Oklahoma City Thunder 2023-24 Season

[Laramie]

Friday, January 26, 2024
Oklahoma City Thunder @ New Orleans Pelicans
Smoothie King Center, New Orleans - 7:00 PM
TV - KSBI-52
WWLS-The Sports Animal Oklahoma City (98.1 FM), Tulsa (97.1 FM)

[okatty]

Another nice Thunder piece on The Athletic today by A. Slater.

https://theathletic.com/5213190/2024...ampaign=601983

[kukblue1]

It's hard to form an informed opinion unless we had attendance figures for all the games. There are a lot of variables that affect attendance: post pandemic behaviors, tv deals, people just haven't jumped on the bandwagon, people jumping on the OU bandwagon in since they are going to SEC next year, etc. I'm sure people in Thunder marketing wish they could just point and yell at the fans to make them come back. It would be so much easier.

Well they were 30th last year dead last in the league in attendance. This year so far they are 23rd. It's wasn't just me either on Mondays show on the sports animal even the great Al Eschbach said it was pathetic we were 23rd in the league. I understand what everyone is saying and there have been some games where it's been almost full. We were playing a crappy team. My point is right now we are first in the west, we have an MVP candidate, rookie of the year candidate, and TICKETS ARE CHEAP. So why aren't more people going? 23rd out of 30 teams is not great.

[CatholicSooner]

Well they were 30th last year dead last in the league in attendance. This year so far they are 23rd. It's wasn't just me either on Mondays show on the sports animal even the great Al Eschbach said it was pathetic we were 23rd in the league. I understand what everyone is saying and there have been some games where it's been almost full. We were playing a crappy team. My point is right now we are first in the west, we have an MVP candidate, rookie of the year candidate, and TICKETS ARE CHEAP. So why aren't more people going? 23rd out of 30 teams is not great.

Again, attendance isn't going to jump in less than a year. That just isn't practicable . It has come up this year, I expect next year to be sellouts most games like it was when we had KD and RW.

For me personally, I've always preferred college basketball so if I have a choice, I go to OU games.
Realistically, another issue is the games not being televised without a subscription. I know that sounds backwards but when the games were "free" on FSOK, I was a lot more into the Thunder because I could watch everynight. I was a bigger fan and hence would be more likely to go to games. With me only watching the national games, I admittingly am not as big of a fan

[okatty]

Attendance should be looked at in terms of the capacity of the arena, not just gross attendance numbers that don’t factor in the arena size. Thunder is 23rd due to the smallish size of Paycom - average size of NBA arenas bumps close to 19k. Thunder is filling about 95% of the seats to home games on average paid attendance numbers.

[Laramie]

[kukblue1]

Attendance should be looked at in terms of the capacity of the arena, not just gross attendance numbers that don’t factor in the arena size. Thunder is 23rd due to the smallish size of Paycom - average size of NBA arenas bumps close to 19k. Thunder is filling about 95% of the seats to home games on average paid attendance numbers.

Because of the size of the arena we are usually anywhere from 15th to 11th. Between 2010-2020 we never finished below 15th and no higher than 11th. First year we were 28th. Than covid 2021 no fans than 28th 2022, 30th in 2023 and currently 23rd. I'm sure they have lost a lot of season ticket holders over the last couple years but that makes more tickets available to the public Tickets are very easy to get and we are currently best in the West seems we could do better than 23rd. Not trying to rip anyone but compared to the "good years" it's much lower.

[Laramie]

Because of the size of the arena we are usually anywhere from 15th to 11th. Between 2010-2020 we never finished below 15th and no higher than 11th. First year we were 28th. Than covid 2021 no fans than 28th 2022, 30th in 2023 and currently 23rd. I'm sure they have lost a lot of season ticket holders over the last couple years but that makes more tickets available to the public Tickets are very easy to get and we are currently best in the West seems we could do better than 23rd. Not trying to rip anyone but compared to the "good years" it's much lower.

OKC should be better than 23rd, definitely agree. Covid-19 IMO killed the attendance momentum the Thunder had at one stretch.

You factor the year we didn't allow any fans in the arena--that was the killer dagger that broke the attendance string.

Oklahoma City's NBA future is bright; as well as the future of our city's development projects such as the arena, Boardwalk at Bricktown. Developers are taking notice of our city. With the new $1 billion arena on the horizon; look for another construction boom to finish out 2025-30.

[CatholicSooner]

I won't worry about attendance unless it is still down next year

[PhiAlpha]

Attendance should be looked at in terms of the capacity of the arena, not just gross attendance numbers that don’t factor in the arena size. Thunder is 23rd due to the smallish size of Paycom - average size of NBA arenas bumps close to 19k. Thunder is filling about 95% of the seats to home games on average paid attendance numbers.

