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The Sixers are hurting in Philly. While the Phillies, Eagles and Flyers are drawing massive crowds, the city's sports fans have completely abandoned the NBA. The Sixers have the worst attendance mark in the league this season, drawing fewer fans (11,451 per home game) than the winless New Jersey Nets and the chronically pathetic Los Angeles Clippers.
The team hasn't helped matters by losing seven of its first 12 games, but the crowd drop-off is still pretty astounding -- down almost 30 percent from last year, the largest year-over-year decrease in the league. (The Detroit Pistons, not surprisingly, have had the second-biggest dropoff.)
Now Comcast -- which owns the Sixers, the Flyers, the Wachovia Center and the cable network that televises both teams -- is hoping hockey will help goose attendance for the Sixers, and recently announced a $100 "recession-buster" package that features two tickets apiece to an upcoming Sixers and Flyers game.
The discounted seats are hardly in prime locations, but the offer still represents a 50 percent price cut off face value. The Flyers don't really need the help -- the club ranks No. 3 in NHL attendance and has sold more than 99 percent of its seats through 12 home games. Interestingly, the ad for the Flyers-Sixers combo deal is at the bottom of the Flyers' home page -- but it screams from the top of Sixers.com.)
According to this Philadelphia Inquirer piece on the ticket offer, the Flyers and Sixers haven't traditionally done much cross-marketing because there's not been much cross-over between the fan bases.
Overall NBA attendance this season is down just twopercent, but that figure is a little misleading because many teams have slashed prices for less-desirable seats or are just handing out tickets for free. The Charlotte Bobcats gave away hundreds of tickets for the team's season opener, and earlier this week, the New Jersey Nets offered two free passes to all of the team's existing customers for Tuesday's night game against the Indiana Pacers. (The arena was still half-empty and the Nets still lost.
Don't hold your breath waiting for Sixers crowds to improve before the end of 2009: Memphis, Oklahoma City and Charlotte are three of their next four opponents at home
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