New Orleans And the All Star Game... (1 Viewer)

[alon504]

...It should have never happpened. This is turning out to be a set up for pure disaster and embarrassment for New Orleans. The City of New Orleans is having the most embarrassing, horrible support of the Hornets this year, I wish that we would have never gotten this All Star Game. Yes, I know it is a bright spot and it is the first major pro event to come to New Orleans since the storm. But, this city is an embarrassment. We are having humiliating support of our NBA team. People here don't want the NBA and they don't care about the NBA. Am I a supporter...come on that is no secret. But, the national media is already harping and clammering all over us about how we are going to lose the Hornets and that this city cannot support the NBA. We don't have the means. It's disgusting and humiliating. I'm so proud that New Orleans has the NBA and the people here could careless. They don't like the Hornets. They don't care if they leave. They don't go to the games. The media is going to be all over the negativity of New Orleans and the NBA when the All Star game comes here...it's disgusting. I'm so tired of being around a bunch of people who aren't sports fans and are only football fans. Why are people so simple here? I live here and love it....why aren't people here more into sports, as a whole? I, actually LOVE the Saints AND the Hornets. I really do enjoy both. This is going to be really embarrassing. It already is. But, who really cares? Nobody that lives here does....they certainly aren't going to see the Hornets play. Why? Because they don't care if they are here at all. They would just assume the Hornets be gone. Well, that may just come true...especially after the media destroys this city in February. And we deserve it.

 

[atceagle]

crickets

 

[ibelieve]

I love that we have the Hornets. I just cant make it to games during the week because of where I live and my work hours. When football season is over and my weekends have more time I will try to go to 1 or 2 games a month. If we lose this team we will never get one back.

 

[peytonknows]

I think the problem is more along the lines of a.) they weren't very good before the storm. b.) The whole deal with our owner and OKC was pretty disgusting. It soured a lot of people regardless if you want to believe that or not.

The Saints actually did something right and came home at the right time. Think about it, all of the buzz when the Saints came back. The anticipation of the first home game back was a lot more than the Hornets. I support the Hornets when I can and did so before the storm when I was still in the area. But I don't fault people for having a bitter taste after the whole issue with OKC. But if the organization would just come out and say we want to be here forever I guarantee attendance would be great. Shinn will never do that though. He makes blanket statements and the fans just want him to commit. Same with Benson, he needs to commit long term. But comparing the NBA vs. NFL is impossible.

With all of that said, if they keep winning and are able to compete as they have shown then more and more people will start going. Winning changes a lot of things. Also they should look at a more regional approach for ticket sales, which they may do already but that is one thing that has been helping the Saints.

Anyway, I don't keep up as much with the Hornets as I used to so I may be wrong on some issues. But that would be my guesses as to why the attendance is the way it is. Just win and more people will show up. Not just a 9-2 start.

 

[Brennan77]

A little media coverage of the team wouldn't hurt. There's not much in the way of major reporting. I went to the game last night and the attendance was more than embarrassing. But I wouldn't have known there was a game if someone would not have given me tickets. We're buying tickets for a few games in January.

 

[JOElittleBIGhorn]

I
Anyway, I don't keep up as much with the Hornets as I used to so I may be wrong on some issues. But that would be my guesses as to why the attendance is the way it is. Just win and more people will show up. Not just a 9-2 start.

I still think this is what it comes down to. They just need to keep winning. I also think that attendance will go up after football ends. People will see that this is a pretty solid team, and with no Saints around to steal the attention, the Hornets will only have to compete with an AFL football team for attention. Media coverage has been one of their problems IMO. WWL doesn't seem to latch on to the Hornets anywhere near as much as they do the Saints. The end of football season should help this. Everyone loves a winner. If they keep it up they should be fine.

I also have to disagree with the OP. I think the All-star game will go on fine. New Orleans, if nothing else, has proved time and again that we are the masters of pulling off this sort of thing. They always find a way to make this sort of thing work. At least I'll be there to boo T-mac for hating on NOLA .

