Ticket prices still outrageous

IIRC, the reason the average is so high is because of the lower bowl and suite/club ticket prices - which have been all but completely sold out for the season.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/attendance

We're 24/29 in % of seats sold/game at home (80) and 23/29 for total # seats sold/game at home (14,798).

Notice how badly New Jersey fans suck, though. East Champs two years running, leading the Atlantic, and still nothing. I really don't feel badly for New Jersey losing their squad to Brooklyn.

Evan

 

http://www.leagueoffans.org/nbafancost03-04.html

Here is a link to the actual full numbers of the study for anyone interested.

While it does seem that the Toyota Center may never sell out, I think the high "average" price is a bit misleading as the reason. New stadiums are built to have more "high priced" seats, so this naturally skews the average high. The top level seats seemed much more full than the lower level seats, so clearly, if you want to go to a Rockets game and not spend alot, you can easily do so, though attending a game is still by no means cheap.

I think alot of the expense at a Rockets game is more the food items, than the actually tickets. The study basically presumes you go all out and buy full dinner, etc, for your family.

Of course, price would be irrelevent to selling out, if the Rockets put out a better product, like the Lakers or the Kings, or if they made moves that showed they care, like the Knicks.

 

That's what you get for the Rockets overspending on players. Player payroll is the biggest expense, so it's logical that the team must have ticket revenue come in line with expenses.

 

my brothers and I got $13 tickets and $25 tickets for the Lakers game. They even have $10 seats available. The seats may not be the best but you can see pretty good from anywhere in Toyota Center. Ticket prices shouldn't be an excuse for not going to the game. I think the biggest hassle is having to go downtown and pay ridiculous parking prices and dealing with all the construction and moron drivers.

 

Out of 29 teams the Rockets are 20th in payroll.

 

Faos,

Have you ever been to a Rockets game in the Toyota Center? I bought a total of three tickets for $42.00 to the Timberwolves game and they were pretty darn good seats. Compare this to the $52.00 tickets I have to pay for ONE seat at a Texans game. The Rockets are a bargain compared to this.

And as for parking, I pay $15.00 for a blue lot pass (which by the way is a very long walk from my entrance gate) which they will now be increasing to $20.00 next year. The most expensive parking at Toyota center is 15 dollars and is within feet of the enterance. I usually park for free on the side streets, something you can't do at Reliant unless you want to park at Sams.

 

I think they have a payroll right in the middle, but there are the losses the ownership sustained during the final years of the Compaq center with a backloaded Hakeem contract. Then, there's the Rudy T termination who probably is getting paid the full amount of his contract. Also, I don't think Channel 51 is a big moneymaker for the Rockets.

 

Rockets play in a small market in terms of revenue. They can't afford to screw up on player contracts as much as some other teams.

 

Thats about the same number as me. I don't see why parking has become an issue for people all of a sudden when Minute Maid has had the same setup for many years now. They were even talking about expensive parking at the Toyota center on 610 am radio. It really isn't very hard to find cheap parking if your willing to walk a little.

The only thing a bit disturbing is the premium seats in the lower bowl at half court were empty. I'm pretty sure they are season tickets since you can't buy those seats but the people don't show which gives the arena an empty feel when the upper bowl is packed.

 

its not that bad,youd spend just as much goin out partying and /or a date so if its too much, you might wanna get rid of that bird flying over you.....

 

I refuse to sit in the cheap seats because the view is better on TV and they're much, much higher than the cheap seats at Compaq were because they're stacked on top of 2 rows of luxury boxes.

 

Our best seats are priced higher than quite a few other teams in the league. And those seats sell out every game. Quite a few on the board understand this, although those who keep on insisting that the high priced tickets are keeping attendance down never seem to absorb that fact.

By contrast, we have more seats under $20 (3500) than just about any other team in a comparable sized market. We have twice as many $20 or less priced seats as we did in Compaq Center. It's the lower and mid-priced seats that we want to sell more of. And it's hard to say it's really a price issue there, either -- compared to other teams in other markets, our prices in those sections are good.

It's more a matter of time than price. The Toyota Center will sell out consistently -- it's just going to take us a little time to build to that. Two years ago, we were last in the league at 11,737 per game. Last year, we were up 17%, second best in the league. This year, we're up about the same percentage again (3rd best in the league this year), and we're averaging about 15,000 per game. That should be higher by the end of the season -- attendance in the second half of the season is typically better than the first half in the NBA, especially if you're in playoff contention. (And 10 of the top 13 attendance games by our pre-season projection are in the second half of the season as well.)

We sold out 3 games in 00-01, and 3 in 01-02. We sold out 10 last season. We're on track for 17-20 this year, maybe more if the race gets hot. We'll get there.

We'd love to have jumped overnight from last in the league to sellouts every night. It's just not a realistic plan. Strong and steady increases are something you can plan on, though, and so far we're on track.

Incidentally, the numbers I really look at are paid tickets, not announced attendance, which includes freebies, comps, and giveaways. Those paid attendance numbers aren't made public, but we're in the top half of the league by that count.

Tim

 

Tim-

I want to give you props for making the games more enjoyable from a fan perspective over the last few months.

 

for real? how much do you have to pay to not see an ant farm?

$14?

 

Maybe that is why nobody goes to the games? Was todays game a sellout?

 

Tim,

I think you're great for posting on this site and your customer service is outstanding.

However, I think the numbers are somewhat misleading.

Last year we had the #1 pick. Not only was he a #1 pick, but an intriguing 7'6" player from China.

Compare that with previous years, it's obvious why attendance went up as has Cleveland and Denver this year. It was more due to luck and circumstance above all else.

This year the attendence increased due to a new coach and a new stadium. A high profile coach out of retirement and a brand new multimillion dollar stadium will create interest - Im almost positive anytime a new stadium is built, attendence the following year increases.

Perhaps the Rockets making the playoffs will increase ticket sales next year because the novelty factors present from the previous 2 years will be gone.