I've talked to four current season ticket holders and all of whom don't plan on renewing their seats after this season. In fact, all of them are trying to get out of them asap. I asked a simple question and didn't receive a solid answer. What would you do if you were Rich Cho? Rebuild? That road SUCKS. It took about five years with an insane amount of draft-lotto luck to bring this team back to respectability. But IMO it's the most logical road to take. Retool? With no true go-to-guy what player could we possibily, and realistically, acquire to take Roy's role? Factor in the lack of assets on the roster outside Batum/Matthews/JPEC/AMEC. I vote to rebuild and I hope Cho & Co. don't sit idle and hope this plays itself out, like Kevin Pritchard.
But why? Do we ever see this sentiment with other forms of entertainment? I'm a true Saturday Night Live fan, but the cast really sucks right now, and the sketches are not remotely funny. However, I will still tune in to every new episode to prove what a great fan I am!
While there are many similarities between the two, there are differences. On TV, if a show goes bad, there's 300 other shows for that time slot. But we have only 1 NBA team in Portland. It's either follow them because you like NBA and want to root for the home town product or find something completely different to do.
Frankly, the tickets are really expensive; I can (and will) watch them lose on Comcast. The Blazers live compete with themselves on TV, which competes with themselves on the radio. Three experience levels, three different price points. In the bad not so old days, I watched on TV or listened on the radio. An intersection of extra spending money and potential huge fun said that tickets were a good idea. Take away the fun, and the money just isn't worth it. But I'll keep comcast for another year. If it gets really really bad, 20 wins bad, I might go back to Dish and enjoy the better quality of the other 800 channels, and only watch the KGW games. But I will listen to all of them on the radio. That baseline is always there.
Sports aren't the same. They're not (supposed to be) scripted. They're tied in to the local level. People pay ridiculous amounts of cash to see them compete. They give parades to the winners. I don't have a single t-shirt for any of my favorite TV shows. I suppose I could choose to look at my favorite team the same way I do a show. I understand the difficulty in placing any sense on why a sports team should be any more significant than that. It's just the pride of my tribe. The relatively decent sized one where I grew up. Our war heroes should be better than everyone elses. Our legends ought to be passed on from generation to generation. Shakespeare is art, but it's not legend.
Portland has what, the 5th most expensive average in the league? Thru thick and thin is one thing, but when the state of Oregon has such a high unemployment rate, and the team isn't giving 5th highest price tickets effort.........
Exactly. People do treat sports differently. It is like a tribal thing, and people's egos get wrapped up in the team. Amongst fans, that action is extolled that as a virtue. Pro Sports is great at creating the illusion that the results really matter, and it is fun to follow a winning team, no doubt, I'm excited about the Ducks. But try stepping back a bit, and you'll see that sports is really just a form of entertainment, and you can chose other options, that won't be so depressing.
Hate to say it, but this city has easily one of the biggest band wagon fanbases in the league. I'm not saying all season ticket holders are front runners, but it's funny to watch the ticket sales ebb and flow with the team's success. Media always talks about the Portland fans, but I've come to expect this behavior. If the team is below .500 for most of the season, people will lose interest. If we stay below .500, the city will once again turn its back on the team. Much like last time, most fans will have some excuse for not following them, whether it's the firing of KP, or how they've handled the injuries of Oden and Roy. Personally I prefer when they're gone. Easier to get tickets.
Having tickets is not the definition of being a Blazer fan. I watched the Blazers for 24 years before I got my first season ticket. Out of those 24 years, like 15 of them I couldn't even buy one if I wanted it. Last time I looked, what makes a fan a Blazer fan, is if they are a fan of the Blazers, which is decision made inside their own mind, and not made by anybody else.
I don't think very many of the people on this board are bandwagoners. So no. Pretty much anyone who has been a part of this community for any length of time would be excluded from that statement. In fact, I'd say most of the bandwagon fans in Portland are too casual to post on a forum like this anyway.
Ok back to the original conversation. Rebuild. Retool. Looking at the situation, I would say retool, and here is why. There have been several teams over the last few years who appeared to be on a downward spiral due to injuries, lack of talent, etc. Teams like New Orleans. New Orleans had been devaststed by injuries the last few years too. They also had players who were not a good fit together. A couple of moves later, the team is competitive again. They just had to be the right moves. The way I see it Portland is having troubles right now because several reasons: 1. KP ran the team like you would run a San Antonio team. The problem was, though, the team wasn't a San Antonio team. San Antonio has talent and could afford to stash draft picks overseas. Portland never made it to that level, and could not afford to stash draft picks overseas. Right now we have had several years where our 1st round draft pick has either not made an impact with the team or has moved on to take their talent elsewhere. Because there basically has been no high level talent coming in, and talent has been heading out the door yearly, the team has slowly and surely been drained of talent from what it had 2 years ago. 2. The team is too small, and has too many players playing the exact same position, SG. Get rid of at least one of them. Try to get a real backup PF. Adding a real backup PF of some quality would give the second unit rebounding they desperately need, give them a banger who can defend bigger players, and a guy who can set picks to get players good looks at the hoop. Miller and Camby will be gone before this team turns it around again. So deal them for something useful if you can, if not they expire next year. A couple of ideas I will throw out there. Orlando is one of those teams that is good, real good. But they just don't have enough in the tank to be able to beat a Boston team because of their size. Would they be interested in Camby for Bass or Gortat? Would they be interested in a Miller instead of Duhon? Sacramento has been searching for a PG to put next to Tyreke Evans. How about Miller there and we get Landry back, (who is in their doghouse)? Pick up a run of the mill competant backup PG off the free agent market. Hell who knows. Maybe Jerryd Bayless will be available. Now if you look at what I proposed, some of those moves would definitely further damage the teams ability to function this year. This is purely intentional for the fastest turnaround for the team possible. The team would fill holes at PF and center this year. SG is handled. Then all we have to do is look for another SF and pick up one of the top 2 PG in the draft, and the team is rebuilt and ready to head back upwards next year.
Great analysis. We'll have one less SG by the end of the year (Rudy gone) regardless of whether we move one or not. I'd sit pat there.
