Tonight’s game between Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors from the luscious Oracle Arena has got me to once again think about the attendance disparity between the two teams.
As of today, February 17, 2010, on ESPN’s NBA Attendance report, the Golden State Warriors are 14th in the league at filling Oracle Arena with an average of 17,942 fans paying for tickets each game (91.6% to capacity). While the Sacramento Kings are near the bottom, 25th in the league, 13,489 paid tickets (77.9% of Arco Arena’s capacity). The percentage full is just barely better than the Pacers, T’Wolves, Grizzlies, Nets and 76ers.
Let’s take a Fairweather look at the many reasons why the Golden State Warriors outdraw the Sacramento Kings.
1. Arena
The Golden State Warriors play the majority of their games at the Oracle Arena. Constructed in 1966, renovated to the tune of 121 million in 1997, and now seats 19,596 people that want to call themselves Warrior fans. Okay on certain days about 30-50% of those fans are “Lakers, Celtics, and Cavs Fans”. For those not in the know, the basketball seating capacity is larger than Staples Center 18,997.Prior to the renovation, there were only 15,000 seats, now it contains two levels of luxury suites, state of the art electronic scoreboards and that old timey feeling you can get in a building originally built in the 60’s (Think Madison Square Garden West, except in Oakland).
Meanwhile in the capital city, there’s Arco Arena. Built in 1988 at the cost of 40 million to replace a renovated office building turned arena now turned office building (California Department of Consumer Affairs), it seats 17,317 and about as many luxury suites as most people have fingers. During the Kings’ heyday and even before that people came out to support in large numbers. I believe at one point they had a sellout streak of 300+ straight games.
Location wise, both arenas are miles from the center of town, Oracle about 6.5 miles from Downtown Oakland, same exit as the airport if you feel like you want to escape quickly. And adjacent to great nightspots such as Denny’s and GMC Truck Center, In-n-Out if you want to cross 880. Arco Arena also sits 6.5 miles from the State Capitol in sprawling Natomas, and stone’s throw away from the Sacramento International Airport if you feel like you want to escape quickly. At Oracle there are BART and Amtrak Stations nearby which means you can drive and park at the either lot. Arco Arena, much like Dodger Stadium, has parking as far as the eye can see and multiple freeway access.
If you want to base the attendance discrepancy between the Kings and Warriors on arena ambience and in-game experience, you will feel complete with the bells n’ whistles offered by the Warriors and Oracle. For Sacramento, the ease of getting into Arco Arena and getting home with the lack of Bay Area congestion is too easy it’s almost criminal.
2. Team Quality
The road numbers will indicate an opposite trend to the home numbers, the Kings are 16th in average attendance on the road, 16,864 (88.8% of road arenas filled) while the Warriors sit at 26th, 16,083 (84.8% of road arenas filled). Record wise, the Kings at 18-35 and Warriors at 14-38, you think you’re looking at identical teams. Well for the Fairweather fan, that’s as identical as they will get. Oh, also in the loveable rookies to watch category.
So far in the first half of the NBA season, I’ve seen the Kings lose a fair bit of their games with a young nucleus and a new coach. This includes a couple of buzzer beaters on both ends of the losing and winning spectrum, a couple of close overtimes to the Lakers and Cavs near Christmas time, an uninspiring 0-6 southern swing where Kevin Martin, like Stella, tried to get his groove back, and many more frustrating finishes that plagues many desperate housewives across America.
In the Warriors sphere, there’s been some quality wins early on against Portland, in Dallas, and at tough New Jersey. While at the same time, there are more head scratchers than slices of Wonder bread. Granted, I would say the Warriors quality of schedule has been likely less favorable than what the Kings have done so far. There’s an ongoing circus of injuries that has forced the Dubs to bring on D-League caliber talent and a head coach that just doesn’t look comfortable coaching. In fact, Don Nelson looks as comfortable coaching as I am riding on the bus when stuff like this happens. The players that aren’t injured seemingly are not interested in playing for the Warriors or Don Nelson, as Stephen Jackson was and perhaps as Corey Maggette claims to be. Monta Ellis has been hurt which has taken some wind if any in the sails. Davidson standout Steph Curry though has been a pleasure to watch.
Apart from the surprise 2006-2007 season, the Warriors haven’t really had a quality season since the late 80’s/early 90’s. So you got to credit the fans that actually continue to pay and watch. It should also be noted that the Kings prior to the Chris Webber and Lawrence Funderburke years had a healthy fan base to support the Mitch Richmond, Wayman Tisdale, and Tyus Edney era.
In addition to some other economical reasons we could divulge into, the median income in the Bay Area’s various districts is $65,052 with a population totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 million. Let’s not forget the Warriors is the Bay Area’s professional only basketball team, isn’t it obvious as hinted by “Golden State”? Attendance does not struggle as fans are not divided between two baseball or football teams. Which coincidentally the Warriors’ neighbors, the Raiders and A’s have trouble bringing people out to the old ballgame (that’s another Fairweather Channel post and involves Al Davis somehow).
Sacramento can really only draw from 2 million people with a family’s median income of $57,112 of course all these numbers based on the 2000 Census which will probably be different in the 2010 census. Being the only professional sport in town, you’d think people would look to fill the joint like Snoop. But perhaps losing years after years of contention, an aging arena, and some civic resentment toward rich sports owners and construction of a new arena (this is common problem through California) will probably keep people at home watching Peaches (Grant Napear), and good old JR on TV for their basketball fix.
Just remember when you watch the Kings on CSN “California” and the Warriors on national TV (which you can do 7 more times this year BTW) that the economics of sport in Fairweather California, fan support, win-loss record, attendance numbers, and people’s well being just don’t go hand in hand anymore.
