What's the deal with attendance?

[Sundance]

You'd think since the Suns are playing amazingly well, and since they were also playing against the rookie phenom Lebron James, more fans would show up.

All Phoenix could muster was 14,800???

 

[myrondizzo]

have you seen the prices?

 

[green machine]

My guess is it was a Wednesday night. Shouldn't be a problem, but it probably contributed.

 

[AZZenny]

Prices are a bit shocking - especially to someone used to baseball prices. I'm planning to take two friends Friday, but to get just adequate seats, it'll cost $150. At that rate, I may get to 2-3 games all season, at most.

 

[green machine]

My guess is it was a Wednesday night. Shouldn't be a problem, but it probably contributed.

My guess is it was a Wednesday night? Wow, I said that? NO KIDDING IT WAS A WEDNESDAY NIGHT!

 

[Sundance]

The Suns played the Bucks last Wednesday at home and had more in attendance then, too. A bit odd.

I guess last season really left Arizona fans cold, huh?

 

[green machine]

The Suns played the Bucks last Wednesday at home and had more in attendance then, too. A bit odd.

I guess last season really left Arizona fans cold, huh?

But last Wednesday was like a Friday, with Thanksgiving being Thursday, most people had the day off.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

They sold out their first 3 games. I am pretty surprised the numbers were this low, especially for Bron Bron.

I agree with Adam though, mid week game is hard to fill.

 

[Sundance]

Oh yeah... Thanksgiving... doh!

I'm still suprised though.

 

[AnotherHOMER]

I say prices also. I went to the Hornets game and paid a bill each for nice seats.

B.S.

-****

 

[Joe Mama]

It would be interesting to see exactly which seats were filled last night. I don't feel like looking it up right now (I can't sleep, but I don't have that much energy). If it was the prices keeping people away one would think that there would have been a lot of empty seats in the bottom bowl and towards the bottom of the top bowl.

I know some of you in other parts of the world will think I'm nuts, but it also could have had something to do with the weather. It's been cold by valley standards the last couple of days. It may be that some people just don't feel like going out right now. I know I'm reaching there.

On TV it looked to me like there was more people there. I thought it was pretty full.

Joe Mama

 

[myrondizzo]

maybe they were watching in HD with leann tweeden. just a thought.

 

[WizardOfAz]

From Paul Coro in today's AZ Republic:

"The arena had some huge empty seating areas Wednesday, surprising when you welcome home the team with the NBA's best record and have the league's marquee player (LeBron James) in town".

 

[JS22]

I was at the game. Most (if not all) of the empty seats were in the upper level.

 

[frdbtr]

I was really suprised by that number as well. Phoenix is a big enough city that selling out that arena every night (especially with the best record in the NBA) should be no problem. I live in SLC but if I were in Phoenix, I would try to take in at least 1 game per year. There has to be enough people in the valley that have this attitude to fill that arena every night. The attendance is confusing to me. We have the best record in the NBA for crying out loud!

 

[AmareFan]

I too was surprised....the upperdeck behind the hoops were compeltely empty...surprised, even with Lebron in town. 13-2 and still alot of no shows...come on Phoenix, show your support,,,,the games are fun this year!

 

[simply_amare]

Maybe this explains it... People stayed at home, I guess.

Suns Ratings on FSN Arizona Continue to Climb


Posted: Dec. 2, 2004

It didn't take long for the Phoenix Suns to establish yet another record television rating on FSN Arizona, as last night's game against Cleveland marked the third time this season the team received its highest rating ever on its cable television home.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the Suns 120-101 win over the Cavaliers (Dec. 1) generated a 5.7 rating/8 share on FSN Arizona, which means that an average of just over 89,000 homes in the Valley watched the game. It's now the best rating ever for a Phoenix Suns game on FSN Arizona, breaking the old mark of a 5.6 which was set against the Los Angeles Lakers less than two weeks ago (Nov. 19). A rating is the percentage of all television households in a market, while the share is the percentage of those television households that actually have their sets on during the particular time.

So far this season, the Suns are averaging a 4.4 rating through seven games on FSN Arizona, a figure that represents a 76% increase over last year's average rating through the same number of telecasts on the network (2.5).

The first time the Suns generated an all-time rating high this year was in their season opener against the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 3. That game drew a 4.1 rating. The figure tied the previous all-time best rating, which was against Seattle during the 2003-04 campaign -- the first year that FSN Arizona began carrying Phoenix Suns games.

The Suns return to FSN Arizona this Friday night when they host the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Suns Countdown pre-game show gets the coverage started live from the Bud Light Paseo at 6:30 p.m. and tip-off is set for 7 p.m. The telecast is also available in High Definition on Cox Communications. FSN Arizona continues to televise the most regional sports action in the state, airing approximately 1,200 hours of original local programming a year. The network is the exclusive cable television home of the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks, Phoenix Coyotes, Arizona Rattlers, Arizona State University, University of Arizona and the nightly Arizona Sports Report. The network is currently seen in 1.8 million households in Arizona & New Mexico and can also be seen across the country via home satellite services. Nationally, FSN reaches more than 82 million homes through its network of 20 regional sports channels.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

I too was surprised....the upperdeck behind the hoops were compeltely empty...surprised, even with Lebron in town. 13-2 and still alot of no shows...come on Phoenix, show your support,,,,the games are fun this year!

Yeah well, once I am making a manager's salary, maybe I can afford tickets....

 

[cardsunsfan]

Yeah well, once I am making a manager's salary, maybe I can afford tickets....

I'm a manager and I don't like a manager's salary Tickets are way too high..how much would it cost for good season tickets?!

 

[jbeecham]

The cheapest lower bowl seats are $35 a ticket for 41 games a year. That's about $1435 for 1 seat unless there are surcharges per ticket per game like when you buy single game tickets (I paid about $6 per ticket in fees for the last set I bought at ticketmaster).

I'd actually like to get 2 tickets in this section and split the games with 3 other people (everyone gets 10 games).

 

[AmareFan]

Yeah well, once I am making a manager's salary, maybe I can afford tickets....

Sorry ASUCHRIS, but a manager's salary only gets me half of a season, not the full season. For a full season, I would need to be a senior VP. A manager job has much to be desired, I would rather be a ball boy for the Suns.

As all of you know, the Suns are for Real! Go team!

 

[sly fly]

I'm a manager and I don't like a manager's salary Tickets are way too high..how much would it cost for good season tickets?!

I purchased a couple tix in the Platinum Club for the weekend games for ~$2,300.00.

14 games.

 

[NickelBack]

I blame the low attendance figure on talk radio!

 

[Islington]

Okay, this is somewhat off-topic because I doubt the change of PA announcers has an effect on attendance .... but ...

Has anyone else noticed the PA announcer? I sat there a while thinking that something didn't sound right and realized it wasn't Jeff Munn (was that the name of the previous guy?). He sounds alright but just sounds a little umm .... more like if I were watching a Hollywood movie about NBA. I kept thinking it sounded more like American Anthem that gymnastics movie.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

I HATE the new PA guy. He is god awful. I am actually embarrased when he does the starting lineups.