Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
Philadelphia prides itself on being a great sports town. When teams are good, arenas and stadiums are packed beyond capacity. But when teams struggle, Philadelphia isn't one of those cities where fans will go out and support the team no matter what. And dare-not call them fair weather fans. No no no. Philly fans don't show up to games for the struggling teams – or watch on TV for that matter – not out of being unsupportive, and therefore, bad fans. No, in most cases Philly fans convince themselves that their lack of interest is more to show ownership that failure is unacceptable. They're not bad fans who only care about winning – they're great fans who care so much about winning they have to force themselves to not watch a bad product. That has to be how you can justify the worst attendance in the NBA (based on percent-to-capacityl), with just 12,932 (63.3-percent full) showing up for games.
There's no other way to explain it, really. It's not an overstatement to say that the city of Philadelphia stood on its head when news broke that Allen Iverson would be back in uniform. The teary-eyed press conference sealed the deal – Iverson was back and so were the Sixers. It was going to be different from this point forward. Sure, Iverson explained it will eventually be the same as it was last time – remember that did not end well, including Iverson skipping out on Fan Appreciation Day. He's human and so are the fans. But who knew 'eventually' would be 'two days?'
It's going to take a while to get back into playing shape, and Iverson's line in game two of 11 points on 3-10 shooting with six turnovers is a clear indication that the A.I. NBA fans know is not fully back to form. But it shouldn't take any time for Sixers fans to get back into the action. In Iverson's first game back against Denver, the building was electric. The game was quickly sold out following the announcement that Iverson would start on Monday and in a city of hot tickets this year, Iverson's return was one of the hottest. Those not at the game tuned in to watch on TV, as Comcast SportNet boasted 4.9 local ratings (146,000 households), a 300 percent increase over other regular season games and the highest regular-season rating in nearly five years.
The Sixers lost on Monday, but there still remained some hope in the city with A.I. back in town. At least the team will be fun to watch again and you'd hope the place would be packed for game two of A.I.'s return. Okay, his first game back was an event – he kissed the floor before the tipoff – so for a team with the league's worst attendance, 'packed' might be asking too much for game two of Iverson 2.0. How about a residual bump of a few thousand fans who couldn't get tickets to Monday's game? Would that work?
The Sixers lost Wednesday night to another one of Iverson's former teams, the Detroit Pistons, in front of ... wait for it ... 12,136 fans. And that was the announced attendance, so who knows how many fans were actually in the building. There were fewer fans in the Wachovia Center for Iverson's second game than the team is averaging at home this season. Now, fuzzy math there, as Iverson's return skewed the numbers so much that the Sixers home-attendance average raised nearly 1,000 fans after one sellout. So, in game two of Iverson's return the Sixers actually did fill more seats than they were averaging before he came back to town – 171 more seats. Not exactly the bump the Sixers were hoping for. If announced attendance declined 8,528 fans from Iverson's first game to his second, who knows how many fans will bother to show up for the rest of the season.
Winning will help as the 11th-straight game in the L column might have something to do with why people don't care – or as I said before, why they care so much they're not showing up. But Iverson's return was supposed to fix those with apathy or frustration toward the franchise. Happy days are here again! Well, if you look at the attendance for his first two games back, maybe just happy day.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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Whoa, the Holy War was Wednesday night, too. Literally the same attendance at the Palestra as the Sixers game. Hooo boy.
by pfishhhhh on Dec 10, 2009 11:00 AM EST reply actions
Wait, wait, wait…wait just a minute here. That guy actually made a little sign, complete with Magic Marker block letters, and took the time to paste three pictures on it?? Oh man, I hope he was holding that up for some kid that we cannot see.
by ChiAdam on Dec 10, 2009 11:35 AM EST reply actions
They should suddenly buy out and break up the Clippers, the Bobcats, the Thunder and the Grizzlies. They should do it today, so as to allow the rest of the NBA no time to tank games.
The Hornets would be renamed the Tornado Alley Thunder, and play between NO, OKC, and Memphis. They would get the first pick in the draft where the players from the dissolved teams would be redistributed through the NBA on a worst to first basis.
Sure, it sounds crazy. But…
- The Hornets team CP3 with Durant and become an instant powerhouse team. The three cities can fight it out to see who gets them full-time.
- LA still has the Lakers, so they can’t complain much. It also kills an apparent curse, although it may travel to other teams with the former Clipper players, a la Poltergeist II.
- Brooklyn, Minnesota, Philly, Indiana, Golden State, Washington, Chicago, NY and Sacramento would most likely divide some order of Mayo/Gay/Baron/Kaman/Wallace/Randolph/Westbrook/Gasol/Camby among themselves, rapidly strengthening each program.
- These teams will get a double-hit of Upgrade the following year in an NBA draft where the upper tier was just thinned out, essentially moving everybody up 3 spots.
- The better NBA teams can either snatch up a role player, or save themselves the financial hit by forfeiting their redistribution draft pick.
- The draft itself should be hyped up, televised on a weekend, and exploited to make dollars which would help pay off the disaffected owners.
- The disaffected owners are kept in the loop with the merchandise and TV money, until such time as both sides agree to break off. Any owners who don’t play along perish in strange, basketball-themed accidents. Those who get with the program also get a cut of merchandising money from college programs we are able to co-opt in towns they used to share. The next 20 All Star games are shifted between the stadiums owned by the disaffected owners.
- You indirectly buy people like Donald Sterling, Chris Wallace, Kevin McHale and that dude who stole Seattle’s team out of the NBA as a nifty side effect.
Radical, yes… but it leaves you with an NBA where every team is good and the worst 4 markets have been marginalized. if you disagree, you may suffer a basketball-related accident.
by L'etat, c'est moi on Dec 10, 2009 12:07 PM EST reply actions
While
by L'etat, c'est moi on Dec 10, 2009 12:24 PM EST reply actions
While I had the hammer out, I’d also force Utah to drop the Jazz moniker. They can be "The Rockies" or something. The NBA should have at least obne team named after mountains, which are tall like NBA players. keep in mind, I root for a team who use a Leprechaun as a mascot.
While I don’t know if Grizzlies range south into Utah, the name would be available for Utah under my plan. For the money I’m talking about, they can import a few.
by L'etat, c'est moi on Dec 10, 2009 12:31 PM EST reply actions
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