'Embarrassing Turnout'

[Laimbeer]

Remember "build it and they will come?"

One NBA game is way too soon to judge, but the Pistons's debut Wednesday at Little Caesars Arena wasn't exactly a big draw.

"The stadium . . . seems to already be struggling to get fans in its seats," posts Deadspin writer Lauren Theisen. "During the Pistons’ home opener tonight, the lack of a crowd has been impossible to ignore."

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/18576#.WejCME-WzIU

[Wallace_Wallace]

Until we start winning, or playing with maximum efforts at all times, I don't think our brand of basketball will attract a lot of fans in Detroit.

[Exit 9]

Honestly, there's way more people going to the games to do other stuff than watch the actual game. Most of the bar's had a nice crowd, people just aren't that interested in watching a sub-par team right now. It's just what it is.

And add in the fact they totally screwed up having us play our home opener against the lame ass bobcats, whom we just played in the pre-season opener 2 weeks ago and yeah, you're going to have low turn out.

New arena, we should've been playing a marquee team, period.

[ChuckVanBrown]

The turnout was definitely discouraging, especially for opening a new arena.

Our team just isn’t a draw on paper. No superstars or flashy style of play. Also, the Hornets aren’t an exciting team. The season starts early this year too, so all of these could have been a factor.

I don’t think the market is bad for an nba team though, as the other major sports downtown don’t seem to have a problem. This team just needs to win games in order to draw a crowd. 8+ years of uninspired basketball will take some time to recover from. If this team starts winning and the turnout remains poor, I could see us trying to land a star player at the deadline to generate excitement. It’s not a good look when the large crowds only show up to see exciting visiting teams, and they cheer for the opposing star players.

[Kilo]

The Detroit Pistons drew just 9,528 fans for their first regular season game at Little Caesars Arena.

The new downtown Detroit arena has a capacity of 21,000.

Tickets were being given away until shortly before tipoff.

The Pistons also struggled with attendance at The Palace of Auburn Hills in the suburbs. They finished 25th in attendance last season.

[Kilo]

I think it all happened too quickly - the move. Came outta nowhere during the end of last season and was rushed. Abandoned Palace fanbase like an afterthought and didn't have time to build Detroit city base up. Also it's the Red Wings Arena, with the Pistons just playing there - Pistons were shoehorned in late.

[theBigLip]

I'm always amazed at articles like this (and comments), and no one mentions ticket prices. It seems like most sports teams will price their tickets as if they were a championship team, and when they don't perform as such, people are not going to buy tickets. There are no more "good" deals for tickets anymore, and this goes for concerts as well as sports. AS for the Pistons, even if it is a new arena, it is still a team that by the end of last year, most people disliked them for their lack of effort and execution. So why should the place sell out?

[7r5ur]

Hopefully a wakeup call that they need to drop prices (especially for these games with no star power).

Having empty seats doesn't help anyone. Even if you have to hand out cheap seats at rock bottom prices, these people will still buy concessions, parking, merch, etc.

Who knows why they didn't do everything they possibly could to get 21,000 people there opening night.

[theBigLip]

$240 for lower bowl seats. Each. Good for some people, maybe not so good for the average fan.

[bstein14]

They have a bunch of upper level tickets in the $50 to $130 range. No one wants to sit in the upper level for that price. All those tickets should be in the $10 to $50 range. They've way overpriced it for the product they are putting out. I was going to go to the game until I went and looked at ticket prices and that factored with the extra half hour there and back and parking and it just wasn't worth it. I'll probably go to one game this year whereas at the Palace I would have gone to a few.

[DBC10]

Yeah I agree with the tix being stupid high. Nobody cares about this team except a select minority right now. It is what it is, but Gores needs to get on the ball to pressure whoever the middleman is to lower prices as a whole so that people can actually afford them and go to these games.

[flow]

Beyond embarrassing. 9,000 people? At the opening of a new arena for the Pistons return to the city? Wow. Would never have thought it would be that low.

Are the prices for Wings games any different?

[bstein14]

In general Hockey fans in Detroit are willing to pay more than NBA fans. Not trying to stereotype people or anything but they can for sure get a bigger amount of money for the Red Wings in Hockeytown. Even with only 9,000 people they were charging nearly triple the price of seats at the Palace so they still probably made more money than from any game last season. Plus they have to charge more now because made an absurd amount on parking last year and now they aren't getting that revenue.

[Liver_Pooty]

I actually thought that arena was specifically for the Red Wings.

[potatoaim]

Poor Palace attendance had nothing to do with location and everything to do with the quality of the team. I have no idea why the people in charge thought that moving venues would suddenly solve attendance issues, the arena location has almost nothing to do with it. The Palace's location obviously didnt have a negative effect when they sold out 6 straight years(or whatever it was...) in the 2000's when they were a top 5 team. When you are a bottom feeder for 8 or so years, people are going to lose interest. Win and people will come, regardless of arena location.

[DETermination]

We used to have top attendance when we were a top nba team, all we need to do is start winning again and people will show up.

[AnnArborpiston]

I wanted to go, was excited to go. Then I looked up the prices.....

First I thought good for them, If they can sell it out for those prices, Detroit really has made a come back. But we see what happened. Those were far too expensive. I'm happy to pay $50-70 for a main bowl ticket, but not in the upper upper tier. I'd only pay $25 for those. Better to watch on TV.

[gerd10]

Damn that's embrassing. What is $60 to a once in a lifetime historic event? That is so disrespectful to the franchise and it's history.

[Spider156]

Detroit fans are too real to come out just cuz it's a new stadium. They want a winning product. They sold out 6 years in a row so location wasn't a problem. All location did was make it cheaper to have games and to make the stadium. Pistons are better than I've seen them lately so I'm not worried. We'll see how they perform vs Wolves, I'll be there. We'll be able to tell more soon.

[sfballa13]

$240 for lower bowl seats. Each. Good for some people, maybe not so good for the average fan.

I never paid full price ever for a game at the Palace, so dont really know

But how much were the lower bowl seats, right off the court, like first 10 rows?

One should compare that to LCA and see the difference in price.

Regardless, SVG is gone, Gores has to be so embarrassed