Hornets Beat the Bobcats

beer garden*

Wait, season ticket holders are supposed to have an individual ticket rep? That like comes and sees you and stuff? Come on!?! Really? I never would have known. Ok, enough with the negativity. Hornets season tix blow saints season tix out of the water. Hornets tix come in a nice box, look pretty, and you get a real metal pin. You might even get a hat, youth jersey, or a bobblehead if you go to select a seat day. Saints tix (which cost about the same as hornets tix, for what... 8-9 real saints games?) come in a free usps envelope and you get a sticker if they remembered to put one in there. And there's the beer garded, too. No perks whatsover with saints tix, so I give kudos to the hornets for that at least. It just looks like the Saints try to save as much money as possible. They don't even pay for their envelopes.

Man you are so right about that commercial! Its terrible! If I knew nothing about basketball or the Hornets, that sure doesnt make me want to know about them. And yes! The season ticket holder reps are absolutely bad. I loved my rep last season. Mitchell Law was great! He would call me, come to my seats to check on me...was very personal and interested in me as a person, not as a sale. I would see him in the halls during games and he'd call me by name to say hello. Unfortunately, he quit and moved away in the summer. Now I'm stuck with this new guy that gets an F- in my book. The dude has yet to even introduce himself to me, and I had to hunt him down via email/phone to even learn that I had a new rep and who he was prior to the season. Thats just unnecceptable, esp for some1 with 2 lower level seats. For my Langiappe Points one thing I selected was seat upgrade and after emailing him twice with the same question asking what game I will have it for, I have yet to get a reply. Mitchell would reply within an hour.

Here's some stuff I've posted earlier about attendance: The NBA uses “the number of tickets distributed, adding complimentary tickets — for players’ families, league officials, sponsors and such — to the number of tickets sold.” So the announced attendance is as inflated as it can possibly be. It has nothing to do with butts in the seats. The only number I could come up with that illustrates the "drop count," or actual number of people in the seats, came from a study of the Hornets when they were in OKC. (Apparently, the drop count is a pretty well-guarded secret for obvious reasons.) Anyway, that study showed that warm bodies in the seats accounted for 74% of the announced attendance. In other words, to calculate physical attendance, take 74% of the announced attendance, and there you have it. Is this guaranteed accurate? No, but it's the only way to calculate physical attendance that I've been able to find, because the actual drop count is not released by anyone - apart from the study I mentioned. Here's an excerpt of that study: “The Hornets had an average posted attendance of 17,833 this season at the 19,163-seat Ford Center, but the filing shows that the average drop count, or actual turnstile count, was 13,269, or 74 percent of the reported average attendance.” Citations: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-attendance-082305,0,3422667.story http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/55421

Downtown Dave...if you are right then I am really looking forward to this sale being done. It'll be very cool to see how the franchise changes and takes off to another level. People that are not STHs better jump on now while there is still room! I am glad I am inside the boat...ready for the ride.

42, thats some good stuff. I dont know how I missed that article when you posted it. I have a friend who works in the Accounting Dept for the Hornets. I wonder if she has some insight on how all this stuff works. I'll give her a call over the weekend and see if I can get us any more info. Why would a team want to move numbers from one game to another? If they look at averages, it all comes out the same. Does "using the money as a common medium of exchange" mean that a team can say cash in a single courtside seat sale into something like 20 upper level sales to inflate numbers?? After seeing your numbers you posted from previous years, its clear that we are doing pretty good right now historically speaking for this team. I wish more of the folks always talkin bout the attendance would get more educated into learning the facts. They would realize that this shouldnt even be a topic for discussion. And like we all have already agreed upon, once the sale is over, this conversation is really over.

I truly believe that when Gary Chouest takes over the organization we are going to see a major upgrade in the marketing campaign, which will translate into an increase in team support within the community. If I remember correctly, Chouest's goal is to turn professional basketball into a permanent fixture within the Louisiana culture. He has the resources and knowledge to make this happen, and I can't wait for the day that he is announced as majority owner.

