Rockets once again rocking the house

[KFDM COOP]

Rockets once again rocking the house

Toyota Center sellouts becoming rule, not exception

Justice & McClain on Rockets, Yao

Rock bottom hit years later, but it all turned on an opening night with the Milwaukee Bucks in Houston.

The Rockets had been rolling along, selling out 176 consecutive home games, including all 25 dates during an NBA lockout season that saw fans around the country turn away. The streak was the third-longest in the NBA, behind only the Michael Jordan-fueled popularity of the Chicago Bulls and the traditional success of the New York Knicks.

Then the Bucks arrived in Houston to open the 1999-2000 season. The Rockets failed to sell out their opener, lost an arena referendum that night to build Toyota Center and fell to last in the NBA in attendance, remaining among the bottom five teams for most of the next four seasons.

When the Bucks arrive Friday for the first NBA meeting of Chinese national team teammates Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian, the Rockets will play before their third consecutive capacity home crowd to begin the season. But more than the result of the matchup between the current star from China and a player expected to become one, it will represent a huge and somewhat unexpected rebound in the Rockets' ticket sales.

The season before the Rockets drafted Yao, attendance slipped to an average of 11,737, last in the NBA.

This season, the Rockets project sellouts of every game until mid-January.

"It's our hope that, looking at the schedule between now and the end of the year, we will get every game sold out. I expect it," Rockets CEO Tad Brown said.

Targeting 30 sellouts

The home opener against the Portland Trail Blazers drew 18,232, the second-largest opening-night crowd in team history. (Toyota Center capacity varies based on the config-uration of some suites and attendance in the restaurant.)

Including the final three regular-season games of last season, the four home playoff games and the two games at home this season, the Rockets' streak of nine sellouts is their longest since they moved into Toyota Center for the 2003-04 season.

A year ago, when owner Leslie Alexander announced a goal to sell out 20 games, he inspired scoffs from most in the room and distress from those expected to hit that number. The Rockets sold out 25 games.

This season, Brown aimed for 30, but with sales picking up, he said he would have to revise that goal.

"I want to sell out all the games, obviously," Brown said. "But with the projections I was working on with my staff, I wanted to sell out 30 games.

"If we sell out the first 13, I think we push the goal to 35. This is a basketball town. They love the Rockets, but they want to see performance. If this team goes on a roll early, I think we can sell out them all."

Streak in jeopardy

If the Rockets sell out all 13 November and December home games — the Dec. 5 game against Memphis is considered the most likely threat to the streak — they easily will surpass the eight-game regular-season streak that had been their longest in Toyota Center.

In the NBA, the measures of thriving ticket sales are a 90 percent or better retention rate of season-ticket customers and more than 10,000 full-season ticket packages (or partial plans adding up to 10,000 full packages).

The Rockets have surpassed the 90 percent retention rate, falling just short of the 10,000 full-season packages. (Brown won't give exact figures.)

In the past three seasons, the Rockets' renewal rates have increased by almost 10 percent, growth particularly unexpected because customer loyalty is often driven by postseason success.

"You combine the excite-ment about the moves made with the hope of winning and expectation of winning and then the great early play that our team has shown on court, and it's leading into a really good period for us," Brown said.

"We're almost there. We're at three times the number of (new) full-season ticket sales than we've had in the last five seasons in Toyota Center. A lot has to do with the changes that were made in the offseason."

The Rockets remain far from the heights of their post-championship years. But as they look at the season's first two months, they see themselves much closer to those heady times than to the lean years.