I'm a Kings fan by choice, not by location or good times or anything else...
That being said, Detroit has a lot more history than the Kings do, in my limited opinion...between championships, the Bad Boys and the general larger city nature, it's only expected that they might have more support...
Plus their teams haven't, er, been as winningly challenged as Sacramento teams in recent history.
That being said, Detroit has a lot more history than the Kings do, in my limited opinion...between championships, the Bad Boys and the general larger city nature, it's only expected that they might have more support...
Plus their teams haven't, er, been as winningly challenged as Sacramento teams in recent history.
When you call someone on this board a 'fairweather fan' or imply that they 'only come to games when the team is winning'. By their presence on this forum on a year after a 17 win season, they are anything but a fairweather, winning only fan.
Meanwhile we can postulate about the Sacramento public at large easily, since they aren't on a Kingsfans.com forum talking about the 7th game of the season and who's the 11th man on the bench. The part of the public that doesn't come to games obviously doesn't care like you, I or other posters on here do, so it -is- different.
Wow! sure not many fans in this thread like we had in the 80's and 90's. For you younger guys/gals, let's look at a bit of Kings History. In a 14-year period (85/86 > 98/99, the Kings did not win 40 games in any year. In 9 of those years THEY DID NOT WIN 30 GAMES IN A YEAR!
But you know what? They sold out every year in the 90's and a number of years in the 80's. Now those were the real fans in my Kings book. Sure we complained, moaned and groaned. But we went to the games and supported our Kings. I had season tickets from 1988/89 to 1996/97 and then moved to Santa Cruz for my business.
Things are different now in California. The economy is a disaster, layoffs are enormous, especially in Sactown, there has been 10's of thousands of foreclosures in the Kings media area. The Kings fortunes went down hill at the wrong time as every team in the NBA experiences almost on a predictable cycle.
We had a winner for and in the playoffs for 8 straight years. We got spoiled. All of us. After having done without for so many years.
Point 1. It's the economy that is keeping most people away. Fun money is in very short supply. Sure, had the Kings turned around 2 years ago and made the playoff 1-2 years ago there would be more fans/spectators in the stands. Not sellouts necessarily but a few thousand more. Over at FanNation.SportsIllustrated.cnn.com, the top 5 NBA teams with most sell outs are Lakers, Cavs, Celtics, Heat, and Bulls. 4 of those have been to or won the NBA finals. They are all major media markets in top 10 (Sacramento was 21st if you add in Stockton).
Point 2. We fans of the 80's and 90's went to every game. In the 90's the ticket prices crept up every year hurting many among us. Heck, now the cheat seats up in the nose bleed sections are virtually empty. Many of those are only $10-$20. But last year was the worst in history and with the player changes and coaching carousel of the previous couple of years added to our misery and disencentive. Well, there were similar disasters in the 80's (remember the Bill Russel fiasco and Ralph Sampson?). Jerry Reynolds had to be the coach on 4 different occasions during that period.
How bad was it? Following is the Kings records from the 85/86 season, their first in Sacramento to 2000. Take a look at up to 1994:
85/86 37-45
86/87 29-53
87/88 24-58
88/89 27-55
89/90 23-59
90/91 25-57
91/92 29-53 Trade to get Mitch Richmond
92/93 25-57 All 5 starters out for major time due to injuries
93/94 28-54 Bobby Hurley accident after only 19 games.
8th year in a row not winning 30 games!!
94/95 39-43 Missed playoffs on last game of season
95/96 39-43 Got last playoff spot. Won one playoff game in
Seattle vs. Gary Payton. First playoff win in 15 yr
96/97 34-48 Eddie Jordan replaces Gary St. Jean as coach
97/98 27-55 Mitch literally died this year for the last 30 games
98/99 27-23 4-month lockout = 50 game season.
First winning record in 16 years.
Added CWebb, Vlade, Jason Williams and Coach Rick
Adelman to Peja and crew.
