Let's not forget the city almost lost the team. Same city that lost the Oilers. I don't think Pittsburg would ever let that happen to the Steelers, or even the Knicks leaving NYC. thanks to Clutch/Jeff for saving the Rockets http://www.clutchfans.net/feature.cfm?FeatureID=49 It's Time to Save Our Rockets MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2000 12:00 AM CT By Jeff Balke Copyright 2000 ClutchFans.net SAVE OUR ROCKETS! The Save Our Rockets movement's goal is to "ensure that the Rockets and Comets remain in Houston permanently" As you all know by now, the movement to keep the Rockets and Comets in the city of Houston is underway. As some of you may remember, I made some strong comments in my last column. To refresh our memories: Instead of bemoaning the possible loss of the Rockets, get out and do something to stop it. Write to your government officials. Write to the Rockets. Organize support rallies. Let everyone know just what an asset the Rockets are to Houston. Instead of fearing the worst, make the best possible scenario happen. Well, let's just say I took my own advice. Shortly after I posted that column, I got several emails saying how we all needed to do something. It seemed as if I had touched a nerve. Well, I went immediately and registered the domain name www.saveourrockets.com and here we are. Save Our Rockets and its companion website is specifically designed for fans and others interested in keeping the Rockets. Our mission statement is: It is our goal to ensure that the Rockets and Comets remain in Houston permanently. Just how exactly are we supposed to do that? Thanks to my ol' buddy, Clutch and his web wizardry, the website is the first step. You'll be able to get info on what we are doing and, most importantly, what you can do to help. The thoughts of rallies are great, but we have to start slow. On Monday, February 7, a press release will be sent out to every radio station, newspaper, television station and interested party in the city to announce the beginning of this grassroots initiative. We have already received confirmations from a couple of radio stations willing to talk about it on the air. Next, we hope to get your help. On the site, you'll find a page where you can collect information on how you can help. The first way is to write the people on the list given immediately. The most important people we have to reach are Mayor Lee Brown, County Judge Robert Eckles, Sports Authority Chairman Billy Burge, the Rockets and Comets organizations and the Houston Chronicle. There are addresses, email addresses, fax and phone numbers right there on the page for you. There are even templates in case you have trouble getting started on your letter. If you don't think your voices count, listen to this. An acquaintance of mine recently helped run the campaign for a local woman. She was a relative unknown but managed to get enough support to make it to a runoff election. In the runoff, she ended up losing by only 37 votes...37 votes!!! That is how important your voice is. It is absolutely imperative that you get involved and make the politicians and Rockets know how much you care about them and their commitment to say in Houston. After we have established ourselves, then we will move on to the serious business of trying to put together some public events. When the time comes, we will gather the support of the citizens, fans and business community. The reason we want to do this right is because we don't want a repeat of the Oilers rally disaster. For those of you who don't remember it, a group of Oiler fans faxed every major news outlet (including ESPN!) and said they were holding a huge rally on the steps of city hall to protest the Oilers moving. When the cameras rolled, they got pictures of about twelve crazy people (several of whom were drunk) standing on the steps of city hall yelling. It was an embarrassment to the city and the final nail in the coffin for the Oilers. Everything we do must be big, bold and calculated. We only get one shot at this! The Rockets are not gone yet and we can do everything within our power to keep it that way. In fact, we need more than just your voice and your participation in a rally. Because many of you are regulars to this site, we recognize that you are more involved with the Rockets than the average fan or citizen. As a result, we need everyone out there who can help in any way to let us know. Know of a print shop who'd be willing to donate some bumper stickers or t-shirts? Have a friend who works for Channel 2? Do you know someone who'd be willing to make us a banner? Do you own a business that could help out? Anything you could think of would be helpful. Obviously, Clutch and I work for a living and, for now, this is coming out of our time and pockets, so we are relying on our supporters to help make this a reality. We simply will NOT settle for anything less than the Rockets and Comets continuing to make Houston their home and committing to that for the long term. Also, it is important that we all remember to remain positive. All the political leaders, business owners and members of the Rockets organization including Les Alexander are our friends. Our goal is in line with theirs. We want Houston to continue to be a profitable, world-class city. Part of that goal is keeping our sports franchises and revitalizing the city through the building of a new arena. We're not proposing how to do it, just that it must get done. These are our teams and this is our city. The time for sitting and waiting is over. The time to act is NOW! Don't wait. Get involved today. You can start making a difference at www.saveourrockets.com!
Hah, I was exactly like that when the Astros were on their World Series run. I stayed up later than usual watching the playoffs. I even watched the game while studying for an exam and went out with a few friends to watch the game. I'd talk about the games at school with random people and be like "go Astros yeah! Triple B's!!!" then we'd lament about... who's that closer who'd keep giving up homeruns? Fast forward to the next season or the next couple of seasons, when the Astros went back to mediocrity after losing their star players, and a kid I used to talk to about the Astros during that run came up to me and started talking Astros... and I was like "wut lol? iono what you's sayin" and changed the subject. Eventually I'd stop talking to him completely cus the Astros were all he talked about.
Like everyone has been saying... The Rockets thrive somewhat on a bandwagon fanbase. The winning of premium games and playoffs, brings out more of the "we" talk. When the losing starts, you hear more of the "haha, they stink" kind of chatter. Also, the lower bowl of the Toyota Center for the most part has been set up to be directed at corporate businesses. I am moving into the Club next season, but I am one of the few people moving in and not out. Economy has been down obviously and the first thing some corporations did was eliminate season tickets. My company did. Even though it's a tax write off, some corporations didn't want their employees saying something along the lines of "you can have season tickets, but can't afford people." if there were a rif at that corporation. However, this season, there have been a couple other issues that also have effected attendance. 1. Yao being out. I would say that his presence adds 10-15% of the attendance on a nightly basis. Since his arrival, there have been numerous groups and families out to the games just to see him. 2. I obviously haven't been a fan of Tracy for a while but to the general market, Tracy was still a little box office draw. He brought out fans that still thought he was going to be TMac once again. That obviously didn't happen. 3. The early prognostications by the experts was that this team wasn't going to do well. So, less people bought the mini plans and the individual games before the success on the court. And when the fans started to open to going to games, the team started getting into a funk. So, winning cures everything and losing hurts everything. 4. The box office marked up the premium games and the second tier games too high when the tickets went on sale. The new price structure was not received well by the fans. It was definitely talked about here. How could prices go up so much for the games when Yao and Tracy were out was a big argument. They learned from their mistake and corrected it, but that first price structure probably caused people to stay away. And by the time, they opened up to the corrected structure, the team was struggling.
Houston is a HUGE city, and to non-die hard fans there's just too many other things to do. Unless the team is winning. Honestly, unless you love the Rox or basketball in general, what's your incentive to follow the team or go to a game and watch them play the Washington Wizards...
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oleKfixy-7A&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oleKfixy-7A&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> I blame Tracy for the lack of support.
look at the bright side. You get 2 month of Astros covergae before there record make them totally disinteresting also
yeah that guy that said baseball was a bigger draw than basketball id like to see the numbers that prove that... over the years ive never seen anything that would prove that, ive seen plenty of data proving the opposite... yes and as some have stated casual fans do talk down about yao all the time, they say he is soft, a cripple, a fragile chinaman etc... total bs if they had any idea how good the rockets play with him on the floor they would not be uttering that complete garbage. anyways i get to about two games a year and i am usually surprised by the turnout to the games i go to. although i usually go to games where a big name contender comes around, celtics, cavs, heat... when stars are in the building fans do show up, to bad the nba is full of mediocrity, why do you think the same team are showcased on national tv all the time, lakers, cavs, spurs, celtics, suns, mavs. no one wants to watch crap for 2 hours. im the biggest rockets fan i know and it been hard watching the team lately, last night was the first i watched at all since kevin has not been playing lately and thats only because we were playing the wizards who were on a 15 game losing streak, i figured we had some sort of chance even with jt starting...
This pretty much sums it up. The town seems to be fixated on the Astros, even though they are the fourth best team in town behind the Rockets, Texans and Dynamo.
we haven't won a championship in 15 years, it took us over a decade to get out of the first round, but at least we're not the astros...in reality we don't have a good team, our stars are injured and everyone else seems to be playing with some kind of ailment, we aren't destined for the playoffs, where do you expect us to be? as for the toyota center, a lot of the seats are season ticket holders, but they don't go to most games, or even most of the game they go to, they should make a rule after halftime they allow fans to come fill up the seats...this would never happen, imagine the chaos, but it is so sad to see all the corporate jackasses ignoring the game and making our stadium look pathetic
You're completely, 100% wrong, and I can prove it. Baseball draws roughly double the attendance per game and they play twice as many games as the NBA. And that's not even including the minor leagues, which are also a much bigger draw in small cities and large towns than the D-League (because the minor leagues actually mean something to the sport). Proof: http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance/_/year/2009 http://espn.go.com/nba/attendance The NBA is a mess right now, too... lots of teams, maybe the majority of them, are in financial trouble.
I agree, Astros fans are boring and Texans fans are dumb. That team is terrible. Even if the Texans win 9 games next season and improve by 1 game they will still miss the playoffs. They won't win 10 games in the next 10 years.
True, but the overall revenue is still higher, and we were talking about popularity/draw anyway, not earnings.
FYI, BEAT LA, the Texans already won 9 games last season and barely missed the playoffs. So improving by 1 win would put them at 10.
That's a weak argument. Just because they team is losing painfully doesn't mean that watching them is painful.. it's the losing that's painful. I still enjoy watching the Rockets even when they lose. The actual game itself still a fun way to spend a couple of hours.
The football is the no.1 sport in USA, it is just more fun to watch. The rockets is the basketball team, not football team, also not great, why do we need complain? I saw so many empty seats in the Heat game whenever I watched, that team has Wade, still can not solve the problem.