Exactly. It’s really dumb to track it and freak out based on actual attendance when we wouldn’t even be top 20 if averaging a sellout. For some reason, ESPN no longer tracks percentage attendance but I would imagine that we’re in the middle of the pack and that’s including the first few months of the season before people started realizing how good this team is. It will go up next year after an offseason of season ticket sales following a successful season. We will get a bump from the additional people who feel obligated to go every night from the increased season ticket sales alone. It’s just different when you can pick and choose which game you want to attend and haven’t already paid ahead of time.

In the previous generation of the Thunder it took 3 seasons to build up to finally averaging 100% capacity (2011-2012) which followed one bad season and two playoff runs. The team was brand new and one of the most successful teams in the league with 2-3 budding superstars and we still weren’t averaging a sellout for 3 seasons and there wasn’t a massive let down followed by a pandemic that preceded those seasons. Then we averaged 100% for 8 additional seasons through 2019-2020. It takes time to build up to that especially after what essentially was a reset in season ticket sales due to the pandemic coinciding with Presti moving into the role of tank commander. It’s frankly stupid that we’re even having this conversation right now. If we’re not in the 98-99% range over next two seasons then it will be worth discussion but this a waste of time right now…just enjoy the damn team, it’s insane what they’re doing right now. The only other teams in NBA history that were this good, with guys this young playing most of the minutes were the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 Thunder teams.

[FighttheGoodFight]

First game tonight OTA!

"Beginning tonight, Friday, Jan. 26, all Friday regular-season games will be on KSBI-Ch. 52 in OKC and News on 6 Now Ch. 6.3 in Tulsa. COX and other local cable outlets will also carry the games on those stations’ channels and in OKC they can be watched on DirecTV Satellite and DISH."

[April in the Plaza]

i think the corporate ticket situation (CHK used to have an absolute ton of tickets) is actually very material in this market. it's just one of the reasons why the team wants to get rid of individual seats in favor of suites and premium areas. So much easier to sell a box to a company for a season (and deal with one point of contact) vs. selling 25 individual seats and managing every one of those relationships.

[okatty]

No Zion for the Pels tonight

[Laramie]

Oklahoma City Thunder 107 @ New Orleans Pelicans 83




Box score https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585268

Attendance: 18,624

[Laramie]

Sunday, January 28, 2024
Oklahoma City Thunder @ Detroit Pistons
Little Ceasars Arena, Detroit - 1:00 PM
TV - Bally Sports Oklahoma
WWLS-The Sports Animal Oklahoma City (98.1 FM), Tulsa (97.1 FM)

[Laramie]

Impressive (107-83) win against the Pelicans in the Big Easy last night. The Thunder continues to mature--equally impressed with coaching and the way Mark Daigneault mixes and matches player combination to counter opponents.

[Shortsyeararound]

They have been playing really well with a great group dynamic.

[CCOKC]

Shai is a special player. If you haven't seen him play in person, please make a point to see him.

[catcherinthewry]

Bally's is the worst.

[_Kyle]

What the hell is going on? Why is the Thunder down at half against the worst team in the NBA?

[PhiAlpha]

What the hell is going on? Why is the Thunder down at half against the worst team in the NBA?

You answered your own question. The worst team in the NBA still has a roster full of NBA players just like the Thunder does. Sleepwalk into a game vs any of them and you can lose, especially on the road. Just ask the timberwolves about last night in San Antonio. Fortunately haven’t had to many bad losses like this one so far this season.

[G.Walker]

This is what I was talking about before. No reason they should of lost this game. The Pistons are 6-40! These are the games they need to win. And again when it comes to playoff seeding at the end of the season, they are going to wish they had this one back. Makes no sense in losing this game.

[PhiAlpha]

This is what I was talking about before. No reason they should of lost this game. The Pistons are 6-40! These are the games they need to win. And again when it comes to playoff seeding at the end of the season, they are going to wish they had this one back. Makes no sense in losing this game.

It’s the nba and this team is one year removed from a season in which many thought they were going to continue tanking. We’ve had the NBA for 16 years now, stop acting like you’ve never followed an NBA team before just because all of the sudden we’re good again. This happens all the time, to nearly every good team and of course they want them back at the end of the season…duh.. Just look at Denver and Minnesota over the last few weeks. It sucks but they’re the youngest team in the NBA (for guys who actually play minutes) and they’re going to lose a few like this to teams that they shouldn’t. Despite a few of them…they’re still tied for 1st in the west after missing the playoffs last year.

[Laramie]

Oklahoma City Thunder 104 @ Detroit Pistons 120



Box score https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585282

Attendance: 16,861

[Laramie]

Monday, January 29, 2024
Minnesota Timberwolves @ Oklahoma City Thunder
Paycom Center, OKC - 7:00 PM
TV - Bally Sports Oklahoma
WWLS-The Sports Animal Oklahoma City (98.1 FM), Tulsa (97.1 FM)