I was. It was an okay crowd. Some swaths of empty seats here and there. Definitely not packed but not super empty either. For a game featuring the two best teams in the conference it was less than I was anticipating though.


I guess until this iteration of the Thunder goes on a deep playoff run attendance will be similar. Maybe casual Thunder fans just assume the Timberwolves are still bad like in the Kevin Love days? Idk

HOW DARE YOU say it was an OK crowd. LOL I was there too let me see. Monday night football game was on. Wait No? OU and OSU were both playing last night. Wait No? Maybe Tulsa was playing. HUM NO. Point I'm trying to make here is the two top teams in the West were playing in a HUGE game for both teams with tiebreakers on the line, nothing going on in the state, and we still couldn't come close to a sell out?

With them losing last night to Minnesota, and they got Denver tomorrow, they needed to win the games against bad teams. Like I said before, they wish they had the game against the Pistons back. They dropped from 1st to 3rd in the West that quick.

Let the record show I didn't say that LOL. Horrible loss. National Media horrible loss, everyone on sports animal horrible loss. I say it on this message board. HOW DARE I LOL

This is my personal observation, but the casual Thunder fan probably still doesn't know this team is for real yet. It will take getting into the playoffs and probably winning a series before the casuals turn the corner.

This is my personal observation, but the casual Thunder fan probably still doesn't know this team is for real yet. It will take getting into the playoffs and probably winning a series before the casuals turn the corner.

it's a combination of historic inflation (the casual fan can't justify the total price tag of attending a game) and a significantly smaller share of season tickets being held by large companies.

HOW DARE YOU say it was an OK crowd. LOL I was there too let me see. Monday night football game was on. Wait No? OU and OSU were both playing last night. Wait No? Maybe Tulsa was playing. HUM NO. Point I'm trying to make here is the two top teams in the West were playing in a HUGE game for both teams with tiebreakers on the line, nothing going on in the state, and we still couldn't come close to a sell out?

It was a good evening too. Not too cold. Games on weeknights didn’t seem to deter fans back in the day. Think it’s pretty clear a good chunk of the population just isn’t aware/doesn’t care about the current iteration of the team yet.

HOW DARE YOU say it was an OK crowd. LOL I was there too let me see. Monday night football game was on. Wait No? OU and OSU were both playing last night. Wait No? Maybe Tulsa was playing. HUM NO. Point I'm trying to make here is the two top teams in the West were playing in a HUGE game for both teams with tiebreakers on the line, nothing going on in the state, and we still couldn't come close to a sell out?

dude, who hurt you?
chill

Let the record show I didn't say that LOL. Horrible loss. National Media horrible loss, everyone on sports animal horrible loss. I say it on this message board. HOW DARE I LOL

Show one example of a post that claimed the loss to Detroit wasn't a terrible loss.

I'm surprised that you're able to find your way to the arena or your seats once you get inside.

With them losing last night to Minnesota, and they got Denver tomorrow, they needed to win the games against bad teams. Like I said before, they wish they had the game against the Pistons back. They dropped from 1st to 3rd in the West that quick.

And they can move from 3rd to 1st again just as quickly (they already have twice)....that's how the NBA works when the teams at the top are all evenly matched.

That said, it sounds like JW may not play against the Nuggets which will make that one pretty tough.

Even if the Thunder don't re-attain the 1 seed in the West, the fact that we held it at all, particularly this late in the season, is an absolute win considering where we were last year and especially the couple of years prior. The team is dramatically overperforming on overall expectations. I don't understand why some people are so intent on falling on their swords over a couple of losses and purportedly crowds smaller than sellouts.

Like, c'mon people.

Even if the Thunder don't re-attain the 1 seed in the West, the fact that we held it at all, particularly this late in the season, is an absolute win considering where we were last year and especially the couple of years prior. The team is dramatically overperforming on overall expectations. I don't understand why some people are so intent on falling on their swords over a couple of losses and purportedly crowds smaller than sellouts.

Like, c'mon people.

BUT WE'RE NOT THE NUMBER ONE SEED ANYMORE WITH NEARLY HALF THE SEASON REMAINING!!! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THAT IS???

