NBA attendance abysmal (arenas, NCAA, playoffs, finals)

[rainrock]

Wow. As a Sixer fan I am seeing empty arena after empty arena. Its unbelievable how invisible the Sixers are in Philadelphia. Its a great sports town. The Phils had 3.5 M fans, the Eagles have a season ticket waiting list of 70,000 people, and the Flyers capacity is usually 95%+ . The Sixers are the only team that the region will not support and it lloks like its spreading to other NBA markets.

The Sixers arena is about 2/3 empty every home game. Every road game I have seen them play those arenas have also for the most part been empty.Mia,Ind,NJ,Char,ORl.

The NBA looks like it is in real trouble here except in a few choice cities where the teams are very good. LA Lakers,SA,Bos,Dal.

What is causing this mass erosion?

[Canes2006Champs]

I live in Charlotte and I can tell you very few people here care about the Bobcats. Part of that is because the whole fiasco with George Shinn and the Hornets leaving. I personally do not think Bob Johnson really knows how to own a team. I don't know why he was chosen over Larry Bird to be owner.

The NBA just hasn't been the same since the 90's. There has been more "Me, me, me" than "Team" since then. And don't forget these controversys about the refs.

To add on here, the atmosphere at NBA games feels more like a club/social setting, etc than a game. At least that's how it is here. More geared towards the young male crowd.

[Buckeye in SC]

This isn't an issue for Cavalier games...can you say Lebron??? Almost every game I've watched this year is a packed house for them. That is surprising about Philly - especially after signing Elton Brand in the off-season. Charlotte is not a surprise, the team is bad, ownership is bad, ticket prices are high for a bad team. I was looking at ticket prices in planning to possibly attend when the Cavs come to town, upper deck seats facing the court are $35!

I think you have a couple other problems, one of course being the economy in a recession - interestingly, Wachovia has major ties to both Philly (Wachovia Center) & Charlotte (HQ for the bank), and two, most casual fans don't care about the NBA until after the Super Bowl. You have college & pro football dominating the sports scene right now and will through January. Coming from an NBA fan first (ahead of football & the other sports), the season is too long, if they want to play 82 games, they need to play more back-to-backs and get the regular season complete by the end of March - right when NCAA is wrapping up. Shorten the playoffs (at least the time between games - 7-game series should not take nearly 3 weeks), and have a champion crowned by the very latest Memorial Day.

[rainrock]

Ok.I just checked into the attendance figures and it looks like its not as bad as I stated,although I wasnt lying about the teams the Sixers have played as they are all near the bottom of the list.

They have the Sixers listed as avg. 12,000 tix sold but trust me its closer to 6,000 fans actually going to the games. The Sixers just signed Brand for $80M and Iguodala $80 M in the offseason but Philadlephia hasnt taken to this team and they finished liek 25-10 last year. I think its going to take a young protege like Lebron to get fan interest back in Philly.


ESPN - NBA Attendance - National Basketball Association

[Buckeye in SC]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Ok.I just checked into the attendance figures and it looks like its not as bad as I stated,although I wasnt lying about the teams the Sixers have played as they are all near the bottom of the list.

They have the Sixers listed as avg. 12,000 tix sold but trust me its closer to 6,000 fans actually going to the games. The Sixers just signed Brand for $80M and Iguodala $80 M in the offseason but Philadlephia hasnt taken to this team and they finished liek 25-10 last year. I think its going to take a young protege like Lebron to get fan interest back in Philly.


ESPN - NBA Attendance - National Basketball Association

You probably should give Philly fan a break too, they just celebrated their 1st championship in 25 years and are on a baseball high, and the football team is doing pretty good as well.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by rainrock

The Sixers arena is about 2/3 empty every home game. Every road game I have seen them play those arenas have also for the most part been empty.Mia,Ind,NJ,Char,ORl.

I will go ahead and chime in here as I was at the Pacers/Sixers game last night. Yes, the arena had a lot of empty seats. But, as weird as it may sound, there seemed to be more people there last night than any game I went to last year. The crowds last year were embarrassingly abysmal and indifferent. The crowds so far this year seem to care about the game again and have been louder than any crowd last year.

In Indy, the low attendance is a double whammy of off-court issues and losing along with the crazy success of the Colts. The team is doing everything it can to become relevant in this city again, from community events to discounts on tickets. They have taken out full page ads in the local paper and deployed players to various events through the season. Hopefully, the Pacers will continue being competitive and we can fill the Fieldhouse up again!

[Scott Summers]

I think the NBA has messed up not showing the games nationally at the start of the season instead of around December. The NBA has also shown their greed in playing the best of sevens, I think they should only do the 4 of 7 format in the finals because you see more passion in the game when it's a best of five.

[Buckeye in SC]

Originally Posted by BravoFan

I think the NBA has messed up not showing the games nationally at the start of the season instead of around December. The NBA has also shown their greed in playing the best of sevens, I think they should only do the 4 of 7 format in the finals because you see more passion in the game when it's a best of five.

I assume you're meaning over-the-air when you say showing games nationally, b/c on cable the NBA is on Wed., Thurs, & Friday nights. While I realize that there is a substantial portion of people out there w/out cable (I want to say it's like 10-15% of all households), the majority of America has ample opportunity to tune in from the get-go. Also, MLB & NHL are even worse, I don't think FOX shows a game until June & NHL is fortunate to even have a contract w/NBC based on their ratings. I think Christmas is a fine time to start airing games on ABC, the weekends up until then are dominated by football, the ratings would likely be abysmal if an NBA game were going up against the NFL or college football b/c lets face it, football rules in this country.

[Canes2006Champs]

don't forget the economy isn't kind to some fans now, that certainly doesnt help attendance.

[noid_1985]

Chicago Bulls games are still packed