Especially when the game is close? I stay until the end of every game, and did with the Hornets. Trust me, the traffic is not bad at all, and if you park anywhere but the parking garage adjacent to the Ford Center (which is too expensive anyway), it takes no time to get out.

It looks really bad on television to see so many people leaving, and it's bad for team morale. We need people to chill out about the traffic (We live in Oklahoma City, for heavens sake, not LA!) and stay until the end of the game. I've seen games won in the last 15 seconds, and this one could have been. Who wants to miss that?

I couldn't agree more! When the game is well within reach and there is a steady flow of people leaving that must kill morale for the team. That is when they need the crowd behind them the most! I was thinking the same thing tonight.

I was shocked when the arena started emptying out! In BB, all it takes is a couple of 3's, and you're back in the lead, and a win! We stayed for the whole thing. We were really bummed out because we should've won this one. We had a chance to win it, but just blew it there in the last 5 minutes.

If this isn't stopped, how is it going to look a few years down the road when people just flat stop coming to games?

Did the Hornets ever have this issue when they were here?

Are people just not worrying about it because this team is ours? NBA Giveth...NBA Taketh. Kansas City is hovering waiting for their shot.

I was shocked when the arena started emptying out! In BB, all it takes is a couple of 3's, and you're back in the lead, and a win! We stayed for the whole thing. We were really bummed out because we should've won this one. We had a chance to win it, but just blew it there in the last 5 minutes.

thats gonna happen a lot with this team

This is one of my pet peeves. I mean don't assume you are going to stay for a whole game before you leave for the arena? If you are an early leaver I suggest you stay away from my section if my mother is with me. She calls people out for leaving early.

I feel the same way. I hate when people interrupt the game, stand up gather their belongings, (blocking the view of everyone) and take their time strolling out ... I try to be patient.. but one of these days, look for a flying fan being flung from above.

I sound like Dr Seuss on steroids. lol

People need to realize that these games are on national tv and it makes us look so bad! This is our first pro team and we need to set a good pressident if we want more.

Fans are shortchanging themselves by leaving early. The tickets are expensive, they need to get their money's worth and stay in their seats. We stay til the buzzer sounds, did that for the Hornets and now the Thunder. Eventually, one of these games will end at the buzzer David West style and I want to be there to see it and yell with the crowd.

Many of the people of OKC could care less about the NBA much less the Thunder. The OKC Thunder is a novelty at best. Kind of like platform shoes, rubix cubes and the macarena.

The only thing people follow here is football. There is one reason for that, it is played on weekends (In most cases the game is played before 7pm).

Most of the people in OKC have job obligations and family obligations that prohbit them staying late at ball game on a weeknight.

In my opinion, you need a large population of singles to make an NBA team successful. Oklahoma City just does not have that.

Dude. It's entertainment. The game was basically out of reach barring a complete miracle. You guys will complain about anything. Just be glad so many tickets were purchased. It wasn't far off a completely full house.

I always wait until there is a minute left. if it is out of reach ill head out. especially since I am next to the aisle. it really doesnt bother me. and these games are NOT on national TV. The hornets game and heat game are the only two. if the games are close, NO ONE is going to leave.

Id rather have a full house and have a few thousand leave early if we dont have a chance than having just over 10,000 in attendance like they did in Indianapolis last night.

Id rather have a full house and have a few thousand leave early if we dont have a chance than having just over 10,000 in attendance like they did in Indianapolis last night.

No kidding.

That was pitiful looking.

It made me thankful for the Ford Center and its fans.

I always wait until there is a minute left. if it is out of reach ill head out. especially since I am next to the aisle. it really doesnt bother me. and these games are NOT on national TV. The hornets game and heat game are the only two. if the games are close, NO ONE is going to leave.

Id rather have a full house and have a few thousand leave early if we dont have a chance than having just over 10,000 in attendance like they did in Indianapolis last night.

All the games are on NBA League Pass for most subscribers in the US, so technically all of them are on national tv. I agree that it's better to have a full house and have people leave early, but I don't understand why people would spend hundreds of dollars on tickets and then walk out during what is frequently the most exciting part of the game, especially when they seem to believe that we as fans give the team home court advantage. Leaving means they're shutting off that home court advantage right when the team may need it most. And people do leave when the game is close. I noticed a fair number of people leaving at five minutes prior to the end of the Timberwolves game. Anyone who was at the David West buzzer beater game, or the game when Chris Paul scored 7 points in about 15 seconds to tie the game and send it into overtime knows that rarely is a game with a five point differential lost prior to the last minute or two.