Let's ignore the fact that prior to the season people here and in the media thought that at best a we'd have a 5 game improvement and that jumping to 6 to make the playoffs outright was a stretch with higher seeds/deeper runs being a few years down the road. For reference, we are currently on a pace for 55 wins which is a 15 game improvement and would tie the Thunder's third best all time record since moving to OKC (also won 55 games in 2010-2011 & 2015-2016) and 10th in the 57 year history of the franchise. Obviously there's still plenty of time for that to change, but this is all happening in year 4 of the tear down and rebuild with the second youngest team in the NBA (youngest by minutes played) which is two seasons ahead of the last iteration of the Thunder...not to mention the massive cache of draft picks, tradable players/contracts and cap space we have and new billion dollar arena coming in 5 years or so. This franchise is in as good of position as it has possibly ever been which makes the panic over one game and current attendance even more laughable.

Some of the most panicked folks today predicted well under a 5 win improvement in these blazing hot takes:



I have them pretty much the same as last year 40-42. They played so many games last year without the teams best player something around 36 games and over 70 games with the other team not having one of their starters. I think teams too OKC too lightly last year and sat players while playing them not realizing how good they were.


I wish it wasn't true but they did play a lot of games without the other teams best player or other team second best player and it was buy a lot too. As a season ticket holder I hope they make a jump but I still think that is 2 years away. I see teams taking them way more seriously this year than last year. Yes NBA teams do that. Oh this will be an easy win than SGA went off and they won the game. I'll see if I can find the stat somewhere

No luck it was on the sports animal anyway I did find this https://www.si.com/nba/thunder/news/column-thunder-preview-and-predictions-ahead-of-opening-night 48-34 that would be great but I think it will be around 40-42 wins


Only going to win 2 more games with Chet no way we win at least 60.


ESPN Forecast: 45-37 Bleacher Report 40-42 Usa today 43-39

As it stands now, barring any impactful trades or injuries, I would bet that we win 50-52 games and are the 3 or 4 seed. Which would be a massively successful season to build on going forward. I just feel like some of the more veteran teams are going to start coming on strong down the stretch

As it stands now, barring any impactful trades or injuries, I would bet that we win 50-52 games and are the 3 or 4 seed. Which would be a massively successful season to build on going forward. I just feel like some of the more veteran teams are going to start coming on strong down the stretch

Man that would be a pretty disappointing finish. I'm hopeful for 55 wins

Man that would be a pretty disappointing finish. I'm hopeful for 55 wins

I might be setting the bar low to avoid disappointment LOL. I think going 20-15 the rest of the way is very doable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJkL4MVWGAI&t=395s No reason to be concerned right For the record Everyone had OKC win total wrong. 40-42 I was wrong so was Vegas so was everyone on ESPN. As far as inflation you can get tickets for $12 cheaper than some movies. Free parking. It's really not that expensive to go to a Thunder game if you don't want prime seats. That's 2 cups of coffee at Starbucks here is more talking about the thunder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBFrZAaddNg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJkL4MVWGAI&t=395s No reason to be concerned right For the record Everyone had OKC win total wrong. 40-42 I was wrong so was Vegas so was everyone on ESPN. As far as inflation you can get tickets for $12 cheaper than some movies. Free parking. It's really not that expensive to go to a Thunder game if you don't want prime seats. That's 2 cups of coffee at Starbucks here is more talking about the thunder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBFrZAaddNg.

Why does thunder attendance have such an impact on your life?
I guarentee you that next year this won't be a topic

Sounds like skeleton crew tonight versus the Nuggets.

Season starting to wear them down. All star break is sorely needed.

Season starting to wear them down. All star break is sorely needed.

17 games in January with 5 back-to-backs. all of which included at least one road game.

They certainly could use a break.

.

Oklahoma City Thunder Injury report: January 31, 2024 - ESPN NBA:


Jalen Williams (ankle) will not play Wednesday versus Denver, Rylan Stiles of FanSided.com reports.

Isiah Joe will not play Wednesday versus Denver due to a bruised sternum, Rylan Stiles of FanSided.com reports.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Nuggets @ Thunder
Paycom Center, OKC - 7:00 PM
TV - Bally Sports Oklahoma
WWLS-The Sports Animal Oklahoma City (98.1 FM), Tulsa (97.1 FM)

Jokic is out, too. So, this could be a weird one.

