Attendance

[RandomVillain]

$50 for lower from a scalper? No. This is what you do, I did this all last year and a couple times this year....

Go to StubHub.com the day of the game, maybe an hour before the game. Ticket prices are pretty low then. Get the cheapest seats possible, nosebleeds all the way, I scored some for $5 each. Even better if you can just win tickets from the Suns on Twitter.

Then go to the arena, about 30 minutes before tip off get on your phone and open up the Suns app. Go to tickets, then click on Upgrades.

You'll then be given a choice of upgrading to center court lower level, behind the basket, pretty much anywhere. Court Side is even an option but I haven't seen any on sale there yet. Anyways, we upgraded our $5 nose bleed seats and sat 6th row behind the basket for $7 each. Last year we got Blue Moon Club seats for $30 each on the Suns app. Blue Moon seats were 3rd row, center court. And gave you access to the all you can eat buffet inside of the Blue Moon Club.

[TASTIC]

There really is no excuse to not go to at least 1-2 games per year if you live in the USA.

I live in friggin London (NZ and Toronto before that), and I've been to nearly 20 Suns games in like 8 cities. And I'm as far from wealthy as you could get! You just got to pick the right one and find somewhere your missus is happy to go visit, ie Orlando or LA etc...

I'd give a left nut to go to more...

[Frank Lee]

There really is no excuse to not go to at least 1-2 games per year if you live in the USA.

I live in friggin London (NZ and Toronto before that), and I've been to nearly 20 Suns games in like 8 cities. And I'm as far from wealthy as you could get! You just got to pick the right one and find somewhere your missus is happy to go visit, ie Orlando or LA etc...

I'd give a left nut to go to more...

I trust your 'curse' has been lifted.... If I recall, you had a rough stretch


I haven't been to a home game in the past 20
Charlotte, Atlanta, DC, Orlando... thems my arenas


Great tip Villain... I wonder if other places have the same/similar deals

[LukasBMW]

$50 for lower from a scalper? No. This is what you do, I did this all last year and a couple times this year....

Go to StubHub.com the day of the game, maybe an hour before the game. Ticket prices are pretty low then. Get the cheapest seats possible, nosebleeds all the way, I scored some for $5 each. Even better if you can just win tickets from the Suns on Twitter.

Then go to the arena, about 30 minutes before tip off get on your phone and open up the Suns app. Go to tickets, then click on Upgrades.

You'll then be given a choice of upgrading to center court lower level, behind the basket, pretty much anywhere. Court Side is even an option but I haven't seen any on sale there yet. Anyways, we upgraded our $5 nose bleed seats and sat 6th row behind the basket for $7 each. Last year we got Blue Moon Club seats for $30 each on the Suns app. Blue Moon seats were 3rd row, center court. And gave you access to the all you can eat buffet inside of the Blue Moon Club.

Wow! Great info!

[Son of Ra]

$50 for lower from a scalper? No. This is what you do, I did this all last year and a couple times this year....

Go to StubHub.com the day of the game, maybe an hour before the game. Ticket prices are pretty low then. Get the cheapest seats possible, nosebleeds all the way, I scored some for $5 each. Even better if you can just win tickets from the Suns on Twitter.

Then go to the arena, about 30 minutes before tip off get on your phone and open up the Suns app. Go to tickets, then click on Upgrades.

You'll then be given a choice of upgrading to center court lower level, behind the basket, pretty much anywhere. Court Side is even an option but I haven't seen any on sale there yet. Anyways, we upgraded our $5 nose bleed seats and sat 6th row behind the basket for $7 each. Last year we got Blue Moon Club seats for $30 each on the Suns app. Blue Moon seats were 3rd row, center court. And gave you access to the all you can eat buffet inside of the Blue Moon Club.

+1
Thanks, awesome tip. Just wish I had known this earlier, now I'll have to wait for my 4 week old to be old enough to join me....

[RandomVillain]

I wonder if other places have the same/similar deals

I believe other teams do have this deal. I read that a guy got courtside seats last season at a Hawks game for $50. Just have to check if they have an app or the seat upgrade option on their site somewhere.

[McD for MVP]

The Suns lost their franchise player, became celler dwellers, got an entirely new team with all new faces, made purple less of a team color, changed logos, and more.

As expected with all this, the fans lost tons of interest. The population in Arizona isn't much into the Suns right now.

Now, I am no sports marketing expert, nor do I have a degree in business (could happen though) but if you ask me, the best way to get the Phoenix community interested in the Suns again is to LOWER TICKET PRICES! We are a very good exciting team with pitiful attendance. Thats because residents of Arizona stopped investing their time, interest, and energy into the team. If you want them back fast, you need to get literally tens of thousands of more people to attend at least 1 Suns home game this year. People usually become fans by going to games. That's just how it works.

