44K season ticket requests for Seattle? (merged)

annihilator_33

annihilator_33

Starter
#31
#31
Even Darren Rovell, who is basically convinced that Seattle has won had this to say about the ticket numbers:

darren rovell ‏@darrenrovell 1h

The 44,000 season ticket requests for a Seattle basketball team is a totally bogus # w/o a reasonable price point.

darren rovell ‏@darrenrovell 1h

Think Seattle is leading over Sacramento but yesterday didn’t help. 44K season ticket requests? 983 potential sponsors? Bull.

darren rovell ‏@darrenrovell 1h

Another ridiculous Seattle basketball # put out yesterday: 268 businesses and individuals “interested” in suites. At what price??

darren rovell ‏@darrenrovell 43m

Unless you take real deposits, which Seattle didn’t, asking people if they want basketball tickets and publishing those #’s is embarrassing.
 
Circa_1985_Fan

Circa_1985_Fan

All-Star
#32
#32
I doubt very seriously that they weeded through all of these supposed over 44,000 'season ticket' requests for legitimacy, and there was nothing 'binding' on the page that asked you what you were interested in like our LEGIT HereWeBuy page...so my take: I bet you can probably take one of those 4's down from the total Hansen gave for SEASON ticket SERIOUS inquiries.
 
R

rhythmless

Starter
#33
#33
I'm sorry, the numbers may seem high but our here we buy page is no better than theirs. Ours is nonbinding and only asks for interest, just like theirs. I'm all for Sacramento, but we need to be objective. We can try and debunk the numbers, but just disparaging them as false with nothing to back up that claim makes us just as bad as the Seattle fans that ignore our history with the Maloofs. Let's be better fans than those guys. How many of those 10k fans do you think are really going to go through with buying season tickets?
 
Section 101

Section 101

All-Star
#34
#34
Circa_1985_Fan said:
I doubt very seriously that they weeded through all of these supposed over 44,000 'season ticket' requests for legitimacy, and there was nothing 'binding' on the page that asked you what you were interested in like our LEGIT HereWeBuy page...so my take: I bet you can probably take one of those 4's down from the total Hansen gave for SEASON ticket SERIOUS inquiries.
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They weren't season ticket requests. They were ticket requests. And they had no price points for the tickets. It was basically a question of who wants tickets to an NBA team.
 
Purple Reign

Purple Reign

Starter
#36
#36
I don't mean to throw shade, but this whole Seattle thing is starting to "feel" shady. From the beginning, the plan was done in secret. The signed agreement, to the public subsidy, to the ticket inquiry, it all feels......SHADY!!!

But what gave me a big pause was the Chris Hansen press conference. You know, I understand that Hansen is not the politician Johnson or Steinberg is, but his whole vibe does not put out confidence or transparency. I mean him and the other two politicians did nothing but deflect and defer. I was not impress. He did not have to go buffoonery like Sacramento did (and by the way I did think that our Sacramento press conference was way over the top) but Hansen has to give me more than what I saw.
 
R

rhythmless

Starter
#37
#37
Section 101 said:
They weren't season ticket requests. They were ticket requests. And they had no price points for the tickets. It was basically a question of who wants tickets to an NBA team.
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Right. And those are the numbers that they got. I believe season ticket interest was also garnered, either through extrapolation or separate questions. However, as I see it, we are basically calling bull on their "parties interested in tickets" while at the same time talking about how awesome our "parties interested in tickets" list is. Does no one see how this can seem hypocritical? ANYONE could have signed that 10k interest list. Hell, I have 5 separate emails that are used to organize and tier my internet activity. They could all be interested parties. Our "put your email here" list is no better than their "put your email here" list. That's all I'm saying. Let's be consistent fans here. Let's be better.
 
R

rhythmless

Starter
#38
#38
Purple Reign said:
I don't mean to throw shade, but this whole Seattle thing is starting to "feel" shady. From the beginning, the plan was done in secret. The signed agreement, to the public subsidy, to the ticket inquiry, it all feels......SHADY!!!

But what gave me a big pause was the Chris Hansen press conference. You know, I understand that Hansen is not the politician Johnson or Steinberg is, but his whole vibe does not put out confidence or transparency. I mean him and the other two politicians did nothing but deflect and defer. I was not impress. He did not have to go buffoonery like Sacramento did (and by the way I did think that our Sacramento press conference was way over the top) but Hansen has to give me more than what I saw.
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Maybe he knows something and isn't ready to spill the beans. It could be that they were not fully ready for the interview. Maybe some of the arena questions left them flustered. Maybe they seem especially quiet in light of how boisterous we were. Here, we may see it as shady, but I'm sure Seattle is calling it quiet confidence and denouncing how we were counting our chickens before they hatch. Perceptions vary, especially on such divided fronts.
 
KingsFanSince85

KingsFanSince85

All-Star
#39
#39
I stated this in another thread, but it's relevant here as well .....

The Sonics couldn't even consistently sell out games during some of their glory years with Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. Anybody that actually believes they've got even half that 44K number -- in season tickets, mind you -- is a lemming.

