Nets Worst In Attendance and TV Ratings Too

Shocking news here…

I wonder why no one is watching the games on YES, or running to fill up the stands in that dump the IZOD? With the team playing so well and loaded with all star talent, you’d think that NJ would come out to support this team, right?

I’m sure if the Nets were in Brooklyn, with a special team like this, they’d be selling out every night and the ratings would dwarf teams like the Lakers, Celtics, and Cavs. I’m 100% positive.

@Mr. MDB

Yeah, I’m sure with a great team in New Jersey like the teams that went to the finals, we’d be selling out the Izod Center every night.

Wait, what?

I thought the reason Yi was on the team was to boost attendence and ratings. Did they look into ratings in China? The Nets are “China’s” team.

4-42

Even the most diehard fan like myself has trouble “rushing” home from Secaucus to Queens to catch their games. Much less feel like taking that 2 hour trek back home on a Wed night after a 20 point loss to the Bobcats.

Sorry.

@Tom F
Nets dont get any money for the games televised in China…all 49 of them. The NBA sells the rights to the Chinese broadcasters. They get some money from ads displayed below the scorer’s table. That’s it.

And of course, the poor attendance is Yi’s fault…as are those cracks in the concourse floor near the entrance to section 120.

Anthony,

Go check the attendance during the Nets playoff games during those finals runs, and get back to me.

I was there for a good bit of those games, where were you?

I am a longtime fan and I have a 7 game package that I have already paid for. So despite the fact that I am a big fan and have already paid for tickets in the lower level I and am planning on giving the rest of my tickets away the day after the trade deadline (4 games left including Cleveland).
If I do not want to go under those circumstances, who would want to pay go to a game? We all know what the outcome for every game is going to be any way.

Also there is NO WAY they even fill 11,000 seats a game. I would say an average of 8-10 thousand is a more realistic number…

@Mr Dollar Bills
They couldn’t sell out all those games. They finished 26th in attendance in 2001-02 and 23rd in attendance in 2002-03…period. End of story. And I don’t want to hear about how hard it is to get to the IZOD. It’s the third most popular venue in the USA for non-sporting events. People can find their way there for circuses and concerts, but not for NBA basketball. There is no appreciable NBA fan base in New Jersey. That is not an opinion. It is a fact. If you can’t get people to attend games during seasons when the Nets were one of the two best teams in the league and led by a Hall of Famer in his prime, there is no fan base.

It’s “3rd most popular” because of its capacity and more importantly, Live Nation. But to be fair, in 2003 the Finals were not sold out, at least for a couple of those games. Capacity was 20,049, they had just over 19,000.

at Net Income:

Since you obviously can’t understand why the Meadowlands is regularly full for the NFL, top flight concerts and family events but not for the Nets (or Devils when they played there) after I’ve explained it you oh about 75 times on here, at least answer this HONESTLY:

Do you think the Nets would have had any problems selling tickets (especially for playoff games) had those Jason Kidd-led Nets been playing in the Prudential Center instead of the Meadowlands?

And yes I relaize it wasn’t built for the Finals runs, this is a hypothetical question.

Again, I stress to you the problem is the venue and location (even though I happen to love it) and NOT the state of New Jersey.

at Marv 95:

“Capacity was 20,049, they had just over 19,000.”

Major correction there – they WERE SOLD OUT. Capacity was altered for the FInals BOTH years to accomodate much larger media sections, some of which were placed in the stands. I was there and saw it with my own two eyes so capacity was actually well under 20,000 for those two series.

The Lakers and the 90s Bulls are China’s team.

The Yankees are also China’s team as well.

China is a country of bandwagon casual fans.

Trust me, that is where I am from….

Sometimes I watch the Nets games just because of the announcers they have. We are lucky to have a rotation of the best announcers of any team in the game. I have NBA League Pass, so I have a good reference point on other team’s announcing crews. Most of them function as glorified cheerleaders, and half of the color guys cannot speak a coherent word of English. But the Nets are blessed with Marv, the Czar, and Ian Eagle. We are atleast luck in that respect.

I also do not understand why people keep calling him “E”

Yi Jianlian
易建联

His last name is pronounced “Yee”

Of course, he is Cantonese and I am not fluent in their dialect.. maybe they pronounce it “eee” (i-e-i-o)

@Net Income

“If you can’t get people to attend games during seasons when the Nets were one of the two best teams in the league and led by a Hall of Famer in his prime, there is no fan base.”

