The attendance for Denver Nuggets home games at Pepsi Center has gotten so bad this season that Nuggets coach Michael Malone is beginning to take notice.
Denver’s roster is stacked with young, watchable players including No. 7 overall pick in last year’s draft Emmanuel Mudiay, rising 20-year-old rookie Nikola Jokic and bruising big man Jusuf Nurkic. Throw in established veterans like Danilo Gallinari and fan-favorite Kenneth Faried, and it seems like the Nuggets have all the ingredients for loud boisterous home crowds, adding to the already innate Mile-High home court advantage.
However, the reality is quite the contrary. The Nuggets sit dead last in attendance, averaging just 13,810 fans per game. And head coach Michael Malone has become outspoken and cognizant of the dead, lifeless atmosphere inside Pepsi Center.
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“We have to find a way to protect our home court – and it’s up to us. The fans aren’t going to give it to us,” Malone said at practice earlier this week. “Let’s be real. We don’t have a home court advantage, and when we do have people in the building, they’re rooting for the other team.”
Prior to last night’s game versus Charlotte, the first of a season-long eight game home stand — which signals a slight let up in the treacherous first half schedule, Malone again echoed much of those same sentiments.
“The reality is we do not have a great home court advantage,” Malone said. “When we do have great fan support or great fan attendance, they are usually here for the other team and that’s the reality right now. We have to build this up to where our fans are excited enough to come and support us, and we’ve not done that yet. So, that is definitely on us as a team and a franchise.”
Against the Hornets, 11,343 was the reported attendance, but in actuality that actual number was probably closer to half that. The cavernous, environment that is the present-day Pepsi Center didn’t do the Nuggets any favors against Charlotte either. Denver allowed a Hornets team that’s been depleted by injuries — and strung out on a sobering Western Conference road trip, which ended in Denver — to nearly complete an unlikely comeback after finding themselves down 10 points with just three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
The same story played out last month when the Nuggets hosted the latest edition of the Kobe Bryant farewell tour, which coincidentally enough was the first sellout of the year at Pepsi Center. Yet, it wasn’t Nuggets fans cheering on their team, but Lakers fans serenading Bryant with chants that lasted from when the starting lineups were announced, until the final buzzer.
While the Nuggets youth is a draw to some, the casual fan who comes to see Faried and Gallinari aren’t aware of Jokic’s per 36 numbers and how they compare to top rookies Karl-Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis and Jahlil Okafor. Or how Denver is already nearly 20 points better defensively per 100 possessions with Nurkic on the floor than off it.
The Nuggets on court performance isn’t helping the cause, and a median ticket price of $64.49, according to the Nuggets, and a secondary market average price of $195, according to tiqiq.com, puts Denver’s secondary ticket market in a tier with New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago whose major markets and storied histories draw sellouts on a nightly basis.
It’s going to take a combination of a number of variables to put butts back in the seats at Pepsi Center. The first one is to win, the second is to lower ticket prices and the third is to market the team to the city better. The winning should come in two to three years when this roster evolves and takes on an identity which we’ve seen glimpses of here and there, but ticket prices aren’t about to drop in this climate.
While the Nuggets “New Day” marketing campaign is sharp and enouraging, the fact that Emmanuel Mudiay, who the campaign was built around, has struggled and missed a large chunk of the season with an ankle injury hasn’t helped or drawn fans to games. The Nuggets were also recently ranked No. 121 out of 122 major American sports teams in “fan relations” in ESPN The Magazine’s 2015 Ultimate Standings.
The bottom line is the Nuggets have been sub par at home for the last year and a half and the lack of support from the fan base has the Denver coaching staff on alert. Since going 38-3 at home during the 2012-2013, the Nuggets are 47-52 at 1000 Chopper Circle over the past three seasons.
Malone does realize his team is partly at fault as well, and when this team does start winning again — I believe attendance will creep back to respectability. Until then, the matter at hand will undoubtedly continue to be an issue, and stay on the minds of coaches, players and those inside the organization. And those in that aforementioned list also shoulder some of the blame for Denver’s less than optimal home record.
*This article was updated to reflect the median ticket price versus the secondary market average ticket cost.
