Sam Hill
12-29-2004, 06:11 PM
Home Court Advantage? Not for O.C.'s Crush (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-crush29dec29,1,5505207.story?coll=la-editions-orange) (LA Times - registration required)
The gist:
The ABA's Orange County team was going to play at Cal-Irvine, but there was a Ticketmaster snafu and anyone who tried to order tickets was going to have to pay a $50 fee on a $5 ticket.
The Crush thinks this contributed to their small opening night crowd (yeah, right) of 400 or so, so they dumped UCI as a venue and are threatening to sue Ticketmaster for lost revenue.
Dear Crush: You were lucky to get 400 people. Who gets minor league basketball tickets at Ticketmaster? You think you were going to sell the place out? Without Dennis Rodman?
This is typical ABA alibi-ing. Come up with some nebulous excuse for something so you don't have to admit that you just don't know what you're doing. They got a few emails ("several fans") from people who noticed the Ticketmaster charge. So they cared enough to go online at Ticketmaster, knowing Ticketmaster sucks, but they didn't care enough to come to the game and pay at the door?
It's Orange County, California - you can't find a place to play? You can't afford any place in town (like the Convention Center where the Waves or whatever they were called played) but you can afford the marketing that would have given you an opening-night sellout. Excuse me while I laugh.
And classic Joe:
Joe Newman, ABA founder and chairman, said the 4-year-old league had never had a homeless franchise. The original ABA, known for its multicolored ball and high-scoring games, merged with the NBA in 1976.
"It's totally unprecedented and it's not right," Newman said. "They've got too good of a basketball team not to have a home."
Newman said he viewed the dispute with Ticketmaster as a "David and Goliath situation."
"When you have excessive charges, it's not the team that pays for it or Ticketmaster, it's the fan," Newman said. "The average basketball fan is not [actor and Los Angeles Lakers' fan] Jack Nicholson, and they don't pay $500 for courtside seats. They love basketball, and our league gives people a chance to see high quality, professional basketball at affordable prices."
I swear that's on Joe's answering machine so reporters can get that quote.
That's Joe - champion of the little guy. Never mind that it's the "average basketball fan" who gets hosed when they have no idea when the games are going to be played or if the opposing team is going to show up that night.
The gist:
The ABA's Orange County team was going to play at Cal-Irvine, but there was a Ticketmaster snafu and anyone who tried to order tickets was going to have to pay a $50 fee on a $5 ticket.
The Crush thinks this contributed to their small opening night crowd (yeah, right) of 400 or so, so they dumped UCI as a venue and are threatening to sue Ticketmaster for lost revenue.
Dear Crush: You were lucky to get 400 people. Who gets minor league basketball tickets at Ticketmaster? You think you were going to sell the place out? Without Dennis Rodman?
This is typical ABA alibi-ing. Come up with some nebulous excuse for something so you don't have to admit that you just don't know what you're doing. They got a few emails ("several fans") from people who noticed the Ticketmaster charge. So they cared enough to go online at Ticketmaster, knowing Ticketmaster sucks, but they didn't care enough to come to the game and pay at the door?
It's Orange County, California - you can't find a place to play? You can't afford any place in town (like the Convention Center where the Waves or whatever they were called played) but you can afford the marketing that would have given you an opening-night sellout. Excuse me while I laugh.
And classic Joe:
Joe Newman, ABA founder and chairman, said the 4-year-old league had never had a homeless franchise. The original ABA, known for its multicolored ball and high-scoring games, merged with the NBA in 1976.
"It's totally unprecedented and it's not right," Newman said. "They've got too good of a basketball team not to have a home."
Newman said he viewed the dispute with Ticketmaster as a "David and Goliath situation."
"When you have excessive charges, it's not the team that pays for it or Ticketmaster, it's the fan," Newman said. "The average basketball fan is not [actor and Los Angeles Lakers' fan] Jack Nicholson, and they don't pay $500 for courtside seats. They love basketball, and our league gives people a chance to see high quality, professional basketball at affordable prices."
I swear that's on Joe's answering machine so reporters can get that quote.
That's Joe - champion of the little guy. Never mind that it's the "average basketball fan" who gets hosed when they have no idea when the games are going to be played or if the opposing team is going to show up that night.