RealGM

List the player(s) that you believe can generate enough excitement to sell out the arena nightly? Also, point out if the player can be had or not.

Winning fills the arena seats.

Outside of that -
LeBron
Kobe
and maybe:
Chris Paul
Dwayne Wade

That's it. Not a long list. Other players may sell some tickets, but not sell it out without a winning lineup around them. Lebron and Kobe can make a team competitive enough for fans to hope and show up in mass. Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant may ultimately make the list. BTW, none of the players are acquirable.

Don't forget A.I.

yao

JoshB914 wrote:Don't forget A.I.

Once, but I don't believe that's the case anymore.

And Yao might bring out Chinese fans in force, but I feel his game lacks the sizzle that sells out night after night. However, he provides his team with enough advantage to provide the winning record and that could sell out an arena night after night. Tim Duncan is another player who might fall into this category, but the Spurs organization is so strong that I've not had to imagine Tim Duncan as the only draw.

Hedo05 wrote:Once, but I don't believe that's the case anymore.

Man, there are so many A.I. haters on these boards...

How could Joe, Josh, and A.I., along with Big AL not put seats in Phillips and win 50+ games per season? Regardless of what the haters choose to say about Iverson, the guy has one of the biggest hearts on the court, PERIOD. The guy puts it all on the line and no one can deny that he is one of the best pure scorer in the last decade that can take over any game at any time.

That is something that this team is lacking and to make matters worse, Joe is "soul-searching" and Woodson's inability to create an effective offensive system has sputtered this team's tempo.

Kobe and Lebron are the players that come to mind for me. A.I. is also one, but he might not draw the crowds that he once did, but I can see the ASG wanting to pursue him if Mike Bibby doesn't sign.

HMFFL wrote:Kobe and Lebron are the players that come to mind for me. A.I. is also one, but he might not draw the crowds that he once did, but I can see the ASG wanting to pursue him if Mike Bibby doesn't sign.

That leads me to 2 questions, why would they do that? and how much do you think AI will make? I mean would anyone offer him more the MLE?

I'd think Andre Miller would be a more appropriate candidate to pursue if Bibby can't be signed.

I would add Steve Nash to the list if he was on a team that runs . . . like the Suns used to. People woudln't come to see him specifically so much as they would come to see that exciting style of play.

Dwight Howard

/end thread

HMFFL wrote:List the player(s) that you believe can generate enough excitement to sell out the arena nightly? Also, point out if the player can be had or not.

Read a paper about this; the data suggested that home attendance is correlated with winning. Over time, fans become disenchanted with losing teams regardless of star power. Where superstars do affect attendance is on the road, which makes sense. I'm sure we've all noticed that Phillips draws a larger than average crowd whenever one of the aforementioned stars rolls through town.

Winning does fill the seats. I've been going to Hawks games since 05-06 season and last season the seats really started to fill up (or maybe it was just me, I don't have the attendance records) - or maybe it wasn't the seats filling up, maybe it was the hype of the crowd that made it seem like ATL was a million strong. That playoff atmosphere has transferred into this season when good teams come to town and especially when the Celtics come into town. Hawks games are some of the most exciting games in the league, if you ask me. I love the atmosphere at Philips.