE HA DEE HA DEE HA!!! Clutch Bear Videos (Vacation) Good: T-Grays "Who's ball is it!?!....ROCKETS BALL!!" would be good if it ever caught on. They way the club seats sit on their hands, it probably wont. Poor: The t-shirt tosses only go to like the first 20 rows. They need more sling shots, cannons and stuff to get them higher. The Rock music rifts while on offense. Some are cool, but I like a bigger mix with hiphop, techno etc. It seems like mainly rock now. Im not feeling the Power Dancers boots. When my nephew went down on the court to shoot free throws, they wouldnt even let him step on the hardwood with his tennis shoes, but the Power Dancers get to dance on it with those things!?! The Braveheart Bear. Basketball has nothing to do with "FREEDOM!!" The "Thats supposed to be T-Mac!?!?" and other Bobble Heads No promotions/giveaways schedule on the website. Im not complaining, just given honest criticism on how to make a great experience better. Anyone else have thoughts???
Don't forget the incredible halftime show. Clutch's vacation was hilarious. That bear is living the american dream. I agree about the braveheart segment. I found myself saying, "it's just a basketball game."
Nice post i really liked the way your said no... BUT to add on I thought the magic show was just awsome. Im suprized u didnt mention that or maybe i read over it, ether was it was amazing. How in the world did she change????? I mean her shoes, hair, ect. everything was diff. That blew me away. & of course Clutch and his changin clothes act as well lol
Yea, I wasnt feeling the rock music rifts. I love rock more than hip hop but it doesnt fit, I found myself looking at others just trying to see their reaction.
The Rockets Organization has made HUGE improvements to the Toyota Center since last season. 1. Better music, not all rap like last season. Played a lot of rock! 2. Better announcer, TGrey really improved from last season. 3. Much Much better player intros.
Gummi - Pretty good recap. I agree with you on this point...however, I am fortunate enough to be right in one of the throw zones this year. On Saturday's game I caught 3 free tee shirts and gave one of them away. I was right in a tee shirt zone for one of the pre-season games, too, so I think that I may be like that all season, which is sweet. Also, the one thing I'd add on bad is the crab race...yes, I know everyone is going crazy because they want free t-shirts, and clearly it won't go away because of the promotional element of it, but crabs, racing...very weird.
Btw, I forgot to mention the red, white, and blue balls that were suppose to be thrown across the stadium, thats was a pretty cool idea, up until the blue ball, hit the Kings bench. Wonder if they are going to do that again.
Need I say more??? 800 t-shirts all going in the same rows!!! Im not even that high up. Im row 23 for goodness sakes!!!
If it makes you feel any better, I will be giving most away to the kiddies in the future (assuming it keeps happening), but you are definitely right. People get so pumped up about the free t-shirts for some reason. I'd love to catch a foul ball at a baseball game, or a homerun. I've never done that.
Just FYI on this... They are working on getting more t-shirts upstairs. There are certain restrictions against some of the devices that fling them a long way. In particular, they cannot use the cannon at all. I know that this is a big deal to fans (though I cannot for the life of me figure out why) and the Rockets know it too.
so they couldn't have a crew that just walked around the upper prom and through shirts in each section. i think it would be easy enough to do that. I have been saying that for a while and i think they should have been thinking about doing this for a while to get everyone in the arena involved. not everyone can afford to be down low and get the perks.
Jeff, I think it's because the free shirts went to the same jackasses who had the most expensive, center view seats yet stayed away from the home opener in droves. To many who can barely afford even the cheap seats, yet somehow fill up the upper deck every game, it seems crappy. I was honestly shocked at how empty sections 106-108 were on Saturday night - this as I stare at my Rockets calendar that has those sections blocked off as "sold out!" Hell, I am in section 124, row, 23 or something, and we didn't have anything come up even that far. But while I personally can live without an ad-filled free t-shirt, I can see why people get pissed. Oh, I think the most memorable thing I saw at the game was the guy smoking a joint 3 feet away from security people out on the smoking deck. People were moving away from the guy like he had the plague, yet the security people on the other side of the steel barricades didn't notice. Maybe the wind wasn't blowing their way. Then again, maybe it was & they were enjoying the cool breeze.
I agree. How hard could that be? They used to do that at Compaq. I think it would be funny if people in the upper sections brought signs that read: "WE LIKE FREE T-SHIRTS, TOO!!"
Guys, You have NO idea how much this has been complained about to the Rockets. Seriously. They did send crews up into the upstairs previously, but there are some safety regulations that are out of their control in the upper deck that prevent them from doing everything they'd like to do. It isn't as if they don't know this is a problem. They know it. They've heard it over and over and over and tried to fix it as best as possible. Personally, I'm amazed that it is even a complaint. I just don't see what the big deal is about a free t-shirt. But, whatever.
im not complaining in the sense that i want a t-shirt or anything. I just feel that they can do a btter job of involving all the people who can't afford better tickets and are real fans o the game and just didn't get them cause their company decided to give them away, you know? There are a lot more kids that are with their families and it would be nice if they could get some involvment up ther ein the upper levels...i mean have clutch go to other levels and visit other people. There is a lot of time to go around a game and involving others could help them and start a trend in other places as well. I am sure there are kids up there saying they could mess around with clutch or get a t-shirt and stuff like that...i just believe that they could cater to more of the "working class" That is my real complaint but i think this complaint goes to every sports organization. They really need to spend some time pleasing the real fans that come out every game or spend all the can afford to come and root on the team. Not just all the coorporations that buy up al lthe good tickets only to never show up to the games. Maybe they should switch up the ticket prices so people in coorporations think the upper level is better leaving the fans to really sit on the lower bowl mid court and really root on the team =)
My only complaint is there is no quiet time. The whole time the game s going on there is music at a timeout its music or a skit at half time etc. I do not understand why music must be played when the game is in action. Other then that everything else was great.
and on the tshirt thing... I was in section 111 and not one came in our direction. It was not a big deal but it seemed all of the shirts went to the club section right next to us.
I was in section 419, and a kid came with a big satchel full of tshirts and was throwing them into 2 of the sections. Maybe they didn't have someone at every section, but they definately had some people in the upper deck throwing shirts.
