Attendance
by torsoheap on Mar 25, 2009 4:23 PM PDT
26 comments
Portland should consider itself lucky to have hardcore fans who come to each and every game.
I'm watching San Antonio in Atlanta tonight and Philips Arena is unbelievably empty. Sure, Tim Duncan is sitting out, but this game is a matchup of two playoff-bound teams.
I'm not sure if it's the economy or just Atlanta, but it's a shame so many people are missing some high quality basketball. They should let folks move down to fill in the lower bowl.
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The announcers
It doesn’t have anything to do with my point, but I like listening to Atlanta’s announcing duo of Wilkins and some other dude.
by torsoheap on Mar 25, 2009 4:27 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Atlanta was a ghost town for the Blazer game too
It didn’t help that the ACC tournament was in town at the time.
Other teams are also heavily struggling. Memphis actually seems to have less fans than Atlanta. I don’t know the attendance numbers, but the courtside seats are scarily deserted in Memphis.
Sacramento’s a mess too I believe.
BTW, the reason they won’t let fans move to a lower bowl: Because then nobody in the lower bowl would buy those tickets, they’d just buy tickets for upper seats, knowing they can move down anyway. The exception is for games under special circumstances (like a snowstorm or the like). They’ll often let the fans who made it (braved the conditions) move to the mostly-empty lower bowl as a reward.
I’d rather they just lowered ticket prices for the lower bowl to get more fans. But perhaps the small number of full-priced lower-bowl tickets still bring more revenue than a larger number of smaller-priced tickets.
by Timmay! on Mar 25, 2009 4:30 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
I think a good lower bowl ticket
will cost around $200 in most arenas. That would equal about 10 seats in the upper bowl.
by torsoheap on Mar 25, 2009 4:34 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I can't find a good site to measure average ticket price per team (per section)
On the other hand, this article is an interesting read about how much the Hawks raised ticket prices this season. Decent chance they’re regretting that price increase… but to be fair, they were looking at becoming a playoff team, like Portland, and couldn’t prognosticate the events of year that’s followed.
by Timmay! on Mar 25, 2009 4:46 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
We should be glad that our fans don't boo us.
Even if the Bulls have a blowout win, the United Center erupts into a chorus of boos if Chicago fails to reach 100 points. They care more about getting a Big Mac (Their equivalent of Chalupas) than getting a win.
...
by BR7formvp on Mar 25, 2009 4:37 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Hmmm... maybe for these struggling teams
a New ticket pricing scheme is in order. Perhaps another class of ticket that is more expensive than the upper bowl but less expensive than the lower bowl. Where you get random ticket assignments. If the seats down low aren’t being taken up, then the arena is losing money. You could still have the option of guaranteeing seats down in the lower bowl, by straight up buying them. But have a section of seats that are part of a season-long random seating pattern. Depending on the amount of season tickets you buy you are put into a different random seating grouping?
Either that or have a system similar to airline tickets where you have slightly more expensive seats, that if the opportunity arises you can take the option to be upgraded to better seats for a combined smaller fee than the lower bowl tickets.
Because the story is that people want to be able to sit in those lower bowl seats without paying a ton, and the Organization and the team wants those seats filled, so wouldn’t this be a way to accomplish that? I mean perhaps if you wanted to make sure that people would be coming to the game, maybe not let them know their seats before the game, but people might not like not knowing…
I don’t know, the system I proposed has kinks, but it seems like it would definitely work better (in empty arenas) than the current system. Anybody else have ideas?
From the back of Travis Outlaw's Franz card: Travis leads the team in monstrous thunder dunks, wins awards for post game interviews, and often gets extra points for degree of difficulty.
From the back of Greg Oden's Franz card: Nickname: Jaws. Has an insatiable desire to tear rims apart while cruising the open court, and was once interested in using head-gear for his profession.
by TheOdenator on Mar 25, 2009 5:01 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
offer free plane tickets
to Portland fans for when the Blazers play in their city
There is probably no more terrible instance of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man — with human flesh.
Paul Muad'Dib - Dune (Frank Herbert)
My Translation: My Dad is a dude just like me, and my sons are dudes like me also. I love that.
Season Tix: Section 315, with my sons
by johnv59 on Mar 25, 2009 5:12 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Your system
might be complicated to administer since they want to get full-price whenever possible. Maybe you could do it the day of the game.
by torsoheap on Mar 25, 2009 5:18 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
yea that's true
or they could have people bid on unsold tickets outside of the game on gameday. Then they get as much as they can from the people who are willing to pay for the tickets.
