one thing ill comment on is regarding alston's skip-pass to hayes on the fast break. do you think rafer does that for last year's crowd? he felt the energy and wanted to show off for the crowd. and for that i salute you RR
i agree. everyone likes to feed of the crowd. and rafer knew he would get a good reaction from them. thats the 6th man we've been missing.
I agree the crowd atmosphere was the best Ive seen in years, and no doubt it was because of the Rowdies. I could tell this just from watching on TV too! I think you guys, and all fans should be even LOUDER next game just to throw it in the face of the people whining about the noise. Thats the best way to make a statement!
Having ushers tell the Red Rowdies sit is a problem with the nature of how corporatized pro-sports have become. Tons of money have been paid to build state of the art luxury stadiums to attract a higher playing clientele yet what a lot of owners forget is what makes a great sports experience isn't all of the amenities but the quality of the team on the field and the crowd. Everyone talks about how great the college experience is but think about how few college arenas, if any, have the creature comforts that a Toyota Center has. What makes the college experience great isn't the luxury boxes. but screaming fans going crazy. The pro-sports mindset is to load up the arena with physical amenities and charge the hell out of expense account clients. The problem with that is that part of pro-sports is the crowd and if you forget that you can have a luxurious stadium yet still have poor turnout and an unenthusiastic team. OTOH if you have a great crowd like Raider's fans you can still get a good turnout even if the stadium isn't that great or the team as the rowdy crowd is a draw unto itself. IMO Toyoto Center and the Rockets management are some of the worst offenders in this regard. They've built an incredible arena funded on taxpayers dollars yet instead of building up a rapid fan base of people who want to spend their own dollars to watch a game and scream their brains out they're marketting to those who want to bring high-buck clients to work on business deals. IMO the Rockets could still make plenty of money from filling up the stadium with rapid loud Rockets fans who become a draw unto themselves. That would open up whole new Red Rowdies branding opportunities to recoup any loss from fans who don't want to stand and cheer the whole game. Its would be a win all around. The fans get to cheer, the team is pumped up and ownership still makes money but as long as they are stuck in this model of pursuing the corporate clientele the Toyota Center is going to continue to be known as a place for tepid fans.
I like the enthusiasm the RR bring but I can see the viewpoint of those around you that complain when you stand up for long periods of time. Those people pay a heck of a lot of money to watch the game and they can't see it if you are standing in front of them. Don't think the fact that the RR got those tickets free and they paid for their own tickets only to have their view blocked by the RR doesn't factor in to it. You can yell and make noise all you want, just trying doing it while sitting sometimes. It's called common courtesy......
One of them admitted in this thread that little kids were sitting behind them and couldn't see even if they stood on their chair.
I mentioned in another thread that this could actually work to our advantage. If we stand for the first and last few minutes of the game, but sit the rest of the time (still loud, but mostly sitting), we will have a bigger impact when we jump to our feet after a basket, defensive play, or whatever. My $0.02.
The Rox could lower ticket prices for all of the seats behind the Red Rowdies section and advertise them as the Unofficial Red Rowdy seats so everyone knows to expect to stand. In college games you rarely sit in the student section during the game. An excited crowd is going to be a crowd that is on its feet and LOUD. Many people don't like that and want to be able to always see the action and have a conversation. If that's what people want personally I think you would be better off watching the game from somewhere else.
I certainly hear what you're saying and appreciate it, but I worry that it leads down a road where it's easy for the Rowdy effect to lull. When the scenario arises where the Rockets are in a drought or another team is pasting us, it strikes me that it would be more possible that the section would be silenced. Standing and going full force when the Rockets are struggling seems to me as when the Rowdies can have the biggest effect on the team. Picture yourself on the bench - what would affect you more - the Rowdies jumping up with most of the arena after a dunk, or seeing them standing and yelling when the team's down? Additionally (to repeat) - I do feel that the seats behind the section need to be advertised as obstructed viewing. It's not fair to surprise those buying the tickets. Evan
It'd be great to advertise the seats behind the Rowdies as "obstructed view" or something alone those lines, but there's one thing we might be overlooking... some of those seats are most definitely season ticket holders. What do they do about their seats???
Sorry if this has been posted: <object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kjzqcBuap_s"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kjzqcBuap_s" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>
Evan, have you seen yourself on Rockets.com yet??? http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Rocketscom_visits_with_this_w-194356-34.html