99/00 44-38 Beat Lakers both home games 1st round playoffs but
Lakers in 5
00/01 55-27 Became an elite team in the NBA
But you know what? They sold out every year in the 90's and a number of years in the 80's. Now those were the real fans in my Kings book. Sure we complained, moaned and groaned. But we went to the games and supported our Kings. I had season tickets from 1988/89 to 1996/97 and then moved to Santa Cruz for my business.
Things are different now in California. The economy is a disaster, layoffs are enormous, especially in Sactown, there has been 10's of thousands of foreclosures in the Kings media area. The Kings fortunes went down hill at the wrong time as every team in the NBA experiences almost on a predictable cycle.
We had a winner for and in the playoffs for 8 straight years. We got spoiled. All of us. After having done without for so many years.
Point 1. It's the economy that is keeping most people away. Fun money is in very short supply. Sure, had the Kings turned around 2 years ago and made the playoff 1-2 years ago there would be more fans/spectators in the stands. Not sellouts necessarily but a few thousand more. Over at FanNation.SportsIllustrated.cnn.com, the top 5 NBA teams with most sell outs are Lakers, Cavs, Celtics, Heat, and Bulls. 4 of those have been to or won the NBA finals. They are all major media markets in top 10 (Sacramento was 21st if you add in Stockton).
Point 2. We fans of the 80's and 90's went to every game. In the 90's the ticket prices crept up every year hurting many among us. Heck, now the cheat seats up in the nose bleed sections are virtually empty. Many of those are only $10-$20. But last year was the worst in history and with the player changes and coaching carousel of the previous couple of years added to our misery and disencentive. Well, there were similar disasters in the 80's (remember the Bill Russel fiasco and Ralph Sampson?). Jerry Reynolds had to be the coach on 4 different occasions during that period.
How bad was it? Following is the Kings records from the 85/86 season, their first in Sacramento to 2000. Take a look at up to 1994:
85/86 37-45
86/87 29-53
87/88 24-58
88/89 27-55
89/90 23-59
90/91 25-57
91/92 29-53 Trade to get Mitch Richmond
92/93 25-57 All 5 starters out for major time due to injuries
93/94 28-54 Bobby Hurley accident after only 19 games.
8th year in a row not winning 30 games!!
94/95 39-43 Missed playoffs on last game of season
95/96 39-43 Got last playoff spot. Won one playoff game in
Seattle vs. Gary Payton. First playoff win in 15 yr
96/97 34-48 Eddie Jordan replaces Gary St. Jean as coach
97/98 27-55 Mitch literally died this year for the last 30 games
98/99 27-23 4-month lockout = 50 game season.
First winning record in 16 years.
Added CWebb, Vlade, Jason Williams and Coach Rick
Adelman to Peja and crew.
99/00 44-38 Beat Lakers both home games 1st round playoffs but
Lakers in 5
00/01 55-27 Became an elite team in the NBA
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Im sure the subpar arena doesn't help things.
I got to go see the seahawks at QWest field this year and that is a beautiful stadium. My god the ameneties!!! It was actually depressing to go see the niners at candlestick. Ill always go see my niners, no matter where they play but I could see it really detering a less fanatical fan. I felt the same way when I saw the A's play the Giants at PacBell. PacBell is a cathedral compared to the collisium. It's depressing to see the A's in Oakland, especially when your only one of maybe 10,000 in that huge cavernous rundown stadium. Again, the sad state of Arco, The Oakland Colisium, or Candlestick would deter people who are not fanatical about those teams.
I got to go see the seahawks at QWest field this year and that is a beautiful stadium. My god the ameneties!!! It was actually depressing to go see the niners at candlestick. Ill always go see my niners, no matter where they play but I could see it really detering a less fanatical fan. I felt the same way when I saw the A's play the Giants at PacBell. PacBell is a cathedral compared to the collisium. It's depressing to see the A's in Oakland, especially when your only one of maybe 10,000 in that huge cavernous rundown stadium. Again, the sad state of Arco, The Oakland Colisium, or Candlestick would deter people who are not fanatical about those teams.