RealGM

Raptors Team Leaders

Points

DeMar DeRozan
22.5 Pts.Kyle Lowry 17.2 Terrence Ross 10.9
Total Rebounds

Jonas Valanciunas
8.5 Reb.Amir Johnson 6.6 Kyle Lowry 4.7
Assists

Kyle Lowry
7.8 Ast.DeMar DeRozan 3.8 John Salmons[/img]

Big game for us. We need to prove to ourselves that we can win one of these games against a heavyweight in the East (Yes, I consider Toronto an Eastern heavyweight this year).

ATL Boy wrote:Big game for us. We need to prove to ourselves that we can win one of these games against a heavyweight in the East (Yes, I consider Toronto an Eastern heavyweight this year).

Agreed. This will be a good measuring stick for us.

ATL fans..why don't you guys go to your games

bape_lovers wrote:ATL fans..why don't you guys go to your games

Great mystery of the universe...

bape_lovers wrote:ATL fans..why don't you guys go to your games

There are plenty of people there. Hawks don't have as many fans willing to pay for courtside seats as other teams in this league and they don't move people down like other teams do either(at least not unless it is nationally televised).

Anyway, good win. God awful refs though(I don't think either team can say one side got it worse than the other, but these guys just made horrible calls all night).

Great win! Screw the tank, LET'S GO KICK SOME HEAT/PACERS BUTT!!!!

Didn't get to see the game, but it's a bit crazy how the Raptors pulled down 10 more rebounds than the Hawks, and yet had 13 less shot attempts... I guess turnovers did them in.

Great games by Teague and Millsap (triple double!).

ATL Boy wrote:Great win! Screw the tank, LET'S GO KICK SOME HEAT/PACERS BUTT!!!!

Hear! Hear!

bape_lovers wrote:ATL fans..why don't you guys go to your games

Have you really been to downtown ATL on the WEEKDAY?! The People who have the $$ to pay to go live so far out that it's too much of a hassle to go to the games. Marietta & Druid Hills is closer but the fans who live in North Gwinette, Gainsville, Buford and other areas over in eastern ATL know its far too much trouble to go there!

It would be a bitch coming down I-20 from Augusta, lol

Glad Paul & Jeff picked it up, & congrats on Paul's triple double.

I walk to the stadium so no issues for me haha

https://twitter.com/BrettNBA/status/446120233506709504

You can't make excuses for that, or pretend Atlanta isn't a mediocre at best pro sports town.
This franchise needs either an entirely new direction or a relocation...

ics..but here in Toronto, people go far to support our team! I believe people come to our games from different cities

Yodi2007 wrote:

bape_lovers wrote:ATL fans..why don't you guys go to your games

Have you really been to downtown ATL on the WEEKDAY?! The People who have the $$ to pay to go live so far out that it's too much of a hassle to go to the games. Marietta & Druid Hills is closer but the fans who live in North Gwinette, Gainsville, Buford and other areas over in eastern ATL know its far too much trouble to go there!

Well we thought we had a new direction with the Ferry hire, they are just star-starved and transplant heavy.

The problem is that there are many people living in Atlanta who came from different cities. There isn't as high of a percentage of true Atlantians as there are in other cities (such as Toronto). Oh and let's not forget the fact that most of the people in this city are bandwagon fans who support the Heat (until Lebron leaves, they were Cavs fans a few years ago), and the Knicks (because it's New York).

Saintsteven wrote:https://twitter.com/BrettNBA/status/446120233506709504

You can't make excuses for that, or pretend Atlanta isn't a mediocre at best pro sports town.
This franchise needs either an entirely new direction or a relocation...

See, I had no problem with the first guy asking, but its crap like this that just annoys me because people are too stupid to realize that *gasp* cities are different.

It is not a mediocre pro sports town. I DARE anyone to make it from work to tipoff.

I get off work at 5:30 and have to go 17 miles to get home(while stopping to get my daughter from daycare).

If I make it by 7:00 then I had a good day. This is if there is no wrecks, stalls, construction.

There is ALWAYS a stall, wreck and/or construction going downtown. The last time I left work for a Hawks game and drove down, I made it there at 8:00. Oh and by the way, I don't even work that far away.

Add in the fact that we do not have a great transit system(like, say, New York) then you have a case where it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to fill the stands before the game. Hell, traffic here is horrible on the WEEKEND.

So here is tip, before talking crap about how its no excuse, come drive in this traffic then come back to me and tell me why there is no excuse to not be able to make it to a game early. Unless you are working downtown, then you probably CAN'T

http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/ne ... traffic/9/

Atlanta was tied for the 8th worst city in the US in terms of traffic, with an average time spent in traffic being 44 hours. Add in the fact that many people live outside of downtown around (like others have said) and you can see why the stadium is so empty during the weekdays.

Rip2137 wrote:

Saintsteven wrote:https://twitter.com/BrettNBA/status/446120233506709504

You can't make excuses for that, or pretend Atlanta isn't a mediocre at best pro sports town.
This franchise needs either an entirely new direction or a relocation...

See, I had no problem with the first guy asking, but its crap like this that just annoys me because people are too stupid to realize that *gasp* cities are different.

It is not a mediocre pro sports town. I DARE anyone to make it from work to tipoff.