 

[alon504]

Do YOU want to see the support your New Orleans Hornets are getting? Do you want to see how embarrassing this is? There is something wrong with this city. We don't like the NBA.....the nation is figuring this out. Yes, we saved face with the Saints/Atlanta game in 2006...it's being erased just that quick...we are, now, revealing our weaknesses and the media has been clammoring to see this. Remember this, New Orleans...you heard it here. We are going to be completely humiliated and it is OUR fault. As for me...I go to the games. Here you go...see, we really aren't all that:

 

[JimEverett]

dang - that is pathetic

 

[TheBigEasy99]

I was a big time Hornets fan and supporter before the storm. I went to about 20 games a year. But the way the whole situation was handled following Katrina just turned me away from them. Calling themselves the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, wearing those insulting NOK patches, and introducing the team as "Your Hometown Hornets" rather than as the "New Orleans Hornets" before the games they did play in NOLA just left a bad taste in my mouth. Throw on top of that some of the not-too-nice public comments that were made by Hornets players, coaches and top brass in the weeks and months following Katrina, and it’s no wonder why the city hasn’t really embraced them in their return. It's not so much that I'm bitter or hurt (like I would be if the Saints left), it's just that I can't bring myself to feel anything for the Hornets anymore. For two years they were somebody else’s team. I still watch their games, following their box scores and will probably even attend of game or two, but whatever I fandom I had for the team is gone.

The best analogy I can give is this: Let’s say you’re wife or husband has a brief and ill-advised affair. After awhile he or she comes back and the two of you try to work it out (for the sake of the children). You can go throw the motions, sleep in the same bed and pretend that everything is like it was before, but it’s not. Whatever feelings you had for that person before are gone. And they’re not probably coming back.

 

[antipop]

why is it a problem if people don't care about basketball???? why does that make a person "simple"???

are you really surprised at the outcome nof the hornets coming here??? we already had an NBA team once and it didn't work out

meh.....basketball sucks and having a team here isn't going to change the way i feel about it

MLB >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NBA

 

[domedog316]

It's hard to get season tickets when there are 41 games and good seats are outragiously expensive. Sure, you can sit in the nosebleeds cheap, but what about concessions?

It's no surprise to me, honestly. George Shinn will never commit to New Orleans long term.

What do you expect folks to do? For some, basic necessities are more important than going to a basketball game.

 

[SuperBMG]

one thing i think is overlooked is that there are few "big" games in an NBA schedule.

the hornets have no rivals right now, unlike the saints and falcons or lsu and alabama.

what it basically boils down to for most people is two random NBA teams just happen to be playing in New Orleans and one of them just happens to have New Orleans on the jerseys.

as for the team's return, the NBA did it right for the local market. we got a high-profile game against the lakers in '05 and we opened at home against the rockets last year before OKC did.

oh yeah, if less attendance means less corporate you-know-whats that can't stand noise and don't even leave the club area to get to their seats, then i'm all for it

 

[Sonof504]

Weren't ticket sales bad(or average) when we made the playoffs too? I love the Hornets and would hate to see them leave. I just can't afford NBA season tickets, way too expensive for me. I always make it out to a few games though.


I think the attendance is slowly picking up, but it will take time for sure. I'm sure most fans still feel betrayed by the whole Hornets orginization over the last two years. I think the wins will be coming and soon the fans will too.

 

[RJ in Lafayette]

Alon, numbers matter.

New Orleans simply does not have the corporate and population base to support an NBA team. It was highly questionable long-term before Katrina, and the challenge since Katrina has become even greater.

Ask yourself what percentage of people and businesses in, say, the Atlanta metro area support the Hawks--actually buy tickets and suites. Now apply those same percentages to New Orleans and see how many tickets and suites should be sold. Bad example? Try Dallas and use the same percentages.

For a market the size of New Orleans to support an NBA team, one of two factors has to be present: (1) the team is the only professional sports franchise in town, and (2) there exists a passion for the sport of basketball. Neither factor exists in New Orleans. The Hornets will always be secondary to the Saints and even LSU football. And New Orleans frankly is one of the worst basketball towns in the country. Look at the support the ABA Bucs received 40 years. And Lord, look at the support of college basketball in New Orleans. If there is a worse college basketball city in the nation than New Orleans, please name it.

But the bottom line is that you are expecting, given the metro area's population and business base, an absurdly high percentage of citizens and businesses to actively support the team ("absurdly high" because the percentages have to be many times greater than the percentages in most other NBA markets). In a town that doesn't especially care for basketball, it just doesn't work--not in the long run. It probably wasn't going to work out years ago when Bill Hines campaigned for an NBA team, and it certainly won't work out now.

 

[buzd]

And the Hornets games are shown on Cox, so all of us NFL fans who have DirectTV can't watch the games.
The NBA tends to be much more of a show than a sport (unlike college basketball). Between that and Shinn's behavior, I find it hard to get excited for them. I would watch the games on TV, if I could, but I'm not going back to Cox.