duncan228
01-15-2009, 11:43 PM
Silver and black offer exciting escape from economic blues (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Silver_and_black_offer_exciting_escape_from_econom ic_blues.html)
Ken Rodriguez - Express-News
My 9-year-old son Noah settled into his first Spurs-Lakers game Wednesday and noticed a less-than-full house.
“Can we move down one row?” Noah asked, pointing to four empty seats in front of us in Section 202.
Two minutes before tipoff, there were hundreds of them at the AT&T Center. Up high. Down low. Pretty much everywhere you looked.
But still, I thought, if the Spurs can sell out against the Philadelphia 76ers, they can fill every seat for their archrival.
So I told Noah, “Let's wait and see.”
I don't remember what time the people in front of us arrived. But by the end of the game — a heart-stopping 112-111 Spurs victory — Row 7 was slapping high fives with Rows 6 and 8, and Noah was smack in the middle, jumping, bumping and celebrating with strangers.
It was like that to our left and our right. Above us and below us. People who'd never met slapping skin and carrying on as if they were family.
In a sense they were, and that was telling. With unemployment rising and the recession deepening, the Spurs still offer an exciting escape.
Three double-overtime victories before the All-Star break. A three-pointer at the buzzer to beat Phoenix on Christmas Day. A three-point play to beat the Lakers in the final seconds Wednesday.
Either the Spurs need to set up a cardiac unit at the AT&T Center or they need to issue a fan warning: Bring your own defibrillator.
It's a good time to be a Spurs fan, all right. It's not the best time for Spurs management.
Attendance isn't crashing like it is in Sacramento. But the Spurs are drawing fewer fans than last season and wondering about the future. How hard will the slumping economy hit their fan base?
“We're down a few percentage points in attendance,” Rick Pych, president of business operations, said recently. “Obviously people are concerned about how secure their jobs and futures are. And we're seeing some of that.”
Officially the Spurs average 17,888 fans at home, 14th in the league, and fill 95.2 percent of their seats.
But NBA attendance figures are deceptive. The league announces tickets distributed; turnstile counts are kept private.
So the Spurs will admit they've lost fans. They just won't say how many.
They've felt the recession's bite, but the pain could be worse. The Dow didn't plunge until late September, long after most season tickets had been sold.
“It's going to be more interesting to see what happens over the long term,” Pych said. “A lot of our ticketing business and sponsorships were in place before the fall of the economy.”
Recession?
In economically strapped Detroit, the Pistons sell out every home game. In San Antonio, fans pick and choose. They'll pack the building for the Lakers — not for the Clippers.
Recession?
The Dow dropped almost 250 points Wednesday. Then Roger Mason Jr. dropped a three-point play on the Lakers and touched off a celebration.
It continued as we descended the steps and moved through the corridor — Spurs fans, packed thisclosetogether, whooping and hollering as one.
Some were surely going home to financial uncertainty, to jobs at risk, to bills past due.
But the Spurs — those wild, unpredictable Spurs — had created a diversion, if only for one long, exhilarating night.
Ken Rodriguez - Express-News
My 9-year-old son Noah settled into his first Spurs-Lakers game Wednesday and noticed a less-than-full house.
“Can we move down one row?” Noah asked, pointing to four empty seats in front of us in Section 202.
Two minutes before tipoff, there were hundreds of them at the AT&T Center. Up high. Down low. Pretty much everywhere you looked.
But still, I thought, if the Spurs can sell out against the Philadelphia 76ers, they can fill every seat for their archrival.
So I told Noah, “Let's wait and see.”
I don't remember what time the people in front of us arrived. But by the end of the game — a heart-stopping 112-111 Spurs victory — Row 7 was slapping high fives with Rows 6 and 8, and Noah was smack in the middle, jumping, bumping and celebrating with strangers.
It was like that to our left and our right. Above us and below us. People who'd never met slapping skin and carrying on as if they were family.
In a sense they were, and that was telling. With unemployment rising and the recession deepening, the Spurs still offer an exciting escape.
Three double-overtime victories before the All-Star break. A three-pointer at the buzzer to beat Phoenix on Christmas Day. A three-point play to beat the Lakers in the final seconds Wednesday.
Either the Spurs need to set up a cardiac unit at the AT&T Center or they need to issue a fan warning: Bring your own defibrillator.
It's a good time to be a Spurs fan, all right. It's not the best time for Spurs management.
Attendance isn't crashing like it is in Sacramento. But the Spurs are drawing fewer fans than last season and wondering about the future. How hard will the slumping economy hit their fan base?
“We're down a few percentage points in attendance,” Rick Pych, president of business operations, said recently. “Obviously people are concerned about how secure their jobs and futures are. And we're seeing some of that.”
Officially the Spurs average 17,888 fans at home, 14th in the league, and fill 95.2 percent of their seats.
But NBA attendance figures are deceptive. The league announces tickets distributed; turnstile counts are kept private.
So the Spurs will admit they've lost fans. They just won't say how many.
They've felt the recession's bite, but the pain could be worse. The Dow didn't plunge until late September, long after most season tickets had been sold.
“It's going to be more interesting to see what happens over the long term,” Pych said. “A lot of our ticketing business and sponsorships were in place before the fall of the economy.”
Recession?
In economically strapped Detroit, the Pistons sell out every home game. In San Antonio, fans pick and choose. They'll pack the building for the Lakers — not for the Clippers.
Recession?
The Dow dropped almost 250 points Wednesday. Then Roger Mason Jr. dropped a three-point play on the Lakers and touched off a celebration.
It continued as we descended the steps and moved through the corridor — Spurs fans, packed thisclosetogether, whooping and hollering as one.
Some were surely going home to financial uncertainty, to jobs at risk, to bills past due.
But the Spurs — those wild, unpredictable Spurs — had created a diversion, if only for one long, exhilarating night.