And yet the two PRESEASON games at prudential were nearly sold out. With a roster full of kids and a one time all-star. Yeah, there’s no fan base. I think you fail to realize that the Nets were never marketed like they are now before Ratner purchased the team. Which Yormark has repeatedly talked about, the potential of those finals teams with the marketing of today. There’s certainly not a bigger fan base for the Nets team in NY. Not a chance.

at NJ4Life:

“There’s certainly not a bigger fan base for the Nets team in NY. Not a chance.”

Well said – this is blatantly obvious to almost everyone.

The only way the Nets could possibly come near the Knicks in popularity would be to get a mega-superstar like LeBron. If somehow James lands at MSG next year, the Nets would be absolutely finished as a NYC team.

“Anthony Says:

February 8th, 2010 at 7:53 am
@Mr. MDB

Yeah, I’m sure with a great team in New Jersey like the teams that went to the finals, we’d be selling out the Izod Center every night.

Wait, what?"

Anthony, THE NETS ARE 4-46 AT THIS POINT in the 2009-2010 season! They’re on pace to set the ALL-TIME RECORD FOR LOSSES in a single season! Something tells me Brooklyn wouldn’t help their attendance either. And I seem to remember the Nets selling out playoff games in the years you speak of. Otherwise, the NBA would have instituted a TV blackout.

MrT – The NBA doesn’t implement local blackouts for playoff games that don’t sellout but your point is well taken.

The Nets sold out a good deal of their playoff games during the Kidd era – INCLUDING the Finals games. While my comment above wasn’t acknowledged, the capacity figure at the Meadowlands Arena was adjusted by a couple of sections worth of people to accomodate the media for the two championship series in ’02 and ’03.

@MrT

They DIDN’T SELL OUT THE PLAYOFF GAMES. THEY DIDN’T EVEN SELL OUT UNTIL THE FINALS. I’m not disputing the record isn’t helping (obviously it isn’t), but the point is we’ve had good teams before, and we haven’t sold out.

@Isaac
If those playoff games weren’t sold out they sure were close,I was there too.

And yes, I don’t know why people don’t understand that Izod’s lack of access is the real cause of poor attendance. The Nets need to get to Newark asap, public transportation is EVERYTHING.

There are numerous reasons why the team is doing poorly in attendance and rating over the years.I’ve never believed that it has ever had to do with fanbase in NJ
But If wanted to put my finger on it stems from 2 issues
 (in no particular order)
   Venue- The Meadowlands is great for Football, concerts, March Madness and family events, but the IZOD, CAA, etc. has never really translated well for the NBA even when the Nets were doing well.
   Ownership/Front Office – in this category we have several culprits. Ratner,Yormark, YankeeNets, Willis Reed, Thorn, Kiki, Stefanski, the list goes on. Brooklyn has and will continue alienate and divide a lot of the Nets fanbase as it did from Day 1. Yormark’s marketing gimmicks have chased some fans away. YES TV contract is terrible and doesn’t benefit the team at all.

I believe that the finals games were sold out. I camped out in the parking lot the night before they went on sale to get tickets. The problem is that when you got to the games there were just as many people wearing Dunkin or Kobe Jerseys (depending on the year) as were wearing kidd jerseys.

Fans here have never been loyal and you always get a large number of the crowd rooting for the superstar on the other team. It has been that way since I became a fan 18 seasons ago.. You can always tell by the lack of energy in Continental/Brendan Bryn /Izod. This move is necessary and should have happened 10 years ago..

@rightclue Yi is pronounced “E”, not “Yee” thats a fact. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Also a fact: The nets had more fans at their pre-season games at the Prudential Center then they had during ANY game during the regular season at the IZOD. And they still lost during pre-season, so it was simply a matter of a more central location within a city and having lots of nearby public transportation. Similar to the Knicks…they suck, always have, and yet they always sell out. Why? Cause people can go to dinner, grab a drink at a bar, etc….its more convienent and a makes for a better night out. Lets face it, people are all about convienence. Thats the whole point in the Brooklyn move as well. And just for the record, I hate Newark. But theres no denying their point.

its cute to see the die-hard Jersey Boys fight about the Nets being in NJ…
and to the comment about our play-by-play announcers… we do have an amazing staff…did u ever listen to MSG…ughhh

City crowds at NBA games are going to be more boisterous than suburban crowds. This is just the way it is. This doesn’t mean the Nets don’t have loyal fans in New Jersey, it just means you aren’t going to see 20,000 tearing the roof down at the Meadowlands like they do at the Garden when the Knicks are good.