Jokic is out, too. So, this could be a weird one.I heard a discussion this morning about the required NBA injury reports the last couple of days. Every team is short players. Some are short important players. It's just pro sports mid year.

I heard a discussion this morning about the required NBA injury reports the last couple of days. Every team is short players. Some are short important players. It's just pro sports mid year.

For sure.

I haven't looked for myself, but I heard some discussion that some of the schedule got condensed because of the in-season tournament. So, I think a lot are banged up heading into all-star break. Also, seems like a lot of illness in the league. Of course, a lot of that could be "load management", but that would still be, in part, the result of scheduling.

Why does thunder attendance have such an impact on your life?
I guarentee you that next year this won't be a topic

Why wasn't it sold out again tonight? Less than 17,000. We have an all-star mvp player, Tickets are cheap and easy to get, ROY, Fighting for a top spot in the West. I remember the KD Russ years you had to get lucky in a 50 tickets lottery to get it or pay over $100 for nosebleed. Is it people have lost interest, Pandemic, People think it's expensive. People not excited about NBA like there were 10 years ago. I'm just wondering that all and a bit surprised that it's not even coming close to being sold out.

As far as tonight goes HUGE win. Now have the season series vs Denver if there is a tie breaker and a Division win which could come into play with Minnesota since that series ended up 2-2 and the tie breaker goes to Division record

Denver Nuggets 100 @ Oklahoma City Thunder 105


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFEfHrRmbo8

Box score https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585310



Attendance: 16,723

Why wasn't it sold out again tonight? Less than 17,000. We have an all-star mvp player, Tickets are cheap and easy to get, ROY, Fighting for a top spot in the West. I remember the KD Russ years you had to get lucky in a 50 tickets lottery to get it or pay over $100 for nosebleed. Is it people have lost interest, Pandemic, People think it's expensive. People not excited about NBA like there were 10 years ago. I'm just wondering that all and a bit surprised that it's not even coming close to being sold out.

As far as tonight goes HUGE win. Now have the season series vs Denver if there is a tie breaker and a Division win which could come into play with Minnesota since that series ended up 2-2 and the tie breaker goes to Division record

Okay rain man. Everyone has given you a number of reasons it’s not selling out this season but you refuse to listen. It isn’t that big of deal. 70+% of voters just approved a new arena, the team is in good financial shape, has a great roster with a ton of draft capital and is winning. When all of those things go south together with attendance for multiple years…that’s reason to be concerned about it. Averaging 95-98% attendance isn’t going to make the team leave. They aren’t going anywhere and the attendance will probably improve next season after the next round of season ticket sales following a successful season. But feel free to keep wasting time rambling on about it in every post.

Why wasn't it sold out again tonight? Less than 17,000. We have an all-star mvp player, Tickets are cheap and easy to get, ROY, Fighting for a top spot in the West. I remember the KD Russ years you had to get lucky in a 50 tickets lottery to get it or pay over $100 for nosebleed. Is it people have lost interest, Pandemic, People think it's expensive. People not excited about NBA like there were 10 years ago. I'm just wondering that all and a bit surprised that it's not even coming close to being sold out.

As far as tonight goes HUGE win. Now have the season series vs Denver if there is a tie breaker and a Division win which could come into play with Minnesota since that series ended up 2-2 and the tie breaker goes to Division record

It's natural for the novelty to wear off some but, though they are proving to be one of the best NBA teams, they don't have the pure star power of the KD, Westbrook, Hardin, lbaka, etc. days. Maybe this plus it's Wednesday night and (l think) Jokic was out?

I'm the only one bringing it up i guess? I guess when I listen to the sports animal and even they are questioning why our attendance is so low I should just turn off the radio and call them idots. Oh and OU mens playing is not a good reason why people are not showing up. Please. We just played the top 2 teams in the West not close to be sold out. So what's the excuse? No OU games, No OSU games, No NFL. I would love to hear your reasons. Let me guess it was 72 today and people didn't want to be inside. AH yeah ok sure.

