Grizzlies Attendance

[LittleAlex]

Trivia Question: Of the top 20 largest US metro areas, only three are without NBA franchises. Seattle and San Diego are two. Which is the third?

I am going to guess Las Vegas. St. Louis is probably right, but I prefer to go my own way.

 

[BIG Q]

hmm I remember when the NFL had a 49ers vs Cardinals game in Mexico City and they filled their entire soccer arena, which was about 100,000 seats or something.

And the Cardinals locker room was broken into. Every wallet, piece of jewelry, ipod, etc were stolen. Also, Mexico City is one of the most polluted cities in the world.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Blazers were dead last in the 2005-06 season.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/attendance?year=2006
But in the current year we are holding steady at #3.

Yes, but even during the darkest days Portland managed to average over 15,000. Memphis is under 13,000 for the second year in a row. They averaged 12,770 last year and are at 12,587 this year. They've either been last or 2nd to last three years running.

BNM

 

[Boob-No-More]

It's not as if they were drawing a lot of fans then, either.

http://www.databasebasketball.com/teams/teamatt.htm?tm=VAN&lg=n

Current numbers: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/attendance

They drew better there than they are in Memphis. They were over 16,000 in average attendance each of their first 4 years - a figure they've only topped once in 8 years in Memphis. Even the last two lame duck years in Vancouver they drew more fans they they have over the past two seasons in Memphis.

Their move, like the Hornets move from Charlotte to New Orleans, was a case of the grass is always greened elsewhere. A cash strapped team alienates one fan base and moves to another, even poorer location, and continues to struggle financially. Big surprise there.

BNM

 

[BasX]

They have a better basketball team to support, the Tigers of Memphis University.

 

[Boob-No-More]

They have a better basketball team to support, the Tigers of Memphis University.

That's not saying much. You could probably put together a team of five Elvis impersonators that could beat the Grizz - or at the very least be more fun to watch.

BNM

 

[PapaG]

I guess signing Darius Miles for the rest of the season didn't have the impact at the gate the Grizz were hoping to see?

 

[Nate Dogg]

This is kinda out of left field, but is there any support for the NBA in Mexico City?

That's a huge city and I'd imagine it would draw a ton of fans.

And have the risk of our players either being held for ransom or killed. Great!

 

[BasX]

That's not saying much. You could probably put together a team of five Elvis impersonators that could beat the Grizz - or at the very least be more fun to watch.

BNM

The Tigers do run a pro like system, and usually get the best recruits. I'd rather wacth the Tigers, cause you know they'd win.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

And have the risk of our players either being held for ransom or killed. Great!

You're right! And maybe there would be the risk of one of the players getting shot just because he went out for fast food after dark! I hear that can happen in lawless countries awash with firearms.

 

[HailBlazers]

I guess signing Darius Miles for the rest of the season didn't have the impact at the gate the Grizz were hoping to see?

Seriously WTF. And people thought the Blazers were out of line for warning people against signing his worthless ass.

 

[PapaG]

Seriously WTF. And people thought the Blazers were out of line for warning people against signing his worthless ass.

We were told that he clearly could still play at an NBA level and would prove the Blazers wrong, yet Darius is now mired to the end of the bench on a very bad team playing for next season, which he won't be a part of I'm sure.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I also found it very curious that he never played. And although I thought the memphis announcers were pretty good yesterday, they never mentioned his name. Although they did say Travis was a very good SG/SF and Frye ( a very PHYSICAL player) was having his best year??? Oh well...they do have 29 other teams to research

 

[Boise Blazer]

I also found it very curious that he never played. And although I thought the memphis announcers were pretty good yesterday, they never mentioned his name. Although they did say Travis was a very good SG/SF and Frye ( a very PHYSICAL player) was having his best year??? Oh well...they do have 29 other teams to research

They called Rudy Fernandez a good defender too. Couldnt help but snicker at that one.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

I hear the murder rate in Washington DC is very high compared to the rest of the country . . . maybe the Blazers shouldn't play games on the road against the Wizards.

 

[Chutney]

seattle will have a team by 2011

How about hartford? prob too small but cant be worse then OKC. Uconn is fucking HUGE here. Its all this state has. You know its bad when a minor league hockey team does well.