Without even bothering to research, I'll bet the Seattle Seahawks -- the cities most popular sports team -- doesn't have 44K season ticket holders in a stadium that seats around 67K. But we are to believe the potentially 3rd or 4th most popular sports team in that city (behind the Hawks, Mariners and possibly UW) would have higher demand? Yeah, sure ... whatever.

BTW, does anybody actually know how their ticket request list was operated? Did they present tiered pricing options and contact info like herewebuy.com? Did they have an anti-spam/bot feature? I'll go out on a limb and predict that they didn't.

While I'm willing to concede that a lot of the nearly 11K in pledges herewebuy.com has generated won't actually ever purchase tickets, I'll guarantee that number is far closer to the truth that what Seattle is trying to sell.
 
KingsFanSince85

KingsFanSince85

All-Star
#40
#40
rhythmless said:
Right. And those are the numbers that they got. I believe season ticket interest was also garnered, either through extrapolation or separate questions. However, as I see it, we are basically calling bull on their "parties interested in tickets" while at the same time talking about how awesome our "parties interested in tickets" list is. Does no one see how this can seem hypocritical? ANYONE could have signed that 10k interest list. Hell, I have 5 separate emails that are used to organize and tier my internet activity. They could all be interested parties. Our "put your email here" list is no better than their "put your email here" list. That's all I'm saying. Let's be consistent fans here. Let's be better.
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Proof is in the history of the franchises. Seattle doesn't have an attendance history in which to support that kind of ticket demand whereas Sacramento's history easily supports their 11K season ticket number.

So, no, disbelieving Seattle's ridiculous request numbers while believing in Sacramento's realistic numbers is not at all hypocritical.
 
R

rhythmless

Starter
#41
#41
KingsFanSince85 said:
Proof is in the history of the franchises. Seattle doesn't have an attendance history in which to support that kind of ticket demand whereas Sacramento's history easily supports their 11K season ticket number.

So, no, disbelieving Seattle's ridiculous request numbers while believing in Sacramento's realistic numbers is not at all hypocritical.
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A spurned lover, like a spurned city, will be eager to show it's best side when given a second shot. You can ask whether such interest, much as you could question the spurned lover, is entirely sustainable. But to completely discredit the numbers with only hunches and rhetoric isn't fair.

Request numbers are just fake numbers anyhow. They're like the all star voting numbers for Yao Ming, the polls on MSNBC about who won the debate, the number of likes a celebrity can get for some retarded comment. If they matter in Sac, then they matter in Sea. If you want to say the numbers are stupid, then I do believe they're stupid here too.

Get me a list from both Seattle and Sac about who has thrown down a $500 deposit on a season ticket/partial season ticket (refundable if the team doesn't make it to your town), and we've got something. Otherwise it's basically the equivalent of saying my e-town-genitalia is larger than your e-town-genitalia.
 
Warhawk

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
#42
#42
rhythmless said:
A spurned lover, like a spurned city, will be eager to show it's best side when given a second shot. You can ask whether such interest, much as you could question the spurned lover, is entirely sustainable. But to completely discredit the numbers with only hunches and rhetoric isn't fair.

Request numbers are just fake numbers anyhow. They're like the all star voting numbers for Yao Ming, the polls on MSNBC about who won the debate, the number of likes a celebrity can get for some retarded comment. If they matter in Sac, then they matter in Sea. If you want to say the numbers are stupid, then I do believe they're stupid here too.

Get me a list from both Seattle and Sac about who has thrown down a $500 deposit on a season ticket/partial season ticket (refundable if the team doesn't make it to your town), and we've got something. Otherwise it's basically the equivalent of saying my e-town-genitalia is larger than your e-town-genitalia.
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I disagree. I didn't sign up for the Kings season ticket list because I have no intention to buy season tickets. Had there been a list for "ticket interest" like Seattle had, I definitely would have put my name on there. While they are both on the honor system, they were asking for two completely different things.
 
R

rhythmless

Starter
#43
#43
Warhawk said:
I disagree. I didn't sign up for the Kings season ticket list because I have no intention to buy season tickets. Had there been a list for "ticket interest" like Seattle had, I definitely would have put my name on there. While they are both on the honor system, they were asking for two completely different things.
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Just because you didn't do it doesn't mean other people didn't (from both cities). Yes, they're asking two slightly different things, but the purpose is the same. And fans of each city know what the endgame is for these types of things. You don't think some Sacramentans are gaming herewebuy just like Seattle people may have overzealously signed up for their stats?

I'm not saying that their numbers are 4x better than ours. I'm not saying that their numbers are more plausible that ours. I'm just saying that there is equal opportunity to fake the numbers by well meaning citizens. That's all I'm saying. So to read everyone here talk down about their stats while ignoring that our numbers are basically taken the same way, well, it just doesn't look fair. And I think that Seattle gave up it's basketball soul when their masses decided to rationalize this attempted pilfering of our team. I don't want us to sink to their level. They got 40k internet emails to say they're interested in tickets. Good for them. We have 10k internet emails that are interested in season tickets. Good for us. Or, these stupid online sign up things with nothing to lose are as useful as a poopy flavored lollipop.
 
Warhawk

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
#44
#44
rhythmless said:
Just because you didn't do it doesn't mean other people didn't (from both cities). Yes, they're asking two slightly different things, but the purpose is the same. And fans of each city know what the endgame is for these types of things. You don't think some Sacramentans are gaming herewebuy just like Seattle people may have overzealously signed up for their stats?

I'm not saying that their numbers are 4x better than ours. I'm not saying that their numbers are more plausible that ours. I'm just saying that there is equal opportunity to fake the numbers by well meaning citizens. That's all I'm saying. So to read everyone here talk down about their stats while ignoring that our numbers are basically taken the same way, well, it just doesn't look fair. And I think that Seattle gave up it's basketball soul when their masses decided to rationalize this attempted pilfering of our team. I don't want us to sink to their level. They got 40k internet emails to say they're interested in tickets. Good for them. We have 10k internet emails that are interested in season tickets. Good for us. Or, these stupid online sign up things with nothing to lose are as useful as a poopy flavored lollipop.
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Oh, I agree on the bolded part.

I heard Grant and Carmichael Dave and everyone else repeatedly ask those considering signing up to be serious about the list though, and callers and folks I spoke with were not signing up on a whim. They were being deliberate and not gaming the system. Maybe that is why I think our numbers may not be all that inflated.

Not saying theirs are, either. I don't know, but based on the questions theirs is definitely more loosey-goosey in nature.

Just saying they were asking different things and ours was more serious and specific in nature. We had price points and public figures asking folks not to sign up unless they were serious about it.
 
B

Brac-o-matic

G-League
#45
#45
Warhawk said:
Oh, I agree on the bolded part.

I heard Grant and Carmichael Dave and everyone else repeatedly ask those considering signing up to be serious about the list though, and callers and folks I spoke with were not signing up on a whim. They were being deliberate and not gaming the system. Maybe that is why I think our numbers may not be all that inflated.

Not saying theirs are, either. I don't know, but based on the questions theirs is definitely more loosey-goosey in nature.

Just saying they were asking different things and ours was more serious and specific in nature. We had price points and public figures asking folks not to sign up unless they were serious about it.
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FWIW, I totally agree with you. I didn't sign up for Here We Buy, because I knew I would not be able to get season tickets. I would have been the first to sign up if it was for single-game tix. I think people respect the honor system in situations like this more than some give them credit for....
 
VF21

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#46
#46
rhythmless said:
A spurned lover, like a spurned city, will be eager to show it's best side when given a second shot. You can ask whether such interest, much as you could question the spurned lover, is entirely sustainable. But to completely discredit the numbers with only hunches and rhetoric isn't fair.

Request numbers are just fake numbers anyhow. They're like the all star voting numbers for Yao Ming, the polls on MSNBC about who won the debate, the number of likes a celebrity can get for some retarded comment. If they matter in Sac, then they matter in Sea. If you want to say the numbers are stupid, then I do believe they're stupid here too.

Get me a list from both Seattle and Sac about who has thrown down a $500 deposit on a season ticket/partial season ticket (refundable if the team doesn't make it to your town), and we've got something. Otherwise it's basically the equivalent of saying my e-town-genitalia is larger than your e-town-genitalia.
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The HereWeBuy folks at least scanned the people signing up and tossed those requests that were obvious phonies. I also know of a lot of very loyal Kings fans who didn't pledge to buy tickets because they didn't want to sign up for something they wouldn't be able to pay for. Warhawk mentioned it above, and I didn't pledge either, although I would have loved to do so.

If you don't believe the numbers, that's perfectly fine. But I think it's more than a little disingenuous of you to say the Seattle numbers and the Sacramento numbers were collected in the same manner, when it's pretty clear they weren't.
 
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HndsmCelt

HndsmCelt

Hall of Famer
#48
#48
In the end the best indicator of future performance is always past behavior. Seattle fans are fickle at best and did NOT turn out in droves for their team year after year. Kings fan attendance started dropping off when the Maloofs started cutting corners and let the team go to seed. Then when the Maloofs began shopping the team to other cities many fans intentionally quit supporting the team. (Just look back at old threads concerning so called boycotts after the Anaheim debacle) Before this Kings fans filled seats for both good band and ugly teams; there is no reason to believe that a change in ownership would not translate into a huge increase in attendance and if the new owners actually appeared to be putting together a quality team it should be sell out city all over again. As for Seattle I think that in their heart of hearts most people who know Seattle are aware that the most important factor in selling tickets for basketball is having Seahawk and Mariner teams that suck.

BTW I live in the Fresno area and can only make a few games a year, so I did not sign up either although my wife and I would love to have done so.
 
kennadog

kennadog

Dog On It!
#49
#49
Seattle's request was for ticket purchases, not season ticket purchases (41 tickets). Somebody saw a Sonics fan bragging that he signed up 20 times, so apparently no controls over duplicate requests. I think Sacramento's numbers are probably high, too, but the Sonics number is ridiculous. Nothing in their franchise's history supports those kinds of numbers.
 
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