We played well for three periods and then our team, collectively, allowed a better team to take advantage of turnover after turnover. A straightforward accounting of the game here.
Houston is a very good team and when things get tight, they have a big man who calmly gets his shots in the post. Or gets to the line.
I was pleased though with our level of energy displayed and it was great to see Jan Vesely get some minutes.
Amazing how Wikipedia works. Already updated and with a new photo, too, from last night’s game. Amazing work here. Thank you. Click here to see what I mean.
The resale of tickets for sporting and entertainment events has seen significant changes in recent years, and it’s feasible that 15 to 20% of the tickets for a given event may have been obtained through resale. This resale through the secondary-ticket market, such as Ticketmaster’s TicketExchange, StubHub or various aggregator websites, is becoming an increasingly popular way for fans to sell and buy tickets.
As with many things, it centers around supply and demand. If there is a strong demand, ticket prices will increase, and if demand wanes, prices decrease. None of this is new, and the Capitals and Wizards live it every day this time of year. Capitals tickets are in demand – higher for some games than others – and the supply is limited. At this stage Wizards tickets simply do not command that same demand, so there is more supply.
The secondary-ticket market has become an increasingly common avenue for season-ticket holders to use in an attempt to sell tickets – either because they are unable attend a specific game or perhaps they want to take the ticket they purchased at a discount and sell it for a profit. On the Capitals side, the secondary market is extremely active for the higher-profile games. Already this season we have seen plan holders resell a ticket they purchased for $27 and sell it for more than $100. That’s just the price we can verify through TicketExchange, others likely are sold for more. Conversely, from the Wizards perspective reselling those tickets may end up being less than the gate price but it usually matches or exceeds the season-ticket holder price. Again, it comes back to supply and demand. This is a similar position that the Capitals found themselves in not too long ago.
We track this type of reselling information daily through Ticketmaster as well as visiting other ticket resale websites. The NHL and NBA also provide us with data. So we constantly examine ticket pricing and also adjust our ticket prices through our own dynamic pricing model for individual game tickets. Here’s a quick Wizards example against Minnesota: the original gate price is $80, our dynamic pricing was adjusted to $70 and the season-ticket holder paid $52 for that seat.
As demand increases and supply decreases – such as with the Capitals – dynamic pricing has the opposite impact. Here is a Capitals example for a ticket against Pittsburgh: gate price was set at $110, the dynamic pricing was adjusted to $125 and the season-ticket holder paid $44. By the way, the average selling price on TicketExchange was $116.61 and an aggregator site had an average listing price of $165.12 for that same price class seat.
Recently some media and fans have focused on tickets available online for less than a dollar, and in one case there was a Wizards ticket that was available on the secondary market for 30 cents. That certainly is the right of the ticket holder – he or she can attempt to sell the ticket for whatever price they want. Interestingly, and perhaps not coincidentally, the 30-cent ticket was for a game that we offered our plan holders additional complimentary tickets for friends, family or business associates. It’s an attempt to have our season-ticket holders, frequently our best brand ambassadors, introduce our team to someone they know. So it’s certainly conceivable that a fan obtained a comp ticket and wanted to make a statement by posting it for 30 cents. I don’t know if that is what actually occurred, but it is feasible – perhaps reasonable – to assume.
In contrast, data for that exact Wizards game on a ticket aggregating site showed the most popular ticket being sold online was one that carried a $30 gate value, was sold to season-tickets holders at $16 and had an average online posting price of $42.52. So while we know the actual average selling price was lower than $42, my assumption is that it was slightly higher than 30 cents. So while the 30-cent ticket was sensationally priced – it does grab your attention, which I guess was the idea – but it doesn’t accurately reflect the overall market for tickets.
Remember, it’s easy for fans or media to show an image of empty seats to help illustrate a preconceived storyline, but on average that’s only 25% of story. What happened to the remaining 75%? Honestly, I would be a little skeptical of someone who elects to share just 25% — I would rather have the entire story and then it would be up to me to make a determination on what I should think and feel. But perhaps that’s just me.
Yes, we want the Wizards to perform better and improve, but I’m excited about our ticket growth. We have one the fastest-growing season-ticket bases in the NBA. We now have approximately 8,000 season tickets and aggressively sell suites, partial plans and group and individual game tickets at more than 7,000 per game. Our strategy – like it was with the Capitals – is to sell the lower bowl first, and thus far we have sold about 75% of that inventory. We sell “owner’s seats” from $1,500 for a full season up to $2,500 for an individual game. Verizon Center is one of the top arenas in the country in terms of suite lease sales. The response from our business community has been exceptional, and we have sold 95% of our available inventory. For the record, we purposely hold back a number of suites for individual event rentals. Our average attendance is a little more than 15,000, an increase from last year at this time. Yes, plenty of work to be done, but we have made great strides and are building a solid foundation.