Hum: https://x.com/JovaniJustin/status/1752407251950903581?s=20

It's natural for the novelty to wear off some but, though they are proving to be one of the best NBA teams, they don't have the pure star power of the KD, Westbrook, Hardin, lbaka, etc. days. Maybe this plus it's Wednesday night and (l think) Jokic was out?

I'll agree with you and thank you for giving an option without attacking. That's all I was looking for other people's thoughts on why they are not getting sale outs. After all this is a discussion message board but it turns into things if someone doesn't like your way of thinking like most things in life anymore. SMH

I'm the only one bringing it up i guess? I guess when I listen to the sports animal and even they are questioning why our attendance is so low I should just turn off the radio and call them idots. Oh and OU mens playing is not a good reason why people are not showing up. Please. We just played the top 2 teams in the West not close to be sold out. So what's the excuse? No OU games, No OSU games, No NFL. I would love to hear your reasons. Let me guess it was 72 today and people didn't want to be inside. AH yeah ok sure.

Again, if we're not averaging closer to a sell out after season ticket sales this off season, that would be a little more concerning.

Yes, some of the people on the sports animal are idiots or at best, just need things to talk about for multiple hours of radio.

I'll agree with you and thank you for giving an option without attacking. That's all I was looking for other people's thoughts on why they are not getting sale outs. After all this is a discussion message board but it turns into things if someone doesn't like your way of thinking like most things in life anymore. SMH

Yes because you literally bring it up in every other post, people give you answers every time, you disregard them and then bring it up again like the sky is falling and ask the same people, who already listed a bunch of possible causes, why the most recent game wasn't a sellout like its a shocking revelation. It's to the point that it almost seems like you're a troll.

Couldn't lack of season tickets sales also though translate to making easier for the casual fan or other fans to go that can't afford season tickets? I'll agree season ticket sales are probably way down but tickets are easy and cheap to get. Vs next year when there will be more season tickets holders and ticket prices will be higher. That will make it harder for people to be able to go to a few games a year would it not? Just my thought.

It will be interesting to see what tickets prices are for the first round of the playoffs cause it's very likely we finish top 4 and have 3 home playoff games.

I'm the only one bringing it up i guess? I guess when I listen to the sports animal and even they are questioning why our attendance is so low I should just turn off the radio and call them idots. Oh and OU mens playing is not a good reason why people are not showing up. Please. We just played the top 2 teams in the West not close to be sold out. So what's the excuse? No OU games, No OSU games, No NFL. I would love to hear your reasons. Let me guess it was 72 today and people didn't want to be inside. AH yeah ok sure.

Hum: https://x.com/JovaniJustin/status/1752407251950903581?s=20
Lol at listening ing to the sports animal.

Again. It’s not a big deal.

I'll agree with you and thank you for giving an option without attacking. That's all I was looking for other people's thoughts on why they are not getting sale outs. After all this is a discussion message board but it turns into things if someone doesn't like your way of thinking like most things in life anymore. SMH
Dude people have given you plenty of reasons. The only reaso. You are getting attacked is because you are ignoring the reasons and harping on something that isn’t a big deal

So we have lack of season tickets holder. Novelty of the NBA has worn off. I'll agree with that. What else if anyone else would like to chime in? Will Friday night have more fans than the last 2 nights cause it's a Friday night or about the same since it's a bad team which also plays into things. I'll go with Sunday game being full house. 6pm Sunday games seem to do well.

So we have lack of season tickets holder. Novelty of the NBA has worn off. I'll agree with that. What else if anyone else would like to chime in? Will Friday night have more fans than the last 2 nights cause it's a Friday night or about the same since it's a bad team which also plays into things. I'll go with Sunday game being full house. 6pm Sunday games seem to do well.
Economy
Fans still in tank mode
Lack of tv exposure

Couldn't lack of season tickets sales also though translate to making easier for the casual fan or other fans to go that can't afford season tickets? I'll agree season ticket sales are probably way down but tickets are easy and cheap to get. Vs next year when there will be more season tickets holders and ticket prices will be higher. That will make it harder for people to be able to go to a few games a year would it not? Just my thought.

It will be interesting to see what tickets prices are for the first round of the playoffs cause it's very likely we finish top 4 and have 3 home playoff games.

