Pacers (Indianapolis, Marion, Auburn: credit, home, layoffs)

[indy18]

This young team has had a pretty damn good season. They had the 5th best record in the league and just won their first playoff series since 2005 (Reggie's last year). Now they are about to play the Miami Heat and will truly be on the national stage. It's great to see how rapidly this team has improved. Also, I've slowly but surely seen an increase in Pacer gear/support around the Indy area. We have an exciting young club that the community should be proud of.

Go Pacers!

[missik999]

I agree! There is a great atmosphere at Pacers games this year, very exciting and electric.

I've been encouraging people to return to the games. So many people stopped attending after the brawl. They are a fun and exciting team to watch now.

[grmasterb]

I think it bears repeating that the decline in fan support locally for the Pacers wasn't just about the brawl. The fight in Auburn Hills was followed by gun/fighting incidents involving players at Club Rio, 8 Seconds Saloon and along the streets in downtown Indianapolis. On top of that, the front office made horrible player trade and contract decisions (e.g. the extensions for Austin Croshere, Jamaal Tinsley and Jonathan Bender. And with respect to Bender, I've never forgiven Donnie Walsh for trading Antonio Davis away to move up in the draft to select Bender, especially when Wally Sczerbiak was still on the board).

But, yes, it is nice to see the Pacers doing well again. Let's hope they give the Heat a good battle and maybe even shock the world.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by missik999

I agree! There is a great atmosphere at Pacers games this year, very exciting and electric.

I've been encouraging people to return to the games. So many people stopped attending after the brawl. They are a fun and exciting team to watch now.

The issues with the Pacers is a more a problem with the bandwagon nature of the typical Indianapolis sports fan. The Pacers were selling out Conseco Fieldhouse for year or two after the brawl. Why? Because they were WINNING. When they started losing, then it suddenly became about the brawl and the off court issues. The Pacers have been on their best behavior for a couple of years now, and have been fun to watch for a couple of years now; but only now are people in Indianapolis paying attention. Why? Becuase they are WINNING.

[grmasterb]

Originally Posted by Toxic Toast

The issues with the Pacers is a more a problem with the bandwagon nature of the typical Indianapolis sports fan. The Pacers were selling out Conseco Fieldhouse for year or two after the brawl. Why? Because they were WINNING. When they started losing, then it suddenly became about the brawl and the off court issues. The Pacers have been on their best behavior for a couple of years now, and have been fun to watch for a couple of years now; but only now are people in Indianapolis paying attention. Why? Becuase they are WINNING.

According to FSN Indiana, the Pacers have always enjoyed very good local televison ratings -- amongst the best in the league. So I don't think you can accurately say that folks weren't paying attention. It just hasn't translated into ticket sales.

[indy18]

Originally Posted by grmasterb

I think it bears repeating that the decline in fan support locally for the Pacers wasn't just about the brawl. The fight in Auburn Hills was followed by gun/fighting incidents involving players at Club Rio, 8 Seconds Saloon and along the streets in downtown Indianapolis. On top of that, the front office made horrible player trade and contract decisions (e.g. the extensions for Austin Croshere, Jamaal Tinsley and Jonathan Bender. And with respect to Bender, I've never forgiven Donnie Walsh for trading Antonio Davis away to move up in the draft to select Bender, especially when Wally Sczerbiak was still on the board).

But, yes, it is nice to see the Pacers doing well again. Let's hope they give the Heat a good battle and maybe even shock the world.

You make a lot of good points...

As to the Antonio trade: Not only did we leave Wally on the board, but Rip Hamilton, Andre Miller, and Shawn Marion were all picked after Bender. So was Artest..

Also, we could have desperately used Antonio's size in the 2000 NBA Finals against Shaq. Smits' feet were pretty much shot by then. No one was stopping Shaq that yea as it was his best season ever, but Antonio could have at least given us another body capable of scoring, rebounds, and defense. That series was closer than people give it credit for. We had the opportunity to tie it in game 4, but a 21 year old Kobe took over OT with Shaq on the bench. If Reggie's last second three goes in in OT then it's a tied series with game 5 in Indy....

The fans initially supported the team after the brawl. The brawl happened in Reggie's last year and the team came together and went on a late season run in large part due to some retro Reggie performances. We actually won a playoff series against Boston before losing to Detroit in game 6. It was inspiring how the guys came together after the brawl. Great coaching job by Carlisle too.

It was the Artest trade demand, the continuous off the court incidents, the Murphy/Dunleavy contracts that hogged up the cap space, the horrible coaching of O'Brien, and just the downright putrid play that turned fans off for a while. But thankfully Bird has done a helluva job rebuilding this team rather quickly. We have drastically improved over the last couple of seasons as we have acquired some very good young talent and are no longer weighed down by massive contracts for such mediocre players.

[indy_317]

What roll does the economy also factor into this? Even during the playoffs, I'm hearing some pretty low numbers for tickets...even if in the upper deck. The fact is that even the Colts, prior to the whole Manning issue, were starting to see their season ticket wait-list dwindle. They were running ads for at least the last two years. My guess is that a lot of diehard fans were getting the tickets for a year to avoid losing the non-refundable deposit. Then if personal finances are an issue, they were selling the good games to recoup whatever they could (maybe even make some money on the side). They held for a year then departed. Those with serious financial issues likely had no choice but to eat the lost deposit.

I'm more of a TV sports type person. I can't stand to spend a nice chunk of change to watch grown men who makes boat loads of cash play a game.

[JMMH]

Originally Posted by indy18

This young team has had a pretty damn good season. They had the 5th best record in the league and just won their first playoff series since 2005 (Reggie's last year). Now they are about to play the Miami Heat and will truly be on the national stage. It's great to see how rapidly this team has improved. Also, I've slowly but surely seen an increase in Pacer gear/support around the Indy area. We have an exciting young club that the community should be proud of.

Go Pacers!

Figures. I'm sure everybody put their Colts stuff away last season just in time to dust off the Reggie Miller-era Pacers gear.

Seriously though in the three years I lived in Indy I saw maybe 1 dude wearing a Pacers shirt and like 3 cars with Pacers stickers on them. Meanwhile I couldn't walk 5 feet without seeing something Colts related.

[indy_317]

Originally Posted by JMMH

Figures. I'm sure everybody put their Colts stuff away last season just in time to dust off the Reggie Miller-era Pacers gear.

Seriously though in the three years I lived in Indy I saw maybe 1 dude wearing a Pacers shirt and like 3 cars with Pacers stickers on them. Meanwhile I couldn't walk 5 feet without seeing something Colts related.

Don't worry. If the Colts end up losing the next four or five seasons, all those blue painted Colts buses, vans will get repainted if the Pacers start winning. You will start to see tailgating outside during the Pacer home games. Such is life in a city with bandwagon fans. You win, win, and win some more=tons of fans. You lose, lose, and lose some more=no fans, TV blackouts.

[grmasterb]

Originally Posted by indy_317

Don't worry. If the Colts end up losing the next four or five seasons, all those blue painted Colts buses, vans will get repainted if the Pacers start winning. You will start to see tailgating outside during the Pacer home games. Such is life in a city with bandwagon fans. You win, win, and win some more=tons of fans. You lose, lose, and lose some more=no fans, TV blackouts.

That's different from other sports markets in what way??