I get off work at 5:30 and have to go 17 miles to get home(while stopping to get my daughter from daycare).

If I make it by 7:00 then I had a good day. This is if there is no wrecks, stalls, construction.

There is ALWAYS a stall, wreck and/or construction going downtown. The last time I left work for a Hawks game and drove down, I made it there at 8:00. Oh and by the way, I don't even work that far away.

Add in the fact that we do not have a great transit system(like, say, New York) then you have a case where it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to fill the stands before the game. Hell, traffic here is horrible on the WEEKEND.

So here is tip, before talking crap about how its no excuse, come drive in this traffic then come back to me and tell me why there is no excuse to not be able to make it to a game early. Unless you are working downtown, then you probably CAN'T

Yes, more people arrived after tip off, but the game had a reported attendance of 11,759. (reported attendance numbers are frequently inflated by the way)
In case you want to act like that is such a great accomplishment, 11,759 people in a 18,238 person arena = 64.4% capacity. (terrible).
Also, Atlanta has the 3rd worst attendance in the Entire NBA!
The Bucks and the 76's are the only teams who do worse by the way. (two worst teams in the NBA, congrats on out drawing them)

Also, if you live in Atlanta you should know it's a damn fickle town towards pro sports (more of a college sports town) or do I need to remind you of how empty Braves games look at times even though they do well nearly every year.

Sorry, but teams in cities with bad traffic and lesser markets (Atlanta is a top 10 market) out draw Atlanta teams, so yeah, you are just making more excuses.

Saintsteven wrote:

Rip2137 wrote:

Saintsteven wrote:https://twitter.com/BrettNBA/status/446120233506709504

You can't make excuses for that, or pretend Atlanta isn't a mediocre at best pro sports town.
This franchise needs either an entirely new direction or a relocation...

See, I had no problem with the first guy asking, but its crap like this that just annoys me because people are too stupid to realize that *gasp* cities are different.

It is not a mediocre pro sports town. I DARE anyone to make it from work to tipoff.

I get off work at 5:30 and have to go 17 miles to get home(while stopping to get my daughter from daycare).

If I make it by 7:00 then I had a good day. This is if there is no wrecks, stalls, construction.

There is ALWAYS a stall, wreck and/or construction going downtown. The last time I left work for a Hawks game and drove down, I made it there at 8:00. Oh and by the way, I don't even work that far away.

Add in the fact that we do not have a great transit system(like, say, New York) then you have a case where it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to fill the stands before the game. Hell, traffic here is horrible on the WEEKEND.

So here is tip, before talking crap about how its no excuse, come drive in this traffic then come back to me and tell me why there is no excuse to not be able to make it to a game early. Unless you are working downtown, then you probably CAN'T

Yes, more people arrived after tip off, but the game had a reported attendance of 11,759. (reported attendance numbers are frequently inflated by the way)
In case you want to act like that is such a great accomplishment, 11,759 people in a 18,238 person arena = 64.4% capacity. (terrible).
Also, Atlanta has the 3rd worst attendance in the Entire NBA!
The Bucks and the 76's are the only teams who do worse by the way. (two worst teams in the NBA, congrats on out drawing them)

Also, if you live in Atlanta you should know it's a damn fickle town towards pro sports (more of a college sports town) or do I need to remind you of how empty Braves games look at times even though they do well nearly every year.

Sorry, but teams in cities with bad traffic and lesser markets (Atlanta is a top 10 market) out draw Atlanta teams, so yeah, you are just making more excuses.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIcsKxsNuX4[/youtube]

Empty Braves games? Watch that, I went to that game: one of the best atmospheres I've been apart of, the Crowed was amazing. And on sportscenter the next day, they even made comments about how loud it was. Falcons also have an amazing atmosphere during Football season. Don't base an entire city off of the attendance of one sports team (and not even that sports team because of the reasons we gave).

Here's the thing about ATL being a sports city: the #1 love is college football and SEC football in particular. There are 8 of the top 50 largest sports stadiums (stadii?) in the world within a 4 hour drive from Atlanta - all of them on college campuses and all but 2 of them in the SEC. Not saying the city of Atlanta fills up every single one of them on any given Saturday in the Fall, but we put a significant dent in all of them. I'd guess that a conservative estimate would put the city of Atlanta as being responsible for 200,000 people and $40M of expenditure toward a sport outing on any given Saturday in the fall. Across 7-8 home games per stadium, Atlanta should easily surpass $0.25B per year - and that's before you figure that we're also supporting a team from all 3 of the major professional sports in the US and a handful of minor ones as well. Anyone who thinks Atlanta isn't a sports city really doesn't have the facts; in reality, we're one of the biggest sports city in the world especially when you calculate the number of people in the city versus others.

The problem isn't that "Atlanta isn't a great sports city" or that "Atlanta can't fill up a stadium" or that "Atlantans won't travel to a spot for sports" - we do... in droves. The problem is that the competition for an individuals time and entertainment budget is highly competitive here and we need more than simply a "team X is playing on a random Tuesday night so come on out!" sales pitch. The teams either a) have to put an excellent product out there (i.e., a championship contending team) and/or b) have to move out to where the $$ lives. The Braves have already announced that they're moving out into the suburbs. If the Hawks weren't tied to Phillips Arena, then I'd think they'd be more willing to attempt the move as well.