Lakers Fans Are the Best
Los Angeles is a Lakers town.
By KURT HELIN
Updated 11:20 AM PDT, Fri, Dec 11, 2009
Watch an NBA game on television, one from just about anywhere, and you’ll notice plenty of empty seats. Fans are not renewing season tickets, not showing up to games, not buying merchandise, and in many places not even watching their team on television.
Not in Los Angeles — we love our Lakers.
When the fine folks at Yahoo crunched the numbers, they found the same thing. That’s why they named Lakers fans the best in the NBA.
Fans filled the Staples Center to its 18,977-seat capacity for every home game the past two years. They had a league-high 98 percent renewal rate for season ticket holders for the current season. On top of that, an average 267,000 households in the L.A. area tuned into Lakers games last season on television stations KCAL 9 and FS West. Fans also bought enough Lakers gear to make it the top-selling merchandise last season. Kobe Bryant jerseys were the most popular in the league, and Pau Gasol’s jerseys ranked ninth.
The love affair with the Lakers and their fans is a two-way street — the team has treated the fans well. Owner Jerry Buss and his general managers — Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak — have consistently put winners on the floor. There have been rebuilding periods, there has to be, but unlike Chicago after Jordan left or Boston after Bird, the Lakers never went through a decade of drought. Team management found a way to rebuild, to stay relevant.
All that took place while every other sports team in Los Angeles let the fans down. Or just left, like the Rams and Raiders. The Dodgers had some rough seasons since the 1988 title, and while they have had some good seasons the late two years that team is making headlines for a cash strapped, divorcing ownership. USC football is back on a high, but there have been some rough years. Same with UCLA basketball.
Through it all, the Lakers kept winning. Kept putting on a good show. Stayed entertaining and relevant.
We love them for that. We love Kobe and Gasol now, like we loved Magic and Kareem before, and West and Wilt before them. We miss Chick Hearn. We love how the uniforms and logo don’t change with the latest fad. We love Jack Nicholson and the celebrities courtside. We love the Laker girls. We love the championships, but also the moments of great basketball.
Los Angeles is a Lakers town.
Kurt Helin lives in Los Angeles where he is runs the NBA/Lakers blog Forum Blue & Gold (which you can also follow in twitter).
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Dec 11, 2009 11:09 AM PDT
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