Not trying to be negitive

[Plainview1981]

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And I'm outside of the ATL area, so I definitely have a sense of how the rest of the country view ATL fans.

Here's the thing about the Hawks. We have a very small base of hardcore fans that live and die with this team. The other 10,000 or so, will only show up if there's a big name in town.

You're talking about a guy ( me ), who lives in Tennessee, who always used to wear his red Hawks STARTER jacket everywhere. You know . . the jacket with HAWKS written in yellow letters.

And back then, the team wasn't terrible. They were making the playoffs, they just weren't great. And people would talk about me like I was supporting the worst team on earth.

And whenever they'd see a game on TV, the one thing they ALWAYS SAID was . . . "why is it so quiet in the Omni?"

If the Omni "rocked" in the mid-late 80s . . it definitely didn't "rock" in the 90s, even though we were perenially a playoff caliber team.

Even during that 40 - 1 home season, the Omni didn't "rock". When you look around the league, we've perenially had one of the WORST home court advantages in the league, from a fan enthusiasm standopint.

Of the 4 Hawks games I've been to this year, none of them had the fans getting involved in it, until the very end. And even then, the support was halfhearted at best.

I understand the part about people not supporting the team because it's a lousy product. But if you actually ATTEND the game, you shouldn't be there sitting on your hands, when your team needs you to really cheer and possibly give the team some motivation or adrenaline.

I remember the cheerleaders at the Toronto game ( the Hawksquawk discounted ticket game ), encouraging the crowd to get on their feet and cheer. Some did. About 3/4ths of the crowd continue to sit though, even though I think we only had a 1 point lead at the time, and we desperately needed a stop. That tells you all you need to know about the majority of ATL sports fans. Not the die hards . . but the ones that come to the game for more of the "night on the town" aspect, rather than for the "I want to cheer for the Hawks" standpoint.

ATL is a lot like Miami and LA. It's a lot to do in those cities, and being a passionate sports fan isn't high on the list.

Some of you may take offense to that, but all you have to do is go to other cities, and see how their fans support the product.

It's sad to say this, but even Memphis have better sports fans than ATL does. That may hurt, but it's the truth.

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You could have heard a pin drop in that area last night. Even as much as I've attacked the fans, it was still shocking to hear such a quiet arena. I'd bet you money there is more noise at high school games than there was at the Hawks game last night.

[Yeti]

I'm not surprised. Who are usually the loud fans? the construction workers or the CPAs? (of course there are exceptions) You need long-term loud fans who are there on a regular basis. I think we've priced the working level guy out of the arena. If he is going to pay REALLY BIG bucks for tickets then there has to be a winning product, some excitement, or at least some history (like the Celtics). Because for him it is a big sacrifice to buy those tickets - it hurts. And when we have a history of losing and you come to some games and see the players give a poor effort - - is he motivated to spend his money (and his heart) on the Hawks in the future?

Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like it is linked to the economics of sports.

(And I really hate all the artificial noise from the loudspeakers - music, bum-bum,etc. Let the fans make the noise.)

Cranky on Tuesday, Yeti

[Pamfilioso]

Actually, hasn't the attendance gone up this year? But really though, Atlanta is one of the premier cities in America, so its right for us to have an NBA team. And even though we still do kinda suck, WE ARE getting better. If we don't make the playoffs this year, I have no doubt we got a good shot next year.

[Seano]

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I don't attend any games because I don't care to go to the city.

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Ok lemme see here, so you're chastising Hawks fans for their passivity while in attendance at the games, and for their lack of devotion to the team when they don't attend the games.....and yet you yourself don't bother to attend any games because you don't care to go into the city? Uhhhhh, why don't you take a look into the mirror yourself there buddy.

Atlanta's always carried the reputation of being a relatively fickle sports town, and also it's acknowledged and understood that Atlanta and the state of Georgia overall is an area where college football is king, and everything else comes secondary to that. So given that, and given the crummy product and seeming lack of direction and leadership the Hawks organization has been putting out for years now...it's not a wonder that the fans are going to need to be earned back. It's ridiculous to expect people to continue to just happily pony up their hard-earned cash (and NBA tickets are EXPENSIVE), when they know walking in the door that the product is of inferior design and execution.