Fortunately for the Nets, there is an urban solution waiting for them in the form of the Prudential Center. Unfortunately for the Nets, the team has no intention of making a permanent move there thanks to David Stern allowing someone’s real estate based agenda take over one of his franchises – in his own home state no less!!! Truly pathetic.

I haven’t been to any games this year for the first time in 10 years. I’ve wathed every game on TV but I can’t see spending any money if the team has decided it’s not going to spend any money.

As far as Nets fans. There aren’t many. Try starting a sports conversation regarding the Nets and see how long it lasts. Even WFAN wno’t talk Nets basketball. The Nets didn’t have many “passionate fans” before this atrocity…I’d say the fans that come here to talk nets hoops are about it.. If there’s more they’re closet fans.

at supreme:

The Knicks hardly get any time on WFAN any more either – the fact of the matter is the NBA is a distant 3rd fiddle to MLB and the NFL in the NYC area.

That being said if the Nets move to Brooklyn, they will be the second class team (way behind the Knicks) for that 3rd fiddle sport – so you tell me, do you think the phone lines will be burning up with Nets fans if the team does make that move? Let’s be honest here.

Too NY-centric in this region. NJ has always received second billing. Not so much location (tri-state area) as much as generational allegiances. Knicks, Rangers, Yankees (even Giants) were in the area long before Nets, Devils, Mets and Jets. In any business (especially these days), having that built-in legacy is a MAJOR advantage. It’s just the reality of being in this region. A major publication (or news station) in Newark would alleviate that problem. Like CNN/ Turner in Atlanta or WGN in Chicago or Comcast in Philly. That’s free coverage and advertising that is specifically geared to teams in their primary broadcast areas. Who would have cared about the Hawks (before this year) if not for TBS. The Bulls haven’t done much since Jordan left, yet we can still see some of their games.

I work for a company that has some legacy brands, and they KNOW that legacy provides them with a HUGE advantage over the competition. The legacy brands set the standard in the market, so that no one else measures up, even if their product is better. IMO, that is by-and-large why the “appearance” is that the Nets don’t get the support they deserve. This is why Brooklyn won’t work any better than Newark, especially with the entrenched Knick fans so prevalent in that borough. Delving deeper into the weeds is the issue of location in the region. Newark is a superioir location to the Meadowlands, which is why it should never be dismissed out of hand. Simply saying be/c it’s in Jersey is not a good enough reason to justify a move out of State. Where is the empirical evidence to state that Newark won’t succeed any more than the Meadowlands? There is none, b/c it doesn’t exist.

Isaac I agree. But this has always been like this for the Nets. If the Knicks get back to being a decent team you’ll see passionate fans come out. But even when the Nets were at their best, not much buzz about the Nets. The Nets lack an Identity because they’ve moved so much. From L.I. to the RAC to Izod and now Pru Center before the go to Brooklyn. And it’s embarrassing to be a Nets fan now. So don’t expect a lot of new fans either.

The reason you don’t hear about the Nets or Knicks is they both stink. Brooklyn is better than Newark which is better than the IZOD. If you don’t have a good team, you won’t draw, if you do then you will draw. If you go to extremes most teams will have the same result as far as drawing. The question is when your team is average what will you draw. My bet is Brooklyn will be a better draw than Newark or the IZOD even if they are both good. When people say NJ gets “second billing” doesn’t that say it all?

“Net Income Says:
February 8th, 2010 at 9:17 am

@Mr Dollar Bills
They couldn’t sell out all those games."

Lets give the spin artistry a rest once in a while, okay? I specifically said there were playoff games during the finals runs that were sold out, and you go off on a tangent because you didn’t want to address that actual point. I see through you, even if no one else here doesn’t.

And for the record I’m not balking at the Brooklyn move, I’ve already accepted the fact that this team is gone from NJ, I only brought that up because people seem to think that the Nets are supposed to be posting sell out crowds when they put a garbage product out there on the floor.

The Nets have a history of putting a mediocre product on the floor, only until we got lucky with Jason Kidd being traded here did that change and by then, there was a serious amount of empathy in the state towards the Nets because they were always known as The East Coast version of the Clippers. You have a history of losing, you aren’t going to attract fans.