If you have season tickets...you've already sunk your money into them and are going to feel obligated to go to all the games. That's just general logic. If a season ticket holder doesn't go, they often give them away to friends who then feel obligated to go because they were given free tickets or bought them from a friend. More season ticket holders = a more consistent crowd.

If you don't have season tickets it's a lot easier to do what I did tonight and say...I have too much going on, it's not worth buying tickets in the nosebleeds at the last minute and stressing out over not being able to wrap up whatever I was working on, I'll just watch it on TV and save myself a few hours of time.

So we have lack of season tickets holder. Novelty of the NBA has worn off. I'll agree with that. What else if anyone else would like to chime in? Will Friday night have more fans than the last 2 nights cause it's a Friday night or about the same since it's a bad team which also plays into things. I'll go with Sunday game being full house. 6pm Sunday games seem to do well.

1. The team started tanking during the pandemic and didn't allow fans in the arena for an entire season. It might as well have been a lockout season. You want to kill all your momentum and give people a reason to say "meh, screw season tickets, I don't want to watch a team suck for 41 nights this season anyway" just eliminate it as an option for an entire season. Just look at the NHL since their lockout. That essentially hit the reset button on season ticket holders and the fanbase in general. 4 teams didn't allow fans in 2020-2021: The Heat, Kings, Pacers and Thunder

- The Heat recovered quickly and bounced back to 100% in 2021-2022. They benefited from being really good, never really having a drop off prior to that and being in a large market.

- The Thunder, Kings and Pacers were 28,29, and 30 in average attendance and 26, 24, and 28 in percentage attendance the season after allowing no fans:

- The Kings were averaging 97.7% in 2018-2019 and 95% in 2019-20. In 2021-22 the averaged 82.1% with a mediocre team, then improved significantly on the court and bumped up to 99% last season...they never blew up their team which helped. They are back over 100% this season
- The Pacer's were at 92.6% in 2018-19, 92.2% in 2019-20. Then dropped to 80.1% in 2021-22, 87.3% in 2022-23 and are below that point this season. Since 2020 they've been under 36 wins but have improved this season
- The Thunder were at 100% in 2018-19, 100% in 2019-20, Then dropped to 81.7% in 2021-22, 85.3% in 2022-23 and are at 94.7% this season. The thunder blew up the team in 2020, tied for the 4th worst record in the NBA in 2020-21 and had the 4th worst record in 2021-22. Attendance began to improve midway through last season along with the product on the court. No team both completely tanked and told all their fans to screw off for an entire season during the same year. They were hard to watch on TV as well both because of Bally Sports midway through the season and they just really sucked to watch. The Thunder did this to themselves, I'm sure they are very aware of that and that it will improve 10% over last season. It takes time to comeback from that and just like last season, has gradually increased as people start to become aware of the team being good again.


2. For season tickets to recover from all of that, they are going to have to be good for a season or two.

3. The team is still hard to watch on TV due to Bally Sports...non-season ticket holders are less likely to go or realize the team doesn't suck anymore if they can't even watch the games at home.

4. Economy/Inflation probably are making somewhat of an impact.

5. We are a small market...this type of stuff is more difficult to recover from when we have fewer potential fans.

6. Football season and holiday hangover still wearing off combined with all of the above. People traditionally spend less and go out less in January anyway.

7. Aside from this week, weather has been terrible this month.

8. In addition to the above, all of the massive let downs from the KD, Russ, then Russ PG13 eras have taken their toll and squelched enthusiasm

9. Much lower down the list but I know a bunch of older, more conservative folks who previously loved the Thunder, some of which were season ticket holders, that were extremely turned off by the political stances the team and NBA as a whole started taking from 2020-2022. The same group wasn't crazy about the Covid restrictions placed on those who wanted to attend for part of the following season. Given the political leanings and demographics of the OKC metro and state in general, I would imagine those feelings were shared by a much larger contingent than just the few I've talked to about it. As dumb as it may be, that combined with all of the above alienated (at least in their minds) a chunk of the fanbase. That said, now that it is a completely new team and all of that is now a few years in the past, several of those people I've talked to are starting to come around.