I mean there just has to be a better way. You have people who want to sit in those seats. An organization that just wants as much money as they can get for those seats…
It reminds me of the underpants gnomes….
Steal Underpants.
?????
Profit?
Except its instead.
Set arbitrary price for tickets.
No one shows up.
?????
From the back of Travis Outlaw's Franz card: Travis leads the team in monstrous thunder dunks, wins awards for post game interviews, and often gets extra points for degree of difficulty.
From the back of Greg Oden's Franz card: Nickname: Jaws. Has an insatiable desire to tear rims apart while cruising the open court, and was once interested in using head-gear for his profession.
by TheOdenator on Mar 25, 2009 5:32 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I think they should squeeze the luxury suites a bit more
to be able to lower ticket prices elsewhere. Those suites are mostly bought by corporations who write them off as business expenses.
by torsoheap on Mar 25, 2009 5:36 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Word is, the luxury suites business is dropping like a rock
It’s one of the first costs that businesses are cutting back in slow times. And that’s just at current prices.
(It also depends on whether the arena has luxury suites of course)
by Timmay! on Mar 25, 2009 7:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
This is true
I’ve seen it with my own eyes
There is probably no more terrible instance of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man — with human flesh.
Paul Muad'Dib - Dune (Frank Herbert)
My Translation: My Dad is a dude just like me, and my sons are dudes like me also. I love that.
Season Tix: Section 315, with my sons
by johnv59 on Mar 25, 2009 7:55 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Dang I didn't even think about that.
Does anyone have any data on the percentage of profit a team gets from each different section? Then you could look at where the seats aren’t being filled up and figure out how to get people in those seats…
From the back of Travis Outlaw's Franz card: Travis leads the team in monstrous thunder dunks, wins awards for post game interviews, and often gets extra points for degree of difficulty.
From the back of Greg Oden's Franz card: Nickname: Jaws. Has an insatiable desire to tear rims apart while cruising the open court, and was once interested in using head-gear for his profession.
by TheOdenator on Mar 26, 2009 9:54 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Are you TrueHoop reader Sean?
If not, he just ripped off your comment for bullet number 2: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-38-365/Thursday-Bullets.html.
It’s cool that Henry lurks on BE and that he picked up something from this post.
by torsoheap on Mar 26, 2009 10:40 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
he must be....
There is probably no more terrible instance of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man — with human flesh.
Paul Muad'Dib - Dune (Frank Herbert)
My Translation: My Dad is a dude just like me, and my sons are dudes like me also. I love that.
Season Tix: Section 315, with my sons
by johnv59 on Mar 26, 2009 10:55 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
haha yea I am
It just seems weird to me that the NBA spends so much time putting advanced statistics and new economic models into developing players and advertisers, but don’t spend much time thinking about how to increase attendance. I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a while, and I really would love a job for a struggling NBA team.
I mean Memphis is the perfect example, they average 70% of capacity, but have totally marketable players, and can’t lose with new ideas. The standard thinking seems to be that if you have a good team, people will turn out. But in Memphis’ last season of making the playoffs they only averaged 85% of turnout. That just doesn’t seem right, and new attendance ideas could definitely work in that market…
From the back of Travis Outlaw's Franz card: Travis leads the team in monstrous thunder dunks, wins awards for post game interviews, and often gets extra points for degree of difficulty.
From the back of Greg Oden's Franz card: Nickname: Jaws. Has an insatiable desire to tear rims apart while cruising the open court, and was once interested in using head-gear for his profession.
by TheOdenator on Mar 26, 2009 10:57 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I agree with you.
It seems the current system of charging high prices, but allowing for unsold seats seems counterproductive. You want to build a fan base so they follow the team, boost ratings, buy merchandise and buy tickets. The best way to do that is to get them to games because basketball is much better live. The best way to get them to go to the game is to make the experience affordable.
The first question to ask: are the seats empty because they’re unsold or because their owners decided not to show up? If it’s the latter, then ask ticket holders to donate their tickets to charity where they are raffled off so underprivileged folk can experience the game in the lower bowl. If the seats are unsold then apply one of your suggestions or raffle them off. I think the team can afford to eat some ticket prices in order to get butts in the seats.
Lower bowl tickets are purchased by people with money. People with enough money to blow it on tickets tend to be a little jaded. They’re the ones who show up late, leave early and spend most of the game on their phones gabbing or texting. They’re often people who are there to be seen rather than to support the team. I know I just made a huge sweeping generalization, but I think we can agree that it would be good to get some “regular” folk in the good seats because they would appreciate it more.