I recently held an hour-long pregame discussion with some of our plan holders, and invited their questions, concerns and comments. It was good to hear from them and gave us an opportunity for a two-way, face-to-face discussion with our important stakeholders. They truly are our partners in this rebuilding process. They asked tough questions, but their level of passion helps to fuel our desire to improve. Those types of interactions are important not only for them but also for us. We have a strong, growing fan base, and I’m extremely pleased with our progress.
JaVale McGee had a really good game last night with23 points; 11 for 13 from the field; 18 rebounds; and 5 blocked shots. He leads the NBA in blocked shots as well. He is developing and showing his potential.
Nick Young scored 27 points and shot 50% from the field. Two games in a row now. He is starting to find his rhythm.
John Wall has good stats as well with 19 points, 9 assists and 9 rebounds.
We out rebounded the 76ers last night as a team.
But our vet players really struggled with one player going 1-10 from the field. And with Andray Blatche out because of injury, our young players up front did not produce with 3 young players at forward scoring a total of 6 points for the game.
And we have a hard time handling the ball. We committed too many turnovers and Philadelphia scored almost 30 points off of our turnovers.
They made shots when it mattered. We seemed to miss so many lay ups as well. Both teams shot the same percentage from the field. Usually when you out rebound a team and shoot the same percentage for field goals, you can get a win.
We need to protect the ball and focus on every possession. Turnovers really beat us last night.
Philadelphia is a very mature team. They had 5 players score in double figures last night. They are in first place in the Atlantic Division and are 9-3.
I saw some encouraging signs last night but a loss is a loss.
As a very young team we must work hard to create an identity.
We must also create a pecking order of offensive options. Who gets the ball first? What is option 2 and where do we throw the ball back for option 3? How do we space the floor and who fills what lanes when we run?
The Knicks certainly have a pecking order, don’t they?
To be honest, for us, we are not an experienced team as noted. The lock out did not allow for formal training in any way of young players and rookies. We had limited practice time when the lock out ended and two pre season games to try and craft a team that can run sets and a half court offense. That is quite difficult and demanding for young players. The players don’t know one another, haven’t had success with a specific system and fall back, time after time, into one on one play.
We are not an accomplished pick and roll kind of team. During the lock out, most of our players were running and gunning in summer leagues and at charity games. To go from running to a slow down, intricate NBA offense – in two weeks time – has been quite difficult as a transition. It isn’t a fun process in any way.
But we are young and fast and willing and we can play with passion. We can run and rebound and play defense man to man. We can have fun in an up tempo game. I am happy that our coaching staff is adapting quickly – on the fly – to craft a system that is more aligned with the young talent we have on the floor.
Last night’s game against the Knicks was fun for all. We didn’t get a win but it offered a glimpse of some better times ahead. Our fans enjoyed the game. It was great to see our Coach standing on the sidelines wind milling his arms as a sign to “RUN!”
We ran the floor and while we had too many turnovers, we changed the geometry on the floor by creating opportunities for many players to get points, lots of lay ups and dunks and open space was created. We played hard man to man defense. We played a deep rotation. I thought we played tough and I thought we were mentally tough as well. We had five players score in double figures and we had 18 assists as a team. We need to be over 20 per game to be very competitive. The Knicks had 22 last night.
The game came down to a few missed opportunities. A rookie, Chris Singleton, playing hard and productively and with passion makes a great steal and then a dunk is missed. JaVale McGee gets a wonderful block of a shot. He runs down court and gets an alley oop pass, gets fouled and misses two free throws. Four points missed. We lose by three points. I am only using these two missed opportunities as an example of how a few tiny missed opportunities change the outcome of a game. As we mature we will NOT miss these opportunities.
Both players played wonderful games for us last night. I am proud of them. They were productive and mature and they showed great upside and promise as an example.
As time goes by those foul shots are made, that dunk is buried. We win that game.
John Wall was a world class player last night. He scored. He made assists. He played very good defense. He led the team. He scored 22 points and had 9 assists.
In time we will gain the respect of the officials. They will make a call on our behalf against a star player who hits the big three point shot by freeing himself via en elbow to the face of our player. See article here for description. Trevor Booker ran the floor, rebounded, played hard and had fun all night.
I am hopeful that we will be a team that runs and plays hard and gives minutes to lots of players. Rebounding starts everything for us. Rebounding and running is a fun way to play. Our fans will love the effort and our players will blossom and enjoy the game and their development. I look forward to seeing Jan Vesely, too, as this is his kind of game.