10. For those of us who can watch them from home...like all other sports...it's just easier and less time consuming. If you aren't locked into season tickets...the couch in front of a big flat screen is a pretty attractive place to watch the game.


All of that to say...when you complain about attendance, you are ignoring reality. If we're not averaging close to 100% next year or especially the year after...the Thunder may have some soul searching to do but this was all predictable and it's unreasonable to think that being very good for half a season would immediately fix that.

So we have lack of season tickets holder. Novelty of the NBA has worn off. I'll agree with that. What else if anyone else would like to chime in? Will Friday night have more fans than the last 2 nights cause it's a Friday night or about the same since it's a bad team which also plays into things. I'll go with Sunday game being full house. 6pm Sunday games seem to do well.

IDK what the ticket sales are like in our support cities (Tulsa & Wichita); they contributed to the success of the Thunder prior to the Covid-19
pandemic and the Thunder rebuild.

Catholic Sooner mentioned the economy; that IMO has a lot to do with the attendance especially in the small market cities:


14. Salt Lake City - Jazz (21) 382,326 18,206 - Capacity 18,306
19. Milwaukee - Bucks (26) 458,654 17,640 - Capacity 17,385
23. Oklahoma City - Thunder (24) 413,521 17,230 - Capacity 18,203
25. New Orleans - Pelicans (24) 406,244 16,926 - Capacity 16,867
27. Memphis - Grizzlies (21) 350,900 16,709 - Capacity - 17,794

The capacities affect attendance especially in cities like Milwaukee & New Orleans where attendance may fluctuate above listed capacity by as many as 500 in Milwaukee and 2,000 more in the Big Easy.

Salt Lake City is by far the most consistent small market city; their arena shrunk from its original 19,903 to 18,306.

On the bright side, OKC is ahead of the Phoenix Suns, New Orleans Pelicans, Atlanta Hawks and the Memphis Grizzles.

https://s.espncdn.com/stitcher/sports/basketball/nba/events/401469289.png?templateId=espn.com.share.1

Friday, February 2, 2024
Charlotte Hornets @ Oklahoma City Thunder
Paycom Center, OKC - 7:00 PM
TV - KSBI-52 in OKC, Ch 6.3 Tulsa
WWLS-The Sports Animal Oklahoma City (98.1 FM), Tulsa (97.1 FM)

1. The team started tanking during the pandemic and didn't allow fans in the arena for an entire season. It might as well have been a lockout season. You want to kill all your momentum and give people a reason to say "meh, screw season tickets, I don't want to watch a team suck for 41 nights this season anyway" just eliminate it as an option for an entire season.

keep in mind that the Thunder were the ONLY team in the nba not to have fans at all that season ...... (and the thunder COULD of had fans for every home game) ..

that turned a ton of people off that then ended there season tickets .. and have not gotten them again

keep in mind that the Thunder were the ONLY team in the nba not to have fans at all that season ...... (and the thunder COULD of had fans for every home game) ..

that turned a ton of people off that then ended there season tickets .. and have not gotten them again

According to the attendance stats, that was not the case. the Pacers, Heat, and Kings also did not allow fans that season. All suffered similar attendance issues the following season, the Pacers and Thunder have been the worst on the court (up until halfway through last season for the Thunder) and have been the slower of the 4 to recover.

Like I said a few posts back, I think the casual fan will return once they see the team (hopefully) doing well in the playoffs. But I guess it doesn't matter to kukblue since they won't accept any type of response, just repeats the same questions over and over.

It was great seeing Chet have a solid offensive game last night. He still looks worn out to me, but his defense is still fantastic.

Another tough back-to-back (edit: this is actually next weekend) that are both daytime games (which have not been nice to us): Mavs and Kings.

I think more than anything people just haven't caught on again yet and realize how good this team is at this point. Way ahead of expectations. We're not back to the Durant/Westbrook levels of excitement to be sure but next year is going to be a totally different story I bet.

It is disappointing for OKC to have the most exciting, young, overachieving team in the league and to not have sellouts every night. People can make all kinds of excuses—and this thread is full of them—but it does show OKC's support for the team is not on par with a lot of other cities. There are probably a handful of other cities that wouldn't sell out, but most cities would be selling out these games. It is what it is.