If I was Sarver, I would slash the ticket prices for this season and promote the hell out of it. Short term loss (or is it?) for a big long term gain.

If the Suns continue to play this well, and there are thousands of more people at each game thanks to cheap tickets then the local buzz would skyrocket. More word of mouth, more excitement about the team, better home crowds and atmosphere, increase in apparrel sales, and more. This is how you get an entire state to follow your team again. Dragic and Bledsoe are good, but we don't have a huge household name like LeBron James to produce the buzz all by himself. It starts with management.

Open your eyes Sarver, it is in everybodues best interest to cheapen the ticket prices and get thousands of more people into every game.

[RandomVillain]

Suns tickets pretty cheap on Groupon. Going fast though.

http://www.groupon.com/deals/gl-phoenix-suns-5

[phrazbit]

I think poor management (and being spoiled by decades of success) eroded the fan base. The fans lost trust in the team during the last 3 years and its hard to win it back, especially so quickly. But this nonsense that the Suns have "never had a good fan base" is just that... nonsense. Until the last few years they were among the highest attended franchises in the league for 20 years running.

[RaisingArizona]

I would rather save money to watch them in HD every night than to brave the traffic and annoying people you might have to sit by for 3 hours at a game. That being said, I try to go once or twice a year and sit in good seats. Upper level isn't even worth going, IMO. Can't see sh*t.

[RunDogGun]

We'll add two more to Saturday's game against Philly. My wife just bought two for us while we are in town, and most likely we will still go to the two Wolves home games.

I've got to try that Random Villain idea though, but I'm sure my wife bought good seats for the game anyway.

[RunSunRun]

Couple reasons:

1. Ticket prices/Arena: All of them suck. Sorry, but the prices for Suns tickets are still way too high, there are tricks to get better deals such as the "nosebleed-to-upgrade app" but many casual fans won't know about it. Our arena is also pretty shoddy compared to more modern buildings and don't even get me started on the ridiculous price-gouging going on with our concessions.

2. No superstar: I personally am enjoying the hell out of this team compared to the last few years, but there just isn't an identifiable star that people in the Valley are talking about. Dragic/Bledsoe are impressive, but neither are at that "superstar" level that we had with Nash, Amare, and even Marion to an extent (a cool nickname does wonders for casual fans). Phoenix has always been infatuated with the "big name" players and we simply don't have one at the moment, we have a solid team, but not that one player that a casual Phoenix fan can point at and say "so-and-so is in the race for the MVP this year and will lead us to a championship". Which leads to...

3. Bandwagoners: Phoenix is pretty notorious for bandwagoners since we are a heavy transplant city with a lot of East Coasters who stay loyal to their home teams and casually watch the Suns/D-Backs/Cardinals/Coyotes. We also have a lot of locals who grew up being Lakers/Cowboys fans (i.e. the worst of the worst). The point being that these people won't show up unless they know we have a championship contending team. Unfortunately, we are not there yet, we have a solid (SOLID) team that can make some noise this season, but not one that will be favored to make it pretty far in the playoffs should we get there.

4. The locals: Ahhh, now comes the true heart of the issue, the locals, the true blue Suns fans who have been tortured for decades with being so so so close to championships, but always coming up short. Between the last few years, the loss of our stars, the reign of Sarver, etc. etc.... It all comes down to people being pretty pessimistic and jaded on the Suns around the valley. Not to mention the dirty "tanking" word that many thought we would be doing this year. At numerous ASU holiday parties the resounding theme was that people like this team playing well, but just don't see much to be excited about right now.

All in all, I think that if the Suns keep playing better and beat some of the top tier teams in the league than the fans will start showing up more and more. If Bledsoe or Dragic is able to develop into a top position player all the better in speeding up the process.

Lot of fans appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach with this team and I can't really blame them...in the mean time I'll keep enjoying attending games on the cheap and watching all of our young guys develop into solid players.

[McD for MVP]

I can't even imagine what the attendance would be like if we were last in the Western Conference. Especially if Sarver didn't lower prices.

[SunsFanSSOL]

If Sarver wants attendance to go up he needs to trade for a superstar and hire a new marketing team.

[phrazbit]

Their marketing is awful, thats true. "All for Mook"... just awful. And I love, love, love, Jeff Hornacek as a coach but their current advertising campaign centered around him sitting in a dark room, diagramming defense and watching game film... not exactly eye popping stuff.