Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 11:40 am  |  32 responses

Detroit Pistons Fan Attendance Down 30%, Lowest Since 1982


The Detroit Pistons are a terrible basketball team, but even with that fact in mind, their home attendance figures are still somewhat shocking. Reports the Detroit News: “Man, I am shocked by this,’ said Norman, who said he attends 10 Pistons games a year. ‘There is nobody here. But I knew something was up even before I got in the building. We were driving up to The Palace and the parking lot was empty. I was like, ‘Wow.’ The Pistons (2-8) are not the big story at The Palace. The real story is how fans are staying away. Many want to blame backlash from the NBA lockout, however the NBA is reporting that attendance figures are up from over a year ago. Chris Granger, NBA executive vice president, said NBA attendance through the first 32 games was up 8.7 percent compared to last season. That is not happening at The Palace. The Pistons average just 11,710 fans per game, which is the lowest since 1981-82 when the Pistons averaged 9,910 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome during Isiah Thomas’ rookie season. Not counting the opening-night sellout of 22,076 the Pistons are averaging just 9,631 fans and last week were outdrawn by Michigan State women’s basketball. Last season, the Pistons averaged 16,660. ‘I will be honest with you,’ Norman said. ‘This is sad to see. I am a little saddened by this.’ A few hundred feet away Palace president Dennis Mannion sat in a chair inside his office with charts, graphs and studies that hope to capture the Pistons fans. He admitted the team under new owner Tom Gores has been overwhelmed in learning its new fan base. It’s more expansive and more diverse than expected. The season-ticket base is smaller, which Mannion said is a trend in sports, because fans do not want to devote as much time to events as they used to because of a more diverse lifestyle. The Pistons are trying to lure fans by turning games into events. There are so many live musical acts that some fans joke that the Pistons parade a basketball game in between concert sets.”

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  • lobcitizen

    lack of rebuilding the team

  • ab40

    cut charlie dude is terrible and costs so much money

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    A good team will put fans in the seats…why don’t they go ahead and try to fix that.

  • ryan

    detroit pistons like a titanic of nba

  • http://slamonline.com GotHandles?

    never should have traded chauncey…

  • J.C.

    The huge gamble they took throwing big contracts at Villanueva and Gordon absolutely did not pay off. Amnesty Villanueva IMO, dude’s 100% scrub.

  • http://staticseth.blogspot.com/ Seth

    They suck, not a surprise. They shouldn’t have given a crap ton of money to Gordon and Villanueva.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    HOW DOES JOE DUMARS STILL HAVE A JOB – Every article about the Pistons should end with, Joe Dumars is the most overrated GM of ALL-TIME and he is trying to Murder this franchise.

  • http://staticseth.blogspot.com/ Seth

    …JC beat me to it.

  • Jer dawg

    They need to draft an exciting player this upcoming summer. Attendance is bad because the team is bad AND unexciting. It’s a morgue in there and being in LA and watching highlights I see tons of empty seats. Detroit is one team begging for another lockout.

  • robb

    give some free beer and the place will be packed

  • robb

    and it seems KG was right, Villanueva is a cancer to his team

  • vic

    They cut off all their leaders 1 by 1. First they let Larry Brown go, then Ben Wallace, then Chauncey. It was over at that point. Responsibility is 50% ownership 50% Joe Dumars.

    But I will say this – if they were actually in Detroit rather than in Auburn Hills, it wouldn’t be that bad. They could get much better than fair weather fans if they weren’t so far from their actual city. Auburn Hills is 45 minutes away. Even Lions fans have been way more die-hard since they moved from Pontiac into Detroit – even when the Lions were 0-16.

  • LA Huey

    I don’t know why. The team is a legit contender and exciting to watch.

  • anonymous

    yet dumars still has a job. a gm that killed his own franchise.

  • Riggs

    Its like beating a dead horse…..that used to be on their jerseys

  • bike

    Poor local economy + bad record = poor attendance.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    Well the Pistons pretty horrible so yeah….

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    *are pretty horrible

  • David

    I don’t think I’d pay to see any of the current Pistons play. And if you consider a compressed schedule… wouldn’t you be picky about which visiting teams you’d go to watch?

  • http://www.slamonline.com megatron

    I blame Joe Dumars 100% for destroying my favorite team.. He could’t have done a worse job the past 3 or 4 years. I want him fired.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    That is what happens when most of the fans are sitting on the opposing team’s bench.

  • http://www.slamonline.com megatron

    Drafting afflalo is the only good thing they have done in the past 4 years but they cancelled that out by trading him for Vernon Macklin…

  • http://www.t-mac.com/tmac/index unf*ckwitable

    its cause they suck.

  • Heals

    I dunno JT21 I thought that was damn good promotion, bench seats with the opposing team…

  • http://anyoldthing Ugh

    @nbk – You don’t need to look very far in the NBA to find a GM as bad as Joe Dumars. Otis Smith springs to mind. Danny Ainge is also looking a pretty hot contender right now.

  • http://www.slamonline.com megatron

    Ugh, ill take either of those guys in a second over Dumars. For some reason he is trying to rebuild on the fly and he is failing miserably. Should have just started a complete rebuild 3 years ago.

  • Heals

    Ugh you must not know Bos’s salary cap going forward to make that statement or remember the shape of the team before he took over. Ainge put the team together with a 3-year window in mind, they made it 5 (NBA Champs, No KG lose to ORL in gm7 who goes to finals, NBA finals gm7 loss to LAL, 1-arm Rondo and No Shaq lose to Mia the EC Champ, put JGreen on the roster and they lose in a tough series to Mia/Chi in 2nd round). You not what you speak as far as Ainge’s work as GM…

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/officerbarbrady what

    Knight and Monroe are good pieces. They should get rid of everyone else. Lucky for them they are going to have a top 5 pick in this year’s draft and this year’s draft is pretty deep.

  • Mark

    Maybe they could get Allen Iverson to come back.
    Say What!!!!!

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Otis Smith gives Dumars a run for his money. But Otis Smith refused to sign Turkoglu to that huge contract a couple years ago (he did end up trading for him, obviously, but still, Otis exhibited some self control) while Dumars just extends every player who has ever worn a Pistons jersey, no questions asked.

  • Nolan

    Where did they get the fact that our Home Opener was sold out??? When I watched the game I saw nobody there. Also, the 9,000+ tickets are how many are SOLD. At least 2,000 of these tickets are bought by companies like Art Van, Hansons Windows, and Ford or GM. At most, 7,000 people actually attend the game. It is embarrassing. This is why if I was a GM or owner I would go out to the rich or middle class that live within 5 miles of the stadium and give out EVERY ticket. I live 45 minutes away from the Palace but I go to college now so that is why I can’t go to any of the games anymore. But I worked for people in Rochester Hills and there are at least 3 neighborhoods full of houses and just GIVE them the tickets when there is less than an hour till the game starts. That is a way where you won’t be making a lot of money from the ticket prices, but I can guarantee you that if you find a family of 4 you will make money off food and merchandise. Think big JoeD

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