A note on the attendance and crowd: We had a big crowd at the game last night. I want to remind everyone that when we bought the team, there were about 3,500 season ticket holders. We are now close to 8,000 season ticket holders. We sell about 3,000 tickets per game to group sales. And we sell about 1,000 to 2,000 walk up tickets per game to our fans. We then have suite holders and club seat holders.
Just in round numbers we can expect 14,000 to 15,000 of our fans per game. That means there are 5,000 or so unsold tickets than can be bought by other teams’ fans. So when we play a popular team such as the Knicks or Lakers or Celtics, we get a mixed crowd.
This is why selling more and more season tickets to our fans is so important for us and our franchise.
Just as we saw with the Washington Capitals, if we can sell season tickets to our fans, we end up with a more loyal building. The crowd can become a 6th man for us. The Capitals have almost 16,000 season ticket holder as an example. It is a sea of red night after night.
This is NOT in our economic interest to sell season tickets too when fans buy seats at walk up. They pay full price not a discounted season ticket holder price. We actually make more money when we sell tickets to a mixed crowd like we saw last night. But I don’t like it!
That isn’t what we want to do. We want every seat filled with our own fans. We want then to create demand for tickets and then a season ticket holder can decide whether he or she would like to resell their tickets at a profit. I do want to note that most of our VIP tickets down low are already sold out. Just as I said before, it will never be easier and cheaper than it is today to become a VIP season ticket holder. Once the seats are sold, I can’t help you with access. Sign up today.
We are making progress in selling season tickets. If we play exciting basketball, get some wins and show upside, I believe we will sell out the building to predominantly our fans in the coming years. I have faith in our community. The ball is in our court to improve and to execute.
Thank you.
Boy did some of you “whiff” on a throw away funny line in my blog post of yesterday.
“Wicked Pixels.”
Not evil pixels.
Wicked.
Like we played Boston twice – Boston – you know “wicked good.” “Wicked funny.”
“Wicked Pixels.” That is all. Thank you.
We missed a lot of shots early – Atlanta made a lot of their shots early – we were in a big hole and played the entire game trying to claw back. Atlanta hit a bunch of three point shots early and we couldn’t answer.
We played hard – and our youth was exposed as every time we got a sniff of run; we turned the ball over or missed uncontested shots close in.
Atlanta is a playoff team and a vet team; the oldest team in the NBA; and they have lots of talent. They met every run by the Wizards and deserved the win. They shoot the ball very well and they rebound and transition at a quick pace; this is a very good team – with an identity.
We must get more out of our front line in terms of defense; rebounding and scoring.
And cutting turn overs will help a lot as well.
We search for a team identity still. A work in progress, indeed.
Onward to next road game on Friday. Thank you.
The good. The bad. And the really bad.
We played quite well in the first half – we played as a team and we built a 20 point lead,at one point. We moved the ball; we played big – we played tough team defense. We rebounded well. We showed speed and hustle and unselfishness. We hit our shots – we made the game look easy.
And then our youth and inexperience showed – we missed free throws when it mattered – we made some very untimely turn overs; and we lost to the NJ Nets at home in our season opener.
There were a lot of things to be happy about – we played a full rotation and several of the young players – like a Chris Singleton; looked relaxed and confident on the court.
We need to learn how to win and close a game out. I believe that shall come with time. And more experience.
Thank you for attending the season opener. The crowd was into the game and I am appreciative of your support.
Here is a link to Wizards Extreme – a blog about the team; check it out and thank you.
TV Ratings boomed for the NBA on Christmas Day; fans tuned in in record numbers to watch an extravaganza of hoops on the tube.
I thought the production value and the promotions were very well done.
Basketball is back; fans love the game – TV ratings and demand for the games is very high.
The doom and gloom sayers were wrong once again.
Thank you; read this article please.
We must remember that in the year after the lock out in the NHL; the league had its greatest season in terms of revenues and attendance.
If we have a competitive team; and we play a style that the fans believe in; we will also grow quite fast year over year at the Wizards. In all respects. Demand is great. I am grateful.
In all of its glory and detail. Here is the information you need about this shortened NBA season.
Lots and lots of back to back games.
Five games in a week.
This is why we have 15 players under contract.
There will not be a lot of time for practices – mostly shoot arounds, play the games and then travel.
The players MUST take care of themselves. As noted “eating well, drinking lots of water and getting rest and sleep” will be keys for staying healthy.
Wish us well. A good read here. See you all on opening night against the NJ Nets on Monday night.