NBA attendance - love it live

I may not be the best judge of this, due to the fact I have not been to a bulls game since Jordan retired the second time, but every time I watch a highlight show of a NBA game, theere is nobody in the arena watching the game. IMO the game has gone down hill over the past 15 years while prices continue to climb, but does anyone have an explanation for quarter-filled arenas this season? I'm sure exceptions apply, but watch a Denver, Atlanta, Miami, Minnesota, Memphis, Houston, Golden State, etc. game and its ridiculous.

[IrishHand]

Crap teams don't draw fans in any sport. The bandwagon effect has always been a major factor in sporting attendance and will continue to be so.

And FYI: Official overall attendance in the NBA for the 2001-02 season was 20,172,998 for an average per game crowd of 16,966 over 1,189 games. 17,000 people is a solid number, and is well over 80% capacity overall.

And just so you know, the teams you cited ranked as follows in their conferences (in terms of standing, then attendance):
Denver (12th, 10th)
Atlanta (12th, 14th)
Miami (11th, 10th)
Minnesota (5th, 6th)
Memphis (13th, 13th)
Houston (11th, 14th)
Golden State (14th, 12th)

Pretty clear correlation, wouldn't you say?

Irish

Do you work for the NBA? Thanks for the stats. However, I assume those numbers represent tickets sold and not attendance, which obviously are not reflected in those numbers. Furthermore, those numbers are from last year, my post focused on this year's attendance. Don't get me wrong, all the NBA cares about is tickets sold, but its comical seeing vast areas of open seats in arenas throughout the league this year. What is going to happen when corporations stop buying the block tickets, seeing its not the "hot ticket" it once was? The NBA must sense the problem or looming problem with their wonderful new slogan - Love it live!

A review of the box score last night
Atl - 4th place team playing Minn - 4th place team
attendance capacity 19,445, listed attendance 7,812.
Not exactly the Celtics/Lakers of the 80's, but not crap teams either. And everyone knows there is no way 7,812 people were in that building if you included the players, refs and hotdog vendors.
Boston/New Jersey - 2000 short of a sellout in beantown -those two teams are 1st and 2nd in the same division.
Houston/cleveland - half capacity
Seattle/orlando - two good teams, 4000 short of capacity.

[IrishHand]

Do you work for the NBA?
Not any more.

those numbers are from last year, my post focused on this year's attendance
Sorry. Through a very small sample of games (generally 5-8 games per team), this year's average attendance relative to last for the teams you quoted:
Denver (13,216 - down 4%)
Atlanta (12,208 - up 3%)
Miami (15,516 - down 4%)
Minnesota (15,267 - down 11%)
Memphis (14,693 - up 5%)
Houston (11,852 - up 15%)
Golden State (14,350 - down 2%)

Overall - no substantial change. If anything, aggregate attendance has increased by a small amount among those teams.

What is going to happen when corporations stop buying the block tickets, seeing its not the "hot ticket" it once was?
The numbers go completely against your assertion. The sales of luxury boxes have increased in proportions to the number of new arenas and new boxes. Corporate sales of tickets have, on the aggregate, increased over the past three years. Any public perception that the NBA isn't doing well is incorrect. Even the two teams that moved (Grizzlies and Hornets) were money-making machines for their owners - they just wanted the machine to make more money and moved elsewhere. This should be obvious by the fact that the NBA's going to drop a team back in Charlotte within the next 2 years.

And don't fret about the attendance reports for individual games - over the long haul, the takes for mid-day games between uninteresting teams tend to be evened out by weekend games and top opposing draws.

Feat not, faithful fan. The NBA is doing great and will continue to do so into the forseeable future - as will all the big pro sports leagues, coincidentally. People should stop listening to whining owners - they're all making large amounts of money despite the seemingly ludicrous amounts they pay players.

Irish