Really nice win last night. Big shot by Chet, and had to laugh at Reggie not getting ball inbounds on critical possession. Nice job by Coach D in using Micic for some critical baskets.

It is disappointing for OKC to have the most exciting, young, overachieving team in the league and to not have sellouts every night. People can make all kinds of excuses—and this thread is full of them—but it does show OKC's support for the team is not on par with a lot of other cities. There are probably a handful of other cities that wouldn't sell out, but most cities would be selling out these games. It is what it is.

It is disappointing but I disagree based on all the factors I listed. OKC is not most NBA cities and what happened here since 2020 is not how a typical tear down and rebuild is handled. Hopefully it improves but freaking out about it over and over again is just stupid at this point.

Like I said before, you can't expect the arena to be full on week nights, people have jobs, kids, and want to relax. So the arena not being sold out during the week I take with grain of salt. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday games are usually packed. The last thing I want to do when I get off of work at 5P is rush to go to a Thunder game by 7P. And being a family man makes it even harder.

11 games in February. What are we thinking 8-3, 7-4. Dub being out might hurt but it's not nearly as hard as January schedule

Like I said before, you can't expect the arena to be full on week nights, people have jobs, kids, and want to relax. So the arena not being sold out during the week I take with grain of salt. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday games are usually packed. The last thing I want to do when I get off of work at 5P is rush to go to a Thunder game by 7P. And being a family man makes it even harder.

To be fair, it was full every weeknight for 8 years but given everything since 2020, it's understandable right now.

I think once the playoffs hit in town again, that Thunder magic will come back. Miss seeing the stands full with everyone with the same color t-shirts on. That was a great sight, and so many other NBA arena stole our idea after we started it, haha.

Thunder are 33-15; 48 games into the season with 34 games remaining of the schedule. If OKC can achieve half 17 wins or more, you looking at a 50 win or more season.

It is disappointing for OKC to have the most exciting, young, overachieving team in the league and to not have sellouts every night. People can make all kinds of excuses—and this thread is full of them—but it does show OKC's support for the team is not on par with a lot of other cities. There are probably a handful of other cities that wouldn't sell out, but most cities would be selling out these games. It is what it is.

I've been to at least 10 away games and the arenas are very rarely packed unless it is a game of great consequence. Watch games on TV, and really other than the Lakers and Celtics, there are almost always empty seats in the lower bowl. Miami is the worst for that. Anyway, 41 home games is a lot. There are going to be some missing season ticket holders for weeknight games. There are also quite a few seats in the lower and club sections that used to be season tickets. Since they are playing ahead of schedule, I bet the number of those that are not sold as season seats will go way down next year.

I've been to at least 10 away games and the arenas are very rarely packed unless it is a game of great consequence. Watch games on TV, and really other than the Lakers and Celtics, there are almost always empty seats in the lower bowl. Miami is the worst for that. Anyway, 41 home games is a lot. There are going to be some missing season ticket holders for weeknight games. There are also quite a few seats in the lower and club sections that used to be season tickets. Since they are playing ahead of schedule, I bet the number of those that are not sold as season seats will go way down next year.


Season tickets holders are in a tight spot. Unless they can go to ever game they probably are losing money on games they can't go to as they are not able to resale their tickets for more than face value. You wanted season tickets back in the day. Even though they are expensive a lot of people were able to sale a few games here and there make a bit of a profit and use that money for playoff games as those are an extra charge. Now forget about it. I have seen many season tickets holders in my section leave cause it is hard to make it to 41 games and unless your splitting with someone you can't resale them. Plus not making playoff what is the point of having season tickets. Maybe it will pick up in the next few years though once we are making the playoffs again every year.