There's virtually no traffic of significance post NBA games here. The games let out quite early. What's a few minutes to support our team and clap at the conclusion of the game? That's what I don't understand. If it were an NFL game and people ran the risk of sitting in a parking lot waiting to get out for a couple of hours, or were going to spend two hours on I-35 going home from an OU game, it would be more logical.

All the games are on NBA League Pass for most subscribers in the US, so technically all of them are on national tv. I agree that it's better to have a full house and have people leave early, but I don't understand why people would spend hundreds of dollars on tickets and then walk out during what is frequently the most exciting part of the game, especially when they seem to believe that we as fans give the team home court advantage. Leaving means they're shutting off that home court advantage right when the team may need it most. And people do leave when the game is close. I noticed a fair number of people leaving at five minutes prior to the end of the Timberwolves game. Anyone who was at the David West buzzer beater game, or the game when Chris Paul scored 7 points in about 15 seconds to tie the game and send it into overtime knows that rarely is a game with a five point differential lost prior to the last minute or two.

There's virtually no traffic of significance post NBA games here. The games let out quite early. What's a few minutes to support our team and clap at the conclusion of the game? That's what I don't understand. If it were an NFL game and people ran the risk of sitting in a parking lot waiting to get out for a couple of hours, or were going to spend two hours on I-35 going home from an OU game, it would be more logical.

I wouldn't really call that National TV Exposure. Most people don't pay the extra bucks for NBA League Pass. It's like uo football. Yeah, all their games have been televised but a few of them have also been on Pay-Per-View and to anyone outside the interest of uo football there's just no reason to call that a national broadcast.

I also have a problem with people leaving early. I've seen it in every game I have attended. I've seen it when the game was within 10 points and over 7 minutes left! That's ridiculous. If you can't stay at a game past 9:30pm because of work obligations, then give your ticket to someone who cares about sports. And don't even get me started about the people who have tickets in the lower bowl and don't even bother to show. I don't care if they were free coporate tickets. Give them up to someone. I hate looking at the empty seats. People are already starting to take this team for granted.

:yeahthat:

yeah, it is idiotic to leave early. people did it with the hornets too. it sucked.


what does flat stop mean?

I think more people are leaving early at the Thunder games than left at the Hornets' games. I watched the Chicago-based Bulls-Hawks game last night, which was similar in scoring to our game with the Hawks, the Bulls ending up losing, and didn't see noticeable numbers of people leaving. I think it would be safe to say that traffic and parking is more of a concern in Chicago than in Oklahoma City. To be fair, though, in Dallas the place emptied out at least five minutes before the end of their game with the Rockets. Maybe Chicagoans are either better fans, or more used to losing.

Look for this to continue tonight as the Thunder is down about 30 at the half

Excited the team is here and all but they are ridiculously bad

Maybe we should have let them play out their lease :sofa:

Maybe we should have let them play out their lease :sofa:

At least now people will quit asking me what I think about the sonics moving here everytime I wear my sonics shirts. LOL

Just because they moved here and changed names doesn't mean they are going to play any better.

How did the fans do tonight? Did your plea have any affect?

From the tv tonight, it looked like there were still alot of fans at the game tonight. They did play better in the 3rd to tighten up the score, but the Magic made sure there was no come back tonight.

It seems like they could't buy a basket in the first quarter. Not even even layups, or slam dunks. Crzy.

Actually, as bad as the score was, people stayed a little longer than I expected. There was a mass exodus with a little over 2 minutes to go, however. There were diehards (me included) who stayed until the end of the game, but not a lot. I did notice that a lot of the people leaving early were older. Maybe you're more likely to obsess over traffic if you're older, or maybe younger people weren't planning on going straight home.

> they could't buy a basket in the first quarter

Some college pigskin teams experienced similar issues recently. Not sure where first perioditis comes from

that first half last night was so frustrating. . . I could tell the players are not at all into this - when they did the introductions, they are now just calmly walking onto the court, no more running, high fives, chest bumps.

I wanted to leave at half time, especially when that girl started "singing" -- but I stayed till the end.

We are doomed this season, we've lost the players.

PJ couldn't coach wolves to eat meat

that first half last night was so frustrating. . . I could tell the players are not at all into this - when they did the introductions, they are now just calmly walking onto the court, no more running, high fives, chest bumps.

I wanted to leave at half time, especially when that girl started "singing" -- but I stayed till the end.

We are doomed this season, we've lost the players.Get ready, the next 3 to 4 seasons are going to be just like this one, maybe worse. But by 2012 you will see them improve their season record to around .500. Hang in there.

Avery Johnson.

Who was the girl singing? and why?

Come on! Bring on the fun! Poor kids..