I’ll tell you one thing though…you must be smoking something good if you think that the Nets will be selling out the barclays center if they don’t build some serious momentum in the next two seasons, otherwise, the New Yorkers won’t be spending their hard earned money on this garbage either.

Historically, there are a number of reasons why the Nets never gained much in popularity.

Years ago, the Nets & Devils were both stuck on “Sports Channel,” which was a premium channel. Strike number 1 for a young team trying to grow a fan base. Fox eventually bought the channel, & it became a basic cable channel, however the team out right stunk for years on end. Winning sells & we had none of that.

When we got Kidd, we became a very good, very entertaining team. Attendance & revenue slowly, but steadily increase. Kidd & KMart were among the top jersey sales during those years. Following all of those years of losing, you couldn’t expect a huge fan base to sprout up overnight, especially when, at the time, we had one of the most expensive average ticket prices in the league. It did grow slowly however, until Ratner demolished the team.

A big thing that really held us back was the lack of a good rivalry. In NYC, when the Knicks are doing well, there will be basketball interest that spills over to the Nets. Unfortunately for the Nets, in the brief period of time in their history when they actually had a decent team, the Knicks & Sixers were both mediocre at best. If the Knicks, Sixers & Nets all had good teams at the same time, I think the NBA would have a huge renaissance in the area & nationally. Instead, they are all among the 10 worst teams in the league.

Outstanding points and posts above by Dollar Bills and TheNetsFan. You guys really hit on a lot of key points.

The truth is that the Nets are located in an area that is only easy to get to where people drive. However, if NJ Transit was running the trains durring Nets games, then more would come to them. The fact that the Prudential Center was just two blocks from Newark-Penn Station, a major transit hub for NJ, was part of the reason those two preseason games has such high attendance for the Nets. When I went to one of those presason games, I found it to be better than the Izod Center in many ways. Even when I came early to find a parking spot on the street in Newark, I could just pass the time by going around the area, which is something I can’t do much at the Meadowlands. The only reason why I went to that game against the Pistons last week was because I was offered to sit in the upper level for $5 or the lower level for $10 by calling a number I was given for it. I chose the ladder, and I actually sat in a seat that originally for $115, though I took that offer only because I felt that it may never come up again, so I might as well take that chance while it’s there. However, moving into a new arena doesn’t necessarily mean that a team will do better because the Clippers have still barely had a winning season since moving into the Staples Center with the Lakers, and even though the Grizzlies did finally make the playoffs when moving the Great American Pyramid, which was until the Fedex Fourm was built, they are still winnless when it came to the postseason. In other words, moving to a new place does not always mean that the team will automatically do better, because they also need to improove the team as well. Moving to Brooklyn will not necessarily mean higher attendance especially when many of them have been long time Knicks fans that probably won’t ever convert even if the Nets moved there.

It seems to me the Nets problems (even before Ratner) have been due ownership treating the franchise as a “niche” team in the shadow of the Knicks, rather than trying actually built winning legacy.

Fanbase?
Just observe a typical Knicks vs Nets game in the IZOD. Who has more fans.

Newark is real close to Manhattan, just a thought.

this is why the nets are coming to BROOKLYNNNNN

LETS GoOo BROOKLYN NETSSSSSSSSSS

@ TheNetsFan

You make GREAT points! I remember when I was in my early teens sitting in my living room watching snow on the tv, but, listening to Nets games. Just to here the games live. I always had basic cable growing up and the Sports Channel was never a basic cable channel like YES is now. How on earth can you start a fanbase when most people in the eighties and even early nineties had basic cable and could not even watch the team! Very few people had the packages offered today with hundreds of channels.

NEW JERSEY NETS!

enjoy 2 more years of it JustinNJ

because theres a new Dynasty arriving soon

B R O O K L Y N III N E T S

cant wait to buy all those jerseys

Brooklyn won’t be the Nets anymore.

Enjoy those wonderful red jerseys.

Brooklyn does not excite anyone in New JERSEYYYYYYYY! Just another NYC borough. Yipee!

Just a question, but why is it that, while everyone in favor of the Brooklyn arena assumes that NJ fans will be able and willing to keep supporting their team once they move there (and that if they don’t its just parochialism thats preventing them from doing so), NetIncome and NetsDaily never seem to talk about how the future fans in Brooklyn haven’t started to venture over to New Jersey to support their future team, nor have they begun watching on TV?