Rose Garden numbers don’t add up

Attendance at Blazer games keeps dropping, but few agree on how much, and at what price

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Feb 1, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Despite unprecedented marketing campaigns Ñ “buy eight gallons of gas and get a free Blazer ticket” Ñ the Rose Garden has never looked so empty during Trail Blazer games.

According to an official internal NBA document given to the Portland Tribune, average paid attendance (tickets sold) for home games through Jan. 11 was 9,843, down about 13 percent from the 11,343 average at the same time last season (the arena seats 19,980 people). Portland ranks 28th in the league in average paid attendance, ahead of only Atlanta and New Jersey, according to an NBA source.

The league average, excluding expansion team Charlotte, is 13,646, up 2.84 percent from this time a year ago. Detroit (with an average of 19,536) leads the NBA in tickets sold.

Trail Blazer President Steve Patterson disputed the 9,843 figure, saying it didn’t count people in courtside, preferred and suite seating. How many customers would that mean a night? “I don’t want to make a guess,” the Blazer executive said.

However, the source said, the NBA does include courtside, preferred and suite seating in its average paid attendance figures.

Portland’s “official” attendance Ñ averaging what the team announces as its attendance at each game Ñ through 15 games this season is 16,558 (82.8 percent of its capacity), which ranks 18th among NBA clubs. Those figures are for “tickets distributed,” meaning sold or given away and would include no-shows.

Teams do not release turnstile attendance figures, which reflect how many spectators actually are at an arena on a given night. Before last Wednesday’s home date with Dallas, security personnel were told by Blazer officials to expect a crowd of about 11,000. Attendance was announced at 16,402.

Why the disparity?

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