How the numbers work is actually more complicated than that, I think. I'm pretty sure that's what the lease goes off of based on the tracking I did in 2008 (yeah, I did that). In my attendance journal http://www.hornets247.com/journals/2010/11/19/attendance-through-the-years/ I link to some things at play. One is that the teams can fiddle with numbers, effectively `moving' sales from one game to another and inflating or deflating numbers using the money as a common medium of exchange (shout out to hewhorocks, and hewhopebbles?). I can't attest to how this is going on now . . . but I may know more next week. Also, in the same article I think I linked (but it's out there if not) to an article from the will-the-hornets-move time period. Although sales were on pace in terms of seats, they were not in terms of money: too many balcony tickets. So, it's more complicated, but it's WAY closer to sales than to gate. It's been different enough (like half full when it was a near-sell-out due to other events, bad weather) at least once to know they system is not the gate numbers. The gate numbers are important as they play into the concessions sales which play into sponsorship and the lease deals, but they are NOT what goes in to the page at ESPN or the lease. If it was, we would not have met the target in 2008. By the way, in 2007-2008 when the lease was renegotiated, they chopped off part of the season from the numbers, which is why 14181 > 14735. The part they chopped off: before mid-December. It's feels weird to have typed that mathematical abomination. Where is my red pen? I used to give students a 0 on a problem if their answer was stupid. Not wrong, stupid. Like a probability exceeding 1. No points. Write in "This is stupid" and I'd grade it faithfully, maybe adding a point for sense. That's real life, folks, and that's how I grade(d). So yeah, I had to write this to follow my own rule. Apologies. Yes, I had to give 0's for that reason.

typo..."we didnt know if it was actual tickets sold, or actual tickets SCANNED into the arena."

42, me and a co-worker were discussing how they get the actual count. Looks like you answered it for us. We didnt know if it was actual tickets sold, or actual ticket bought. I figured what matters is money, so its about the tickets bought but I jus wasnt sure. Also, if this is all about numbers, not money...dont you think the Hornets should do more to get those upper level sections filled. I mean anybody should be able to spend $10 on a ticket. I won't sit up there, my season tix are lower levels, but thats an easy way to inflate the numbers. I think that stat is misleading though. If it was my business, I would much rather sell 1 expensive lower level ticket than 5 cheap upper level tix. I don't think people consider that either. Technically a team avereging 15k ppl a game (mostly upper level tix) might not be doing as well as a team averaging 13k ppl a game (mostly lower level tix)...yet we are so focused on the actual number of butts in the whole arena.

It's a non-story. Edbballin504 has got it. Plus: I can leave my lady. Uh, yeah, but who else is going to put up with me? Gotta have a place to go. And who wants to invest in a team that might not have a season next year and might be contracted. The stories don't add up. Plus: It's football season. Part of the deal is being in place X when the Hornets are at place Y, but part of it is just the public mind isn't clear yet. I do think we'll keep up our average, and we have some better draws and may exceed that `low 14' number. Plus: I saw some activity with the fans talking to reps at half time. They are selling those holiday plans. The ticket sales are really what is driving this, which is why the 7k people there looked like 11k to ESPN. That's what they go by. Getting people to use their tickets. . . another story.

"Also, people keep saying the Hornets can end their lease and leave blah blah. Truth is, the Hornets might end the lease, but not to leave…only to renegotiate the money it gets from the state (similar to what the Saints did). They’d want more garaunteed money" This is all true but no one EVER considers that. They've been wanting to place a relo tag on the Hornets for quite some time. Hollinger tweeted ..... "Story needing more attention: Hornets can opt out of lease in Nawlins without >14K fans over next 12 games. Drew <11K tonight vs. Cha. about 11 hours ago via web " He feels it needs more attention so he's going to do his best to draw the attention.

Yeah, what he said.

We'll have a tough time a series today. What we look like in April is up to so many things. For a team undergoing so much change, getting 2 of the first 4 in a second round series would be something we and the team should be proud of. The coaching may not get us past such a mark, players aside. We have make great strides and need to hold the gains rather than live in fear that it will all go away. Our measures of the season should reflect that. Sure, the goal is always a title; I'm talking abouy the roadsigns that tell us were are pointed the right way.

42, I agree that stuff like the Spurs losing to the Clippers shows us how premature we all can be (me included) to get upset or in doubt over a few "bad" losses by OUR OWN team. The truth of the matter is that all these teams have the best players in the world, with staffs that are getting paid to develop a gameplan to beat you. There are so many factors that go into wins and losses than who's better on the floor. And thats proven day after day. With that said, the thing we should focus on is the dreaded 7 game series. When it comes to playoff time, how can you beat some of these teams 4 times out of 7. Thats the magic question, and as ugly as MIA or LAL might be playing now, beating them 4 times in a series is a daunting task. Thats the level you want to be on, and I hope the Hornets can get there.

