Why dont the Bobcats draw better crowds? (Charlotte, Wallace: transplants, home)

[TominLasVegas]

I watched tonights game and the arena was pretty much empty!I thought NC was a basketball hotbed.Are you fans still bitter with the NBA about how the Hornets left town??

[Akhenaton06]

NC is a college basketball hotbed. There's a difference.

George Shinn leaving town was probably one of the best things to happen for Charlotte in retrospect.

The Bobcats just have to prove they can start winning consistently in order to really have an enthusiastic fan base. But we don't do too badly in terms of attendance, although I don't know what the numbers have been since the season started (which has only been 1 or 2 home games).

[CMPX2]

I have Directv and didn't see the game on. What channel are they on? I might watch some, but I'm not a big BB fan.

[ZnGuy]

It is a poorly managed team and a terrible product. They also built that arena against the will of the people. I'm a Cavs fan anyway...I go only when Lebron comes to town. Johnson needs to sell the team because he doesn't have a clue how to operate the franchise and they have only one talented player (G. Wallace) player.

[WHM1]

It was a disaster from the start.... bad taste in tax payers mouth about building the arena... absentee owner with no local involvement and hiring only minorities to both coach and run the entire operation in the beginning. Michael Jordon is a joke as far as a partner and has never given his real help in making this team work. With a real coach now this could be their best season yet but the NBA has lost it shine over the last 10 years... too many games for one thing... 40 home and another 40 away games who wants that much basketball in a season.

[DaddySpice]

1. When the Panthers came to town, it divided the Charlotte sports dollar. Attendance went down for the Hornets, who were formerly the attendance champs of the NBA when they were the only pro game in town. That situation continues today with the Bobcats, especially in a down economy.

2. When the Hornets tried to hold up the city for a new arena, and then left town, it left a bad taste in a lot of mouths, and many fans wrote off the NBA.

3. When the city built a new arena over the vote of the tax-payers, it left another bad taste in a lot of mouths, and many folks don't want to have anything to do with the new arena.

4. The Bobcats don't want to pay the money to put a winning team on the floor. Like the Hornets before them, the Charlotte market may be too small to hold onto star-caliber players.

[mullman]

Originally Posted by DaddySpice

1. When the Panthers came to town, it divided the Charlotte sports dollar.

2. When the Hornets tried to hold up the city for a new arena, and then left town, it left a bad taste in a lot of mouths, and many fans wrote off the NBA.

3. When the city built a new arena over the vote of the tax-payers, it left another bad taste in a lot of mouths, and many folks don't want to have anything to do with the new arena.

4. The Bobcats don't want to pay the money to put a winning team on the floor. Like the Hornets before them, the Charlotte market may be too small to hold onto star-caliber players.

+1 to all the above...

[CouponJack]

Lousy team. Winning will help bring the fans in....they've stunk it up.

Lousy marketing. Ticket prices still very high. Michael Jordan is a terrible owner. He shows more interest in whether to use graphite or steel shafts than he does trying to reach out to fans.

Many transplants can't identify w/the Bobcats yet. See #1. They have to start putting a good product on the court for starters.

It CAN become a good product. Just needs alot of work right now.

[walkermi]

I'm waiting for LeShaq and the Cavs to come to town, then I'll go see the Bobcats... Honestly, Charlotte's basketball passion seems to be exclusively on the college level.

[mesocyclone]

There is a lot of potential there for sure but it takes time. This is only year 6, how many expansion teams do well in their first 10 years? It takes time to build a team and to build a relationship with a city and fans.

As a transplant, like many people in Charlotte, I came from an area that had no NBA team so I LOVE going to the games. After living here through two seasons now I am really tired of hearing about the Hornets and how they did the city wrong, get over it.

The arena is great and eventually maybe the team will be too. And with $10 tickets, it's not that expensive. I've gone when they had promotions for $7 tickets against the Cavs!