They called her Natalie. She was performing the act of singing, I don't think she was really singing.

I know, my little guy says 'mom, what do you think the halftime show will be? and I said, 'we'll just have to wait and see!' and then she came out. The kiddos really look forward to a fun halftime, this just wasn't it.

They should ask that our shots fall in the pregame prayer

They should ask that our shots fall in the pregame prayer


Right now I'd settle for the open jumpers to fall....


Although Jeff Green has shown a smooth stroke from the outside the last few games. He is growing on me.

I too stayed until the end of the game. A lot of people left at halftime around me but I thought the crowd was more enthusiastic. Of course the team played better but maybe we as fans have accepted our fate that we are going to be bad and just have fun with it. Also, I really miss the chicken dance at halftime. Am I the only one? I made my daughter do the dance with me when they were playing the Boston (I think it was Boston) song.
By the way Dwight Howard was a stud last night. He may be the best player in the NBA. (btw I hate Kobe so don't even mention his name to me)

There's always going to be fans that just go to about halftime and then leave.
It will be a while before they're any good so a lot of the time they'll be down big before the third quarter is even and over and people will just start filing out.

I was at the Hawks game and noticed it too. It was very discouraging. I never made it to a Hornets game, but I was like "these are the famous OKC fans?"

Famous only because the media has a short memory. We've never supported a team the way Charlotte originally supported the Hornets....with a dismal record of wins the first four years.

What are you saying exactly, betts? The Hornets weren't that good when they arrived here, yet we became famous for Loud City. I didn't see anything resembling that when I was there.

Shouldn't there be some of that frenzy left, even though we suck? lol

This is starting to look like the 90's when the Cavs played in the Myriad. I went to one game on a school activity. There was barely enough people there to fill the courtside seats and the lower ring.

I give it 3 maybe 5 years tops and Clay Bennnet will probably put the team up for sale. Oklahoma City is a family oriented town. Especially this time of year. Most people are going to see little Timmy play the snowflake in the Holiday Play before they set down for NBA game.

What I'm saying is that we were famous, but probably not as deservedly so as we all thought. The Hornets won a significant number of their games at home. They lost more on the road, especially the first year. It's easy to be a Loud City when your team is winning. We had good but not great attendance, especially compared to Charlotte, which sold out a huge arena every game for seven years, despite having several 18 to 20 win seasons.

I think people pat themselves on the back about our support of the Hornets more than they should, perhaps, and now we get to find out what we're made of as fans. Will we do what Charlotte did, and pack the house for a losing team? I'm not going to miss a game, even if we don't win another one (God forbid!), but some people can't even bother to stay for the fourth quarter. So, I'm saying we're probably not the great fans we convinced ourselves we were. We may be no better than any of the other cities, but we'll see as the season progresses. If we're down to 8,000 people in the house after the All Star break, we'd better take back our criticism of New Orleans.

This starting to look like the 90's when the Cavs played in the Myriad. I went to one game on a school activity. There was barely enough people there to fill the courtside seats and the lower ring.

I give it 3 maybe 5 years tops and Clay Bennnet will probably put the team up for sale.

To be fair, the arena tonight was sold out, and it was a real sellout, with virtually every seat occupied. So, I don't know how you can compare it to a Cavs game. But, people will have to stay behind this team, win or lose, or we will end up losing it. It will probably take two to three years to put together a decent team. So, can we be a Charlotte, and continue to give the team excellent support throughout the losing seasons, or are we going to expect somebody besides each of us to support them, and watch them leave?

To be fair, the arena tonight was sold out, and it was a real sellout, with virtually every seat occupied. So, I don't know how you can compare it to a Cavs game.

Exactly. Where is that coming from??

Well, I think the worst is over, can't go anywhere but up. We stuck it out for all the home games so far and plan to stay in our seats to the final buzzer in the future.

Exactly. Where is that coming from??

From here: Oneforone said, "This is starting to look like the 90's when the Cavs played in the Myriad. I went to one game on a school activity. There was barely enough people there to fill the courtside seats and the lower ring."

My point was that with a sold out crowd, I don't know how you could compare last nights' game to a crowd at the Myriad. Actually, we're currently ranked 11th in attendance in the NBA. The only teams that are ranked higher than us with a losing record are Chicago and Dallas, both of whom are 6-7. We're at the bottom of the league in terms of win-loss record and we're almost in the top ten for attendance. Not bad for the third smallest city in the NBA.

From here: Oneforone said, "This is starting to look like the 90's when the Cavs played in the Myriad. I went to one game on a school activity. There was barely enough people there to fill the courtside seats and the lower ring."

Oh I know, it was addressed to him/her.