Attendance for Charlotte Hornets game this season shows this is a team to watch
For Hornets point guard Ish Smith, he always looked forward to playing at the Spectrum Center.
The Charlotte native has played for 12 teams in his 12-year NBA career, and each time he’d return to play there, he’d take notice of the crowd.
“The fans were solid,” Smith said of the times he’d return. “Not terrible, but not great. But I’m telling you, this year? Woo. Every night. And now best believe, we put a product on the floor.”
Smith, who signed with the Hornets this offseason, was just coming off a season-high 22-point performance in the Hornets’ 117-114 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night. Although nearly half the fans in the arena were Lakers fans, the arena was full, as has been the case for most of this season at Spectrum Center.
The Charlotte Hornets have now sold out seven home games this season, which is the most sellouts through 21 homes games since the 2015-16 season, when the Hornets last made the playoffs. The Hornets had 13 sellouts that year.
The Hornets are also averaging 16,567 fans per game, up 8.6% from the 2019-20 season, when arenas around the league were last at full capacity before the pandemic.
That ranks 15th out of 30 teams in the NBA in attendance per game.
“Definitely,” point guard LaMelo Ball said, when asked was the increase in fans attending the games this season noticeable. “I think it’s been cool. It makes us go a little more.”
The Hornets have also had five games on national television, the most since the franchise returned to Charlotte in 2004.
The Celtics’ game against the Hawks was initially supposed to be on ESPN. But it got bumped in favor of the Hornets-Lakers game.
“It’s exciting for our city, our organization, our young players,” Hornets coach James Borrego said. “They are thrilled to play in front of a packed stadium. ... This is the best I’ve seen it since my time here.”
So why the uptick in attendance? There are multiple reasons.
For one, the Hornets are winning again. They are 28-22 overall and are seventh in the Eastern Conference standings — good enough for a playoff appearance.
When teams win, fans come.
They have a potential superstar point guard in Ball, who could make his first All-Star team this year.
And this team is fun to watch.
Whether it’s an acrobatic dunk from Miles Bridges, an ankle breaker from Terry Rozier, or a no-look passes from Ball, these plays are common at a Hornets game and they generate excitement.
In