I'd take my son to a game or 3 if I lived anywhere near to Atlanta, but I couldn't afford any more than that on my salary as a teacher, and besides that's moot since I live in Maine. But at any rate, I don't know what you expect of Hawks fans. I mean talk about a downtrodden and oppressed fanbase. And to me- despite all of the ineptitude, incompetence, and BS that Hawks fans are forced to put up with, the fact that 15,726 paying bodies are still willing to show up every night is something that should be applauded, rather than denigrated. Those are some true fans in my opinion.

[Seano]

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If you bought a car that turned out to be a lemon, would you buy another one? Should the attitude of the car company be that people will never change and buy our crappy cars? Or, should the company make a better car?

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This actually reminded me of a very interesting book I read years ago, about how the US automakers actually helped pound the nails in their own coffins in regards to the Japanese. During the postwar years of privation, recovery and rebuilding in Japan, the US automakers dumped their failed and inferior models onto the Japanese market, in fact they flooded the Japanese market with the lemon cars that US car buyers just didn't want to have anything to do with whatsoever. It was an act of supreme arrogance by the Big 3 automakers, under the operating theory of 'Hey, they're the Japanese. Their country is in ruins and their economy is devastated, so what the hell? Why not send them our junk? It's not like they really have any other options.".

And that was true then- they didn't have any other options. So they bought those crappy cars, aware that they were buying crap, but formulating a plan so that that would never have to happen again. And that plan was to develop their own automobile industry....and the next thing ya know there sprang up Toyota, Honda, Datsun, Subaru etc. etc. etc., all making high quality cars originally designed for the Japanese market, but which became a juggernaut that eventually took over the automobile industry worldwide. And all because we dumped our garbage products upon them and essentially forced them into developing their own industry rather than continuing to live with that BS.

And the American steel industry slit its own throat in the exact same way, by shipping off low-quality steel to postwar Japan, and again forcing the Japanese to develop their own steel-making industries so as not to have to put up with that.

Sorry for the totally off-topic, but I just find that completely fascinating, and TexasPete's post reminded me of all that.

[Plainview1981]

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I don't attend any games because I don't care to go to the city.

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Ok lemme see here, so you're chastising Hawks fans for their passivity while in attendance at the games, and for their lack of devotion to the team when they don't attend the games.....and yet you yourself don't bother to attend any games because you don't care to go into the city? Uhhhhh, why don't you take a look into the mirror yourself there buddy.

Atlanta's always carried the reputation of being a relatively fickle sports town, and also it's acknowledged and understood that Atlanta and the state of Georgia overall is an area where college football is king, and everything else comes secondary to that. So given that, and given the crummy product and seeming lack of direction and leadership the Hawks organization has been putting out for years now...it's not a wonder that the fans are going to need to be earned back. It's ridiculous to expect people to continue to just happily pony up their hard-earned cash (and NBA tickets are EXPENSIVE), when they know walking in the door that the product is of inferior design and execution.

I'd take my son to a game or 3 if I lived anywhere near to Atlanta, but I couldn't afford any more than that on my salary as a teacher, and besides that's moot since I live in Maine. But at any rate, I don't know what you expect of Hawks fans. I mean talk about a downtrodden and oppressed fanbase. And to me- despite all of the ineptitude, incompetence, and BS that Hawks fans are forced to put up with, the fact that 15,726 paying bodies are still willing to show up every night is something that should be applauded, rather than denigrated. Those are some true fans in my opinion.

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Here !s the problem... ! also l!ve very far outside of Atlanta and it's a far dr!ve. ! don't like to dr!ve at all and only do so when it's needed.

However, for such a b!g c!ty it's amaz!ng how th!ngs are. Oh, and !'ve read enough from people on the AJC and stuff and the Atlanta sports fans are just !d!ots anyway.

Plus, !t's l!ke ! sa!d, !'m not blam!ng everyth!ng on the fans... ! don't see the relat!onsh!p between Atlanta and the fans are be!ng one that can be repa!red. And that's due to both s!des !n my book.

[drzachary]

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Just like there are so many Cubs fans when the Braves play the Cubs. It might aswell be home for the Cubs. Cub fans can travel all the way from Chicago to the games, but the great Atlanta fans that live right close to the city just can't make it.

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2 things:

1) Those Cubs fans live here. They moved here from Chicago, because Chicago is one of the worst places on the planet.

2) Cubs fans are, by and large, horrible people. They are ugly, drunken louts who curse at little children when they can manage to form intelligible sentences and choke them out of their sausage grease-lubed throats. The less we are like Cubs fans, the better. Trust me on this.