I watched about a quarter but fell asleep before the finish. So what about our embarrassment now? We're losing to the same `bad' folks are the Spurs. The Lakers lost 4 in a row. I suppose we suck because we had to do it in 5 games. Maybe we didn't just luck out for 13 games and were exposed for the frauds we are 5. Maybe we're a good team who play other teams who are good, too. And, no, edbballin504, I'm not picking on you here. I'm just on my soapbox in this comment. You are right, though, he and Aminu are going to be a problem for people.

This kind of reminds of when Jordan came back from his first retirement. Something wasn't quit right about him. Jordan just doesn't get the ball stolen from behind from John Starks on a fast break. 17 games. 26.9 pts. 7 rpg 4.3 APG. Awesome! However, you could tell the Bulls weren't going to win it all. Something wasn't right. Jordan attributed it to being in baseball shape vs basketball shape. Specifically his forearms. Lol Now CP3. I was expecting a start like this: November 09 22.6 pts 10 APG in 33 mpg. Or how about the April from the 08 season? 28.3 11.7 6.3 RPG in 40 in minutes. Just something more pre-injury like. Right now I do not think he can perform at that level. Perhaps it is the new system, new players, new coach or just him not quite back yet. Of course I could be wrong. Although I have watched just about every game for the last three seasons. Oh, and in no way am I saying he is playing poorly.

Whoops. Not sure how that slipped through. I guess what I meant is that he didn't play the last 18 minutes. I wonder who I thought started the second half?

So I guess anytime you don't agree with what anyone has to say about Chris Paul, that means you think he's God? Seriously? If I don't agree with what anyone says about Paul, West, Belinelli or any other Hornet, I'm going to voice my opinion just as others do and I don't care if they they think I'm a homer or if I'm wearing teal colored glasses. The thing is Chris' scoring. If he's not scoring as much as we're accustomed to or getting knocked hard in the paint, it must be because his leg is about to fall off. You know, it wouldn't suprise me if word came out in the near future that CP3 had to have another surgery on his bum knee that some wouldn't celebrate here just so they can say I told you so. And for the record, your comment is the only comment I've read so far in this thread 42. Chris has to score 20+ every night in the paint amongst the trees and take over games in every 4th quarter to make everyone happy. And oh yeah, we have to win those games too. And oh yeah, and he needs to be much, much faster too. I'll ask Santa for all these things next time I see him. It was mentioned that Marco didn't play in the 2nd half. He did play in the 3rd.

He looked a lot better to me last night, 42. No hesitancy what so ever. I did say that since the Utah game he's been better. I think right now he's just not focused on scoring or attacking. But that still could be part of the "mental block" I was talking about. Personally, I don't think he saw Augustine as enough of a challenge to really go out and try to go for big numbers. I'm starting to think we'll see less scoring from CP this year. Maybe 15-16 points a game, but I also think we'll see his assist total climb big time. I wouldn't be surprised to see him have 15 pts, 14 assists, and 3.5 steals a game this season. As for Jack... I can't believe Bayless bugged you all as much as he did. He passed more in one game than Jack has since we've traded for him. And I'm really sick of all his jumpers. I really want to see him attack the basket. Its something that is blatantly missing from our offense. A SLASHER! Always loved J Smith. Great fit on this team and with CP3. Glad to see he's adjusting his game and finally going to the baseline to look for his shot. It'll free up the middle for him later. And lastly, I'm SOOO digging Pondexter. Give this kid a few years and he's gonna be a defensive STUD. Really reminds me of a young Bruce Bowen/Raja Bell. Great footwork on D.

who was guarding him? if it was gerald wallace, or tyrus thomas, you gotta understand why, other wise, i think his still not there mentally. Physically, he is there(IMO) but that mental block is still there. All atheletes who've been through a serious injury can attest to this. When i got an ankle sprain that swelled into more than thrice its size, when the swelling subsided, and then the pain, there was still that fear, that trepidation. And even while I was playing, I wasn't jumping, i wasn't doing any layups. I was scared to get injured again. Give Chris Time, if at the halfway mark, he is still like this, then god forbid, there really must be something wrong with him. But until then, I say be happy with our current CP3(who is still awesome by the way) and give him the benefit of the doubt. Hornets win! GEAUX!