Win or fans stay away. Period. It is THE ONLY that is always 100% accurate about sports in America. Every sport.
The Lakers are the lesson here for fans IMO. I've been a Lakers fan since I was a little kid and Wilt and The Logo were playing.
They have only missed the playoffs
7 times since moving to LA before the 1960-61 season, an amazing feat that is unmatched by any other pro team in the country. In the last decade they went to the finals three times and won twice. They have been to the playoffs 7 times in that decade.
But the three seasons they didn't go have been the last three in a row. Fans are staying away and local TV ratings at one point were down nearly 40% and at one point were down by almost 50%. They missed selling out games and ended a sellout streak that was nearly a decade long. Keep in mind the Staples Center has a capacity of 18,997 people for NBA games and the LA market is about 19 MIL people.
The Clippers slightly outdrew the Lakers. LOL........yeah those lowly sorry azz Clippers that nobody used to go see............you can guess why. They have made the playoffs 9 times since they moved to LA in 1985. 5 of them have been the last 5 years. People support winning, not losing.
Cleveland is another even better example. I used to occasionally go to games when I lived there. I remember going to games when they were really bad and the Lakers would come to town and the stadium would be filled, but when a mediocre team came to town the stadium would sometimes see 8,000 people. I went to games in a half full arena many times. Try to get a ticket now. Good luck.
Win or fans stay home. It doesn't matter who the team is, what the history is, how nice the stadium or what the sport is........fans don't show up if a team isn't winning more than it's losing.