According to the attendance stats, that was not the case. the Pacers, Heat, and Kings also did not allow fans that season. All suffered similar attendance issues the following season, the Pacers and Thunder have been the worst on the court (up until halfway through last season for the Thunder) and have been the slower of the 4 to recover.

https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/news/which-nba-arenas-will-allow-fans-to-start-the-2020-21-nba-season/1xjxebnff02i3183pybejqkvmf

kings allowed fans starting april 20th https://www.nba.com/kings/news/sacramento-kings-welcome-fans-back-golden-1-center-starting-april-20

Pacers allowed fans starting Jan 24th https://www.nba.com/pacers/news/pacers-announce-public-ticket-sales-health-and-safety-protocols

heat allowed fans starting in early march https://www.nba.com/news/heat-to-open-vaccinated-only-sections-for-fans-on-april-1 and had 17,000 for the playoffs .. https://perthirtysix.com/essay/2021-nba-playoff-crowds


the thunder were allowed to have fans at every game and again were the ONLY team in the league to have no fans that season ..

https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nba/news/which-nba-arenas-will-allow-fans-to-start-the-2020-21-nba-season/1xjxebnff02i3183pybejqkvmf

kings allowed fans starting april 20th https://www.nba.com/kings/news/sacramento-kings-welcome-fans-back-golden-1-center-starting-april-20

Pacers allowed fans starting Jan 24th https://www.nba.com/pacers/news/pacers-announce-public-ticket-sales-health-and-safety-protocols

heat allowed fans starting in early march https://www.nba.com/news/heat-to-open-vaccinated-only-sections-for-fans-on-april-1 and had 17,000 for the playoffs .. https://perthirtysix.com/essay/2021-nba-playoff-crowds


the thunder were allowed to have fans at every game and again were the ONLY team in the league to have no fans that season ..

I guess ESPN ignored that then. That furthers my point then...makes a lot of sense why it's taken the Thunder longer to recover.

So, the attendance numbers I read in the ESPN game recap showed 16,500 attendance for each of the games this week. Looks like 90% of capacity. That has to be a solid, real world attendance figure for any league, including the NBA.

I think the NBA live game attendance has the highest percentage of capacity of any Big 4 league. I seem to recall it was NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB in descending order.

I agree that there's no need to argue about it, but these excuses are terrible.


It is disappointing but I disagree based on all the factors I listed. OKC is not most NBA cities and what happened here since 2020 is not how a typical tear down and rebuild is handled. Hopefully it improves but freaking out about it over and over again is just stupid at this point.

This is correct. OKC had one of the best rebuilds in NBA history. Most cities aren't so lucky.


Like I said before, you can't expect the arena to be full on week nights, people have jobs, kids, and want to relax. So the arena not being sold out during the week I take with grain of salt. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday games are usually packed. The last thing I want to do when I get off of work at 5P is rush to go to a Thunder game by 7P. And being a family man makes it even harder.

It's just unfortunate that OKC is the only city with... children, jobs, and people who want to relax.


So, the attendance numbers I read in the ESPN game recap showed 16,500 attendance for each of the games this week. Looks like 90% of capacity. That has to be a solid, real world attendance figure for any league, including the NBA.

Considering the context (the most exciting team in the NBA playing the defending champs), that's really bad attendance.

I would argue there is less business support than there was in the early days. Since Covid companies are giving out less free tickets and there are more remote workers so you don't have that same water cooler talk occurring.

Like others have a said Oklahoma probably has an above the number of people to hold a grudge over covid policies. On other end of that, there are people who still afraid to get put, especially past couple of weeks. There is a lot of sickness going around.

I think having the games on Bally instead of being easily viewed on FS1 has something to do with it. If people were able to more easily watch these games on local tv as they had been before, there probably would be some more interest generated from people who are more casual fans. Those people are less likely to pony up for Bally and thus, less likely to say “hey we should go to a game” after watching a game on TV and seeing how fun these guys are to watch.

I would argue there is less business support than there was in the early days. Since Covid companies are giving out less free tickets and there are more remote workers so you don't have that same water cooler talk occurring.

Like others have a said Oklahoma probably has an above the number of people to hold a grudge over covid policies. On other end of that, there are people who still afraid to get put, especially past couple of weeks. There is a lot of sickness going around.

it wasn't just covid policies that turned fans off. It was BLM and racial issues as well

I think having the games on Bally instead of being easily viewed on FS1 has something to do with it. If people were able to more easily watch these games on local tv as they had been before, there probably would be some more interest generated from people who are more casual fans. Those people are less likely to pony up for Bally and thus, less likely to say “hey we should go to a game” after watching a game on TV and seeing how fun these guys are to watch.

This