I know Hartford's started to make a bid to bring an NHL franchise back to the city. Not sure if they could support a pro basketball team though. Indiana and Charlotte are both failing because of the assumption that support for college basketball will = support for NBA basketball.

 

[LittleAlex]

They have a better basketball team to support, the Tigers of Memphis University.

And the players get paid a little less!

 

[andalusian]

That's not saying much. You could probably put together a team of five Elvis impersonators that could beat the Grizz - or at the very least be more fun to watch.

Dammit KP, you should have traded RLEC for one of them Elvisonaotrs!

That's throwing the team under the horseless carriage right there. Yes sirry, Bob. Negligence.

 

[La Bomba]

The Grizzlies had great attendence when they were a 50 win team. The Kings were considered the load house of the NBA when they were a WCF team. It's all about winning ball games.

 

[PapaG]

The Grizzlies had great attendence when they were a 50 win team. The Kings were considered the load house of the NBA when they were a WCF team. It's all about winning ball games.

Really though, what's up with Darius Miles? He hasn't played the last two games.

 

[JE]

Contract them.

 

[La Bomba]

Really though, what's up with Darius Miles? He hasn't played the last two games.

Hollins hasn't played him much as of late. He's played him a lot less then Iavaroni.

 

[Minstrel]

To reprise an old joke: The Bay Area in California is far too large a market to be without an NBA franchise.

 

[Boob-No-More]

The Grizzlies had great attendence when they were a 50 win team. The Kings were considered the load house of the NBA when they were a WCF team. It's all about winning ball games.

While I agree that winning is the biggest key to putting butts in seats, the year Memphis won 50 games, they averaged 15,188 home game attendance - 25th out of 29 teams.

The year after their 50-win season, was their best, in terms of attendance, in Memphis at 16,862 per game - 19th out of 30 teams. They won 45 games that season.

The year after that, they won 49 games and averaged 15,793 home attendance - 27th out of 30.

So, they made the play-offs three years in a row and only topped 16,000 average attendance once - and only once made it out of the bottom 5 in average home attendance.

So, even when they were winning, they weren't exactly packing them in (~85% of capacity over those three years).

By comparison, last season the Blazers won 41 games and missed the play-offs. Their average home attendance was 19,550 - 7th in the league and about 98% of capacity.

This year, they are on pace to win 50 games, should make the play-offs, have sold out every home game, and are currently 3rd in the league in average home attendance at 20,497 - 102.6% of capacity.

That's the difference between Portland and Memphis. The Blazers have sold out every home game since late December 2007 and it's not going to get any easier to get tickets now that they are on the verge of making the play-offs. In Memphis, even when they were making the play-offs three years in a row, 15% of the tickets went unsold.

BNM

 

[Rodolfo]

I think it's pretty clear what the Grizzlies need to push their attendence up to our level. He got it done for the A team, why not the Grizzlies?

 

[La Bomba]

What the Grizzlies need to do is get some homegrown talent aka a Memphis Tigers' player. The Tigers are ranked eighth, I think, in attendance out of all the teams in the country and it is some what surprising considering Memphis hasn't been a big name program until now. Bringing in players that this city basically view as gods (no joke, people here breath Tiger basketball) will get Tigers fans to watch them in the same arena. I guarntee that if we would of somehow gotten Derrick Rose last season we would have a lot more fans in the FedEx Forum for something other then a Tigers game. In fact, after the both Lakers games, the Bulls-Grizzlies game was the most attendence we had all season, and I know they didn't show up to see any player but Rose.

 

[Boob-No-More]

He got it done for the A team, why not the Grizzlies?

Because the A Team didn't suck.

BNM

 

[andalusian]

What have they got to lose? Mr. T, even at this stage in his career, would not give them less than what Darius does. And his bling is even better.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

What the Grizzlies need to do is get some homegrown talent aka a Memphis Tigers' player.

I hear Penny Hardaway's available.

 

[NathanB]

Trivia Question: Of the top 20 largest US metro areas, only three are without NBA franchises. Seattle and San Diego are two. Which is the third?

Actually 5 of the top 20 largest US metro areas do not have an NBA franchise. In order of population they are, Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario, San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos, St. Louis, Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater and Baltimore–Towson.

edit: Make that 6 I forgot Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue.