The mere fact that you need external “boosters” like music, sound effects etc at NBA games tells me the fan base just isn’t passionate enough about the sport or their team. The NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR and Soccer (except in the US) don’t have that problem.

Mark, you’re a smart guy, and you’ve probably got a better grip on how to make the business of the NBA work than most, but the bottom line is if people were passionate enough about the product, that external stuff wouldn’t be necessary.

The NBA makes money because they market personalities and play to the hip hop culture. It’s cool to wear NBA gear. But as far as passion for the individual teams and living and dying with how they do on the court — forget about it. It’s not there.

So to generate excitement in the arena’s, you need a slick “presentation” of the game. That tells me the NBA still has an awful lot of work to do.

Sure, at many , but not all, the college section is packed, crazy and loud and the prices are cheap. Only because they force alumni to make donations to the school in order to get good season tickets. The price on the ticket may not be a big number, but for the biggest programs, football or basketball, the price of the donation is. The cheap seats are subsidized by alums. Directly or indirectly

And if you look at the other side of the arena, where the alums and all the businesspeople sit. They arent quite so loud and boistrous.

in fact, many are ducking their heads and hiding their faces when they hear what the student sections are chanting or yelling.

College sports is just as big a business as the pro game. The primary difference is that schools put the money in their coaches and own pockets instead of the players, and, worst yet, they sell influence to alumni

Make a big enough donation and your name can be where ever you want it and you have the right to call up the AD and complain as loud as you want. Make the big donation every year so that the school is your “bucket boy”, and you probably can have influence on the selection of coach, and more.

Neither game is perfect. For the fan its just entertainment. For those behind the scenes its a business.

Schools dont have to sell the in game experience to make money. The pros do. We have thousands and thousands of fans who live and die by the Mavs. They would come to every game if they could. The difference is that they have jobs and families. They dont live “on campus”.

If anything, our fans are far more committed to our team than most college teams. Our fans have to make a far greater committment in terms of time, effort and scheduling.

Kids at any school with a large on campus student base dont. They just walk to the arena and walk home afterwards

Its a completely different world.

In college, the majority of fans going to games are in a tighter 18-22 demo, (with some older boosters thrown in of course).

The pros have a much broader demo made up of couples, older people and families with younger kids.

College groups can go nuts and stand for a whole game just because they don’t have to worry about their 2.4 kids next to them spilling their soda.

As far as music goes, it seems the Silent Night experiment has shown it to become essential white noise in the background.

I’d rather see the leagues experiment more with Silent Broadasters. NBC did it for one game years ago with the Jets, where all they broadcast was ambient stadium noise and the stadium announcer’s voice.

I’d love the NBA to try it for one night, although Charles Barkley might have a stroke trying to be quiet.

;-p

I seem to remember that you would sometimes sit in the “cheap” seats with the real fans. Do you still do that? If you would take a walk all the way up to section 300 or so, you would realize that the energy is always there. It never wains.

Look, I have been a recipient of those corporate tickets with the great lower bowl tickets and have also had the privilege of sitting in the upper deck with the real fans.

There is no comparison. The fans in the upper deck could care less about the music. They are just happy to be sipping one of your $10 beers and enjoying their hometown team play.

On the flip side, the so-called good seats are filled with the wealthy and stuffy people who seem to think it is beneath them to generate their own energy. To Buffy and Biff and their three spoiled rotten kids it is about being seen sitting in the good seats, not about creating an energizing atmosphere.

Trust me, I have tried to be a leader in the good seats and it just doesn’t work. Sorry, your problem is not the music, but your clientele.

It feels like a contrived and desperate attempt to get a large number of higher social economic status people involved in a game that they have little or no personal connection with. NBA and NCAABB are completely different entertainment products and both are big business, but the primary difference is that the college kids seem to care where the NBA is choked by bloated, guaranteed contracts.

Championships and winning are incentives, but the NBA players aren’t playing for their lives – they already have millions of reasons to not care and play without passion. This is similar to most college vs pro arguments.

The professional product is a technically more skilled game and has players with amazing talent, but the desire and passion is dampened by the money involved. The college product has less talent, but far more desire and passion b/c for 99% of them, this is as far as they will go and I would prefer to see someone with less talent putting in 110% than an amazing talent mailing it in every night.

The fans and the crowd feeds off of what is going on – college feeds off of team players playing for something and the NBA’s distorted 1on1 isolation game inspires little if any passion, desire or a reason for people to care.

Back in the 80′s every single home game was a sell out. I think the Celtics had the longest running sell out streak in professional sports.

The crowd was into the game every night. The fans understood the game, understood good defense, rebounding, passing, picks and screens. I was at a Celtics game where Orlando Woolridge playing for the Denver Nuggets scored his 10,000th point. The Celtics fans gave him a standing ovation.

The atmosphere has changed considerably now, but there are still no cheerleaders and no music, except for TV timeouts. And the crowd is always into the game. Personally, I find the loud music distracting and annoying.

Dallas has great players, a great arena, and a great ownership / management team. You shouldn’t need music or cheerleaders to make the GAME interesting. Are your fans there for the game or for a three ring circus?

Don Dodge

Back in the 80′s every single home game was a sell out. I think the Celtics had the longest running sell out streak in professional sports.

The crowd was into the game every night. The fans understood the game, understood good defense, rebounding, passing, picks and screens. I was at a Celtics game where Orlando Woolridge playing for the Denver Nuggets scored his 10,000th point. The Celtics fans gave him a standing ovation.

The atmosphere has changed considerably now, but there are still no cheerleaders and no music, except for TV timeouts. And the crowd is always into the game. Personally, I find the loud music distracting and annoying.

Dallas has great players, a great arena, and a great ownership / management team. You shouldn’t need music or cheerleaders to make the GAME interesting. Are your fans there for the game or for a three ring circus?

Don Dodge

The college kids care , vs pros dont has to be THE STUPIDEST argument ever.

Not only is it wrong, you cant even find a basis to pretend its right.

Look at graduation rates at the biggest schools. They care so much they dont want to graduate ? Particularly given that most college players will never play pro. Look at transfer rates. They care so much they dont want to honor their committment to their school ?

And of course, given that most players in the NBA did play in college, why is it that they stopped caring ? Do you really think that any given player in the NBA played harder in college than they do in the pros ? That has to be the stupidest perspective ever.

Sorry to be so direct. But the competition is better. Whats at stake is higher. A college coach cant make a trade, wont replace a player mid season. He has what he has. He may ask a player to leave, but thats pretty much it.
Then there are all the ridiculous NCAA rules that must be followed that limit what players can do.

Anyone who believes that the college game is tougher than the pro game today has never talked to anyone in the NBA today who has played in both.

its that simple.

And for those people who like to talk about the isolation game in the NBA.. You definitely watched an NBA game in a lot of years. I know Im prejudiced on this, but 99pct of college games are 5 passes around the perimeter to use up the too long shot clock. Then set some picks, try to get an open shot for a 3 point shooter. If thats not there, drive and throw it up.

If a game of too short 3 pointers is a game of effort and skill to you, thats your call.

If you want to tell yourself you dont watch the pros because of effort, feel free. If you dont want to watch the NBA for whatever reason, thats your call. But at least dont lie to yourself.