are we really prepared for warriors fans to take over the toytoa center and turn it into oracle arena?
I will say... the crowd has to be inspired by the Rockets play moreso than the Rockets get inspired by the crowd. They will respond when guys play great defense that leads to transition points. They will respond with spectacular shot making. They don't respond much to FT disparity.
Our crowd shows up halfway through the 4th, if ever. I don't know how we fix this. Most teams put their disinterested corporate clients up in suites. We put them in the first level baseline to baseline.
Then who is in the suites? There are several non corporate clients who sit on the sidelines... who very much enjoy the lounge and don't really bother to show up on time.
It's a big problem, but I don't think we'll have to worry about it in the WCF. Warriors vs Rockets even in the regular season have always been a hot ticket so the place will be buzzing. Energy won't be a problem and that's good because we seem to play better in high intensity environments.
Meh, we can keep complaining but until the die hard fans become rich people that can afford these seats, this will continue being a common theme through the years. I would love to buy club seats season tickets if they were more affordable. I got as close as I can buying in the lower bowl corners this year.
Could that be a contributing element? Did the rockets build the TC with too many interesting amenities that people would rather be out experiencing that before wandering down to their seats? Maybe remove some of the video screens in the halls etc so you can't see the game unless you are inside the actual bowl? Look at the below image. Every lower section has availability but at an exorbitant price? Is is possible brokers buy up the seats and then price it outside of what the average fan can afford. Look at the second image and the tickets at oracle. Comparable tickets between TC and Oracle and TC is almost twice as much. I would imagine that stub-fleece or whatever the hell it is called has bought up a lot of tickets and then the rox are holding some back for folks who buy season tickets for next season. Maybe everyone here is loaded but I sure as hell can't afford three grand for 2 tickets just to go sit lower bowl. So while the crowds suck, maybe there are some reasons for it that we have to consider. Frankly I would love some radical policy of limiting the number of tickets brokers can buy and also offering some sort of buy back system where the rox will be the broker for season ticket holders that can't attend. They would "buy back" a ticket (10 cents on the dollar. Something) and then sell that "upgrade" (at a modest profit) to an upper bowl season ticket holder so we can get some true fans from the upper bowl down in the lower bowl. Maybe that is too complicated for an entire year. But for the playoffs. Do some things like that to stimulate asses into the lower bowl seats. Right now the average fan just can't afford to sit there and the ones who do buy the tickets don't give two sh*ts about the sport. Having nothing but Debbie Douche-ette seen and be seens down there does nothing for the feel of the building.
Sure... and push the upper level fans even further up to make room for them. Look, we all understand how arenas/teams make money... its not simply from sold out games, but its sold out game that include premium suite sales and club level purchases. TC has no dedicated club level... it has the lounge areas on the sidelines, that all sideline patrons have access to. Yes, there is a corporate presence there... but there's also a helluva lot of common fan season ticket holders who CHOOSE not to be in their seats at tip-off. How you do you tell somebody who's paying good money to be more of a fan than they already are? Certainly the Rockets are great... but are they "must-see TV" great? I feel most Rockets fans that go to these games know they're a very good team, they know Harden is the MVP, but still don't really have that deep-rooted connection that inspires passion and devout following. How do you get there? Winning it all helps. Falling behind in a series, and making a dramatic comeback, also helps. Continued consistent excellence or watching a beloved GOAT type player can also help. Houston needs something else to get attached to this team. Having a really good regular season and thus-far uneventful playoff run is simply not enough. This Warriors series should be enough to get the juices flowing to where I expect more fan involvement... to the point that the fans may just be more amped up for this series vs. a possible finals matchup with Lebron or Boston.
If the seats are being sold, they're not going to lower the prices. I also don't think this is simply due to brokers buying all the seats. If so, they'd be facing enormous losses when they can't re-sell. The majority of these seats are held by season ticket holders... and most of them are not simply corporations giving out free tickets.
