This is me now also. Two years ago I cancelled my season tickets after the team tanked the second half of the season and I couldn't give away my seats. Since then I've been only mildly interested in sports in general and especially in the NBA. I'm tired of being so emotionally invested in a sport that has a fundamentally flawed system that is not in our favor. The lock out just made me more bitter towards the system add that to the Roy Oden heart break and its just to much for now. On top of that games are so expensive, for me to have seats worth me getting off my couch I need to spend $150 at least on two tickets for a single game, plus parking, plus food, plus beer, its just not worth it for the most part. I'll go to one game for sure because my job pays one game, and I'll probably keep an eye one the ticket resale center for a steal on a game for date night with my girlfriend, but thats about it for the year.
Oh yeah, I almost completely forgot about the lockout; that definitely soured me a little bit on basketball last year. Who knows, maybe I'll rediscover my love, but for now I just can't seem to muster much excitement.
I think LeBron leaving Cleveland, and in a round about way the Sonics leaving Seattle, hurt the long term health of the NBA more than it helped. It basically told long time fans in colder, less popular cities "fuck you, we don't care about you". Yes, OKC is a smaller city than Portland (iirc?) but it still told Seattle to F off. And then Lebron leaving the Cavs (while technically allowed in the CBA) basically screamed "there are 5 teams in the NBA that matter, and the rest of you might as well take up knitting".
Well I'm not sure who has or how much say Paul Allen has in as to where the Blazers games gets aired but according to Blazers Brass they don't like how Comcast has handled the situation. I hope that's true.
Posted this in the game thread but maybe more appropriate here. The win last night was tainted by my "Moda Center" experience. There is serious apathy in Blazer land these days and as a die hard Blazer fan . . . this sucks! * * * Was at the game last night . . . it's like with a new name Moda Center comes a new crowd. A more sparse and subdued crowd. Any advantage the Blazers had playing home with some of the best fans in the NBA is currently gone. The seats were empty and the crowd gives a mild attempt of cheering the team on. The Blazers have definitely gone big business. No more free tickets, no more filling the Garden for free where blazer maniacs are vocal from the very start. This year has big business feel all over it. There are some advantages to it (i do like the food options) . . . but I miss the RG being filled on a regular season night with a crowd that can be heard throughout the arena and onto the floor. Maybe if the Blazers get some big wins and look to be a surprise team, the seats may start to fill up. Maybe Allen will miss the mayhem behind him and gives away tickets to fill the arena (two sections behind him had no more than 50 people in the whole section) or maybe I just get used to the new environment. I will continue to defiantly chant Chalupa with the crowd but it's only a matter of time till we go with the program and chant mick--ee--dee (although I don't think I will chant at all) and accept the new environment. Oh and those free sausage McMuffins you get . . . the coupon expires in 5 days after the game. Welcome to the new corporate Blazers . . . no mayhem, no crowd, no chalupas, no HCP.
How do you think they maintained that home sellout streak they had. Even after that they would distribute tickets out there to the public. I used to not like the idea that I was paying for my tickets while so many got theirs for free. Now I say toss the tickets out like candy and let's all cheer on the Blazers.
10% of seats were empty. 10%. That's a great crowd in any other NBA market, and for a home game against the lowly Kings its even better by comparison. Was it sold out? No, but that's definitely not the norm around the league and it hardly meant that the Rose Garden felt empty last night. As for enthusiasm, it was a second week game against the Kings - not exactly a thrilling matchup. This whole Chalupa thing is nonsense - by giving out McMuffins, the Blazers have gone corportate. You do realize Chalupas are a Taco Bell product - a company owned by YUM Foods, right? They also own KFC and Pizza Hut, not exactly a mom-and-pop operation. What a ridiculous complaint. It's even more ridiculous when the change was prompted by Taco Bell discontinuing the promotion. That wasn't the Blazers' decision. In fact, the Blazers worked to make sure fans still got something, and yet you're somehow dinging them for the effort. Just stupid.
I think this is all that needs to be said. The Blazers have finally reached the point of no return where even low-priced tickets are out of reach for middle-class fans, and lowering ticket prices isn't an option because of the obscene salaries that must be paid to players these days, as well as squeezing blood from every little stone that makes up the gameday experience. The sad part is, when the team loses fans like us, who obviously care enough about the team to participate in a forum about it, the decline is neigh.
Easy there BB. You completely missed the point of my frustration with last night's game. It really had nothing to do with chalupas or HCP. The chalupa was a joke and used as a metaphor in relation to changes going on around the garden this year. (I don't care about chalupas or sausage McMuffins) My point is the crowd is dead compared to years past (even for Kings on a Friday night). If you are saying the crowd being dead isn't because the Blazers have gone corporate, OK you may be right. If you are implying the crowd wasn't dead, you are dead wrong.
I think you guys are hitting on all the key issues. I'll throw in the Roy factor. I love Aldridge and think he's a fun player to watch. But he's not really a player I would "pay" to see. The team doesn't currently have any players I would pay to see, Lillard included. Roy was. You knew he was capable of putting on magical performances and it was worth paying for the chance to experience it live. There really aren't that many NBA players or teams that are imo. So, there's limited games available that you circle. We've been fortunate, because we've usually had one of those guys throughout the history of the team.
I think the issue is money and the Timbers. There's only so much disposable income to go around and I'd rather spend it on the Timbers currently. Better value.
After MLS is over and if the team goes on a 5 game winning streak it'll be interesting to see if the atmosphere changes.
17,627 out of 603,106 people = 2.9% Portland 21,946 out of 2,715,000 people = 0.8% Chicago 18,581 out of 1,383,000 people = 1.3% San Antonio 13,316 out of 844,220 people = 1.5% Indianapolis I think this thread is about nothing.
No but I do know that the Portland Blazers are the heart and soul of the city of Portland and have been ever since 1977.
If you went to a Timbers game you wouldn't be saying that. Those fans in the army are insane I haven't seen any Blazer game near that level of passion; it was close when we played Houston in the 2009 playoffs.