To that end, I think every team should reserve maybe 10% of the lower bowl seats for each game. They can reward long-time upper bowl season ticket holders, raffle them off to charities or do other similar things.
by torsoheap on Mar 26, 2009 11:13 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
And, a lot of people haven't experienced sitting in the lower bowl
I have been lucky enough to, and man it is soooo much more awesome than the upper bowl seats. If you have never been down there, how can you guess that it is worth the price? I mean you have to get a taste of just how cool it is.
I was able to see a game from about 8 rows up once, it was insane. Seeing the Blazers from down near the court is the craziest thing ever. I had Nene towering over me as he glared at some trash-talking fans. That was the most insane break of the third wall I have ever experienced, and I mean I am saving money so I can get down low more often. Seeing Greg up (semi-)close was crazy. He’s wayyy bigger than you would ever think. I mean you know he’s 7 foot and almost 300 pounds, but that description just pales in comparison to how amazing it is to see someone like him jump almost 3 feet off the ground to block a shot. Its just plain ridiculous.
People who can’t afford season tickets in the lower bowl will absolutely love being able to sit down there every once in a while, and will definitely be willing to pay a little more for the opportunity. And when/if people are ever going to be able to afford it, they will buy those lower bowl tickets.
Yea its not even eating the ticket prices, they just have to view the system as trying to make as much money as possible for each individual game, and this way they are doing that, and also letting people know just how cool it is to be able to see the game up close.
I also like the benefit you are pointing out that those people will bring more energy to the lower bowl, and might even get the regular lower-bowl-ers more into the game, and help create a stronger home court advantage. But yea we’ll see if any arena decides to use this method, it seems like it has a lot of upside, and you could always switch it back if the plan doesn’t seem to be working…
From the back of Travis Outlaw's Franz card: Travis leads the team in monstrous thunder dunks, wins awards for post game interviews, and often gets extra points for degree of difficulty.
From the back of Greg Oden's Franz card: Nickname: Jaws. Has an insatiable desire to tear rims apart while cruising the open court, and was once interested in using head-gear for his profession.
by TheOdenator on Mar 26, 2009 11:49 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Last fall,
I went to the Warriors-Blazers game in Oakland and I sat about 16 rows from the floor just a few seats off from dead center. After that game, I decided I’ll never sit in bad seats again since it’s a much better experience being that close. I got a good deal on the tickets using Stub-Hub and they were definitely worth it.
by torsoheap on Mar 26, 2009 12:32 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Exactly
but I mean until you experience it you have no idea how cool it is to be that close.
From the back of Travis Outlaw's Franz card: Travis leads the team in monstrous thunder dunks, wins awards for post game interviews, and often gets extra points for degree of difficulty.
From the back of Greg Oden's Franz card: Nickname: Jaws. Has an insatiable desire to tear rims apart while cruising the open court, and was once interested in using head-gear for his profession.
by TheOdenator on Mar 26, 2009 1:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I saw that too and it was practically verbatim
He should’ve credited you
It's spelled "PRZYBILLA."
vanillathrillagorillaprzybilla
by RenoBlazerFan on Mar 26, 2009 1:39 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
he did
I’m ‘truehoop reader Sean’.
From the back of Travis Outlaw's Franz card: Travis leads the team in monstrous thunder dunks, wins awards for post game interviews, and often gets extra points for degree of difficulty.
From the back of Greg Oden's Franz card: Nickname: Jaws. Has an insatiable desire to tear rims apart while cruising the open court, and was once interested in using head-gear for his profession.
by TheOdenator on Mar 26, 2009 1:58 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
oh. oops--nice work Sean!
It's spelled "PRZYBILLA."
vanillathrillagorillaprzybilla
by RenoBlazerFan on Mar 26, 2009 3:46 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Oh the Atlanta crowd...
I HATE the Atlanta and NO playoff crowds. It drives me crazy watching them play to empty seats all season on league pass and then the playoffs roll around and suddenly NO has “great” fans. Atlanta too. So lame!
On the flipside, say what you will about how OKC got their team…they’ve done an awesome job supporting them thus far.
by erastus25 on Mar 25, 2009 11:05 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
OKC's crowd was eerily silent
when the Lakers were in town a couple of nights ago.
by torsoheap on Mar 26, 2009 8:50 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
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