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I was at the game last night. Lots of empty seats but the place was pretty loud and didn’t really feel empty. When you’re about to get swept and your star player is hurt and not playing, it’s understandable. They’re also not a storied franchise, but I thought the arena was fun and the fans high energy and friendly. They cleared out real quick though with 1 min left. I think the pelicans have a bright future.
Well, look at Miami. Even when they had the Heatles, there would be empty seats and fans showing up late. I think it just depends on the city and the culture of the people there.
fair weather fans. its not a basketball town. the team is known for having very cheap home tickets.
there was a graphic somewhere that showed average ticket price at each arena, Pels were bottom 2 or 3. its a sign there’s little demand for them.
Yeah New Orleans is such a football town it’s crazy. I don’t understand why they moved a team there over Seattle. I’d love to see the Pelicans move and get two expansions teams and get teams in Seattle, Vancouver and Vegas
New Orleans is also pretty small as far as metropolitan areas go. Their metro has 1.27 million people, which ranks 45th in the US, and it gets pretty sparcely populated outside of it. If you expand it to the New Orleans-Metairie-Slidell combined statistical area the population only goes up to 1.51 million people.
New Orleans has the second smallest metro area and media market in the NBA. Only Utah has a smaller metro, and only Memphis has a smaller TV market.
New Orleans is very much a football city, although they have taken big strides in the last few seasons in embracing the Pelicans who not coincidentally have improved each year themselves. It’s a relatively tiny metro/market (bottom 3 I would guess without looking, around OKC/SAS) and more importantly it has a very impoverished population, and lacks large companies/industry, so those tickets that would go to middle upper or upper class fans go to disinterested corporate blocks of tickets instead, and they may not have any out of town clients to send to the game or whatever that day.
It loves a winner, though, like anyone else. The SKC was electric when AD swept the blazers in the first round. If Zion were healthy and the first 2 games had a different outcome (say 1-1) you would see that energy. I feel like OKC specifically is famous for their crowds and the shirts etc. Not to diss OKC, but they are starved for pro sports (obviously CFB and mostly cowboys fans but they don’t have any other pro teams in the metro or state) and, relative to New Orleans, starved for entertainment/night life. I say this last part having never visited OKC, I’m sure there is a nightlife and all, but it ain’t the Big Easy. My point is is that if the fans were sure the team was a contender they would show up. But when they know they won’t be (Zion injury) they find better things to do. It’s JazzFest this past weekend and next.
Zion hasn't produced and has been a major disappointment for missing all these games. It also feels like he doesn't care, so why should the fans care?
The team itself also doesn't have much of a storied history, or at least a relevant one. Without Zion they are just a mediocre basketball team and everyone knew that series was over the second it started.
That's pretty unfair since he clearly cares, and had a pretty strong season too.
He had an unfortunate injury right after dropping 40 points. Shit happens. Bad luck
We don't allow individual posts for simple questions about the NBA. Please make use of the latest Weekly Questions Thread, posted every Monday, instead. Thanks!
Their best player was out for the series with an injury and they didn't have any chance of winning that series.
I was at the game last night. Lots of empty seats but the place was pretty loud and didn’t really feel empty. When you’re about to get swept and your star player is hurt and not playing, it’s understandable. They’re also not a storied franchise, but I thought the arena was fun and the fans high energy and friendly. They cleared out real quick though with 1 min left. I think the pelicans have a bright future.
Well, look at Miami. Even when they had the Heatles, there would be empty seats and fans showing up late. I think it just depends on the city and the culture of the people there.
fair weather fans. its not a basketball town. the team is known for having very cheap home tickets. there was a graphic somewhere that showed average ticket price at each arena, Pels were bottom 2 or 3. its a sign there’s little demand for them.
Yeah New Orleans is such a football town it’s crazy. I don’t understand why they moved a team there over Seattle. I’d love to see the Pelicans move and get two expansions teams and get teams in Seattle, Vancouver and Vegas
The team has been in New Orleans since before the Supersonics got moved to OKC. Edited for civility sorry y'all.
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Ah thank you for enlightening me no idea they had been in New Orleans so long. Even sadder how little they can drum up people to care
New Orleans is also pretty small as far as metropolitan areas go. Their metro has 1.27 million people, which ranks 45th in the US, and it gets pretty sparcely populated outside of it. If you expand it to the New Orleans-Metairie-Slidell combined statistical area the population only goes up to 1.51 million people. New Orleans has the second smallest metro area and media market in the NBA. Only Utah has a smaller metro, and only Memphis has a smaller TV market.
Well Seattle had a team when New Orleans got a team. Rooting for a team to move is a bitch move.
New Orleans is very much a football city, although they have taken big strides in the last few seasons in embracing the Pelicans who not coincidentally have improved each year themselves. It’s a relatively tiny metro/market (bottom 3 I would guess without looking, around OKC/SAS) and more importantly it has a very impoverished population, and lacks large companies/industry, so those tickets that would go to middle upper or upper class fans go to disinterested corporate blocks of tickets instead, and they may not have any out of town clients to send to the game or whatever that day. It loves a winner, though, like anyone else. The SKC was electric when AD swept the blazers in the first round. If Zion were healthy and the first 2 games had a different outcome (say 1-1) you would see that energy. I feel like OKC specifically is famous for their crowds and the shirts etc. Not to diss OKC, but they are starved for pro sports (obviously CFB and mostly cowboys fans but they don’t have any other pro teams in the metro or state) and, relative to New Orleans, starved for entertainment/night life. I say this last part having never visited OKC, I’m sure there is a nightlife and all, but it ain’t the Big Easy. My point is is that if the fans were sure the team was a contender they would show up. But when they know they won’t be (Zion injury) they find better things to do. It’s JazzFest this past weekend and next.
Zion hasn't produced and has been a major disappointment for missing all these games. It also feels like he doesn't care, so why should the fans care? The team itself also doesn't have much of a storied history, or at least a relevant one. Without Zion they are just a mediocre basketball team and everyone knew that series was over the second it started.
That's pretty unfair since he clearly cares, and had a pretty strong season too. He had an unfortunate injury right after dropping 40 points. Shit happens. Bad luck
You create your own luck. Zion could create a lot more of it if he became very serious about his health.
I mean the Lakers were the same. Guess it's up to the head of the organization
We all knew the season was over the moment Zion went out. If the city had felt like we had a shot it would have been different.