Busting the large market myth

[RookieOfTheDay]

Teams in markets with over 3 million people that had less than 90% attendance last season.

76ers - 72%
Hawks - 83%
Rockets - 89%
Raptors - 83%
Wizards - 83%
Nets - 80%
Timberwolves - 78%
Pistons - 75%

Just for contrast, Kings attendance was 80%. So much for the idea that teams only struggle with attendance in small markets.

 

[Fear the Putin]

maloofs are philosophically opposed to logic

 

[Löwenherz]

Despite attendance dipping these last few seasons, I don't think that was ever the issue or argument. It's always been about corporate sponsorship, market size/TV deals and the overall arena.

 

[RookieOfTheDay]

Despite attendance dipping these last few seasons, I don't think that was ever the issue or argument. It's always been about corporate sponsorship, market size/TV deals and the overall arena.

Markets smaller than Sacramento have thrived. I think market size, sponsorship, and the arena have been used as red herrings to distract people from the real problem...the brothers Magoof.

 

[ArcoKings]

Teams in markets with over 3 million people that had less than 90% attendance last season.

76ers - 72%
Hawks - 83%
Rockets - 89%
Raptors - 83%
Wizards - 83%
Nets - 80%
Timberwolves - 78%
Pistons - 75%

Just for contrast, Kings attendance was 80%. So much for the idea that teams only struggle with attendance in small markets.

Either folks are broke to attend games or the NBA is losing its appeal.

 

[Löwenherz]

Markets smaller than Sacramento have thrived. I think market size, sponsorship, and the arena have been used as red herrings to distract people from the real problem...the brothers Magoof.

Oh I absolutely agree. But attendance seems to rarely be among those red herrings because we can always point to the 19 seasons of sell-outs to easily refute it.

 

[bozzwell]

Denver, CO is laughing hysterically at all the small-market/large-market myths.

Population numbers:

Denver (city) 600K
Denver Urban 2mil
Denver Metro 2.5 mil

Sacramento city 460K
Sacramento urban 1.5 mil
Sacramento metro 3 mil.

So which one is small market?

And oh, by the way, Denver is surrounded with pretty much empty states/land/mountains for 100's of miles. 4 major league teams though. NYC has more but half of them play in the different state.

 

[RookieOfTheDay]

Oh I absolutely agree. But attendance seems to rarely be among those red herrings because we can always point to the 19 seasons of sell-outs to easily refute it.

Still though, I see lots and lots of people bringing up Sacramento's low attendance for the last few years. The Maloofs may not have ever used it as a reason but there's a pretty prevalent belief out there among people that it's part of the reason.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

But Denver's core fan base spreads a lot wider than Sacramento's because their only direct competition is SLC in the NBA and MLS. From what I observed in the late 90s on a few trips to Utah many were fans of the Colorado teams, plus this extends to northern Nevada, Idaho, the eastern parts of Oregon and WA that hate their big cities and that doesn't include some of the states to the East that also don't have teams.

 

[bozzwell]

But Denver's core fan base spreads a lot wider than Sacramento's because their only direct competition is SLC in the NBA and MLS. From what I observed in the late 90s on a few trips to Utah many were fans of the Colorado teams, plus this extends to northern Nevada, Idaho, the eastern parts of Oregon and WA that hate their big cities and that doesn't include some of the states to the East that also don't have teams.

NE, MT and WY too. Still not a lot of people adn way, way too spread to help with anything but TV rights.

I drove once from Chicago to Denver (1000 miles) in a single day, mainly becaise past Lincol, NE it's almost completely empty and I had toad to myself.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

NE, MT and WY too. Still not a lot of people adn way, way too spread to help with anything but TV rights.

I drove once from Chicago to Denver (1000 miles) in a single day, mainly becaise past Lincol, NE it's almost completely empty and I had toad to myself.

I drove from PA to Davenport, IA to SLC in 2 days when I moved back to CA from Boston. Just dumb. But not much else to do but trek on and there was a gal I was sweet on in UT so I pushed the boundaries of common sense on that one.

Come to think of it the Broncos were even the main AFC team in the Sacramento market when the Raiders were in SoCal. I watched Broncos games every weekend it seemed until I moved to Boston and started watching the Pats. It might have just been because they were the best team in the AFC for most of that stretch though.

 

[The Hammer]

Denver, CO is laughing hysterically at all the small-market/large-market myths.

Population numbers:

Denver (city) 600K
Denver Urban 2mil
Denver Metro 2.5 mil

Sacramento city 460K
Sacramento urban 1.5 mil
Sacramento metro 3 mil.

So which one is small market?

And oh, by the way, Denver is surrounded with pretty much empty states/land/mountains for 100's of miles. 4 major league teams though. NYC has more but half of them play in the different state.

That's pretty much the reason it can support more teams. The whole state of Colorado is the market, and parts of Wyoming (Cheyenne to Pueblo is technically the Front Range-- see wiki excerpt below), Montana, Utah, New Mexico. I lived in Boulder for ten years. This is how it is.

The front range population doesn't count all the mountain towns of Colorado: Summit County, Leadville, Steamboat, Durango, Alamosa, Salida, etc. Total popluation of Colorado is 5 mil. But the TV market for all those teams spreads out to more states, except the Nuggets in Utah.

From wikipedia:

The Front Range Urban Corridor is an oblong region of urban population located along the eastern face of the Southern Rocky Mountains in the U.S. states of Colorado and Wyoming. The corridor derives its name from the Front Range, a mountain range located along the western edge of the central portion of the corridor. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the Front Range Urban Corridor had a population of 4,328,406 on July 1, 2009, an increase of +17.36% since United States Census 2000."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_Range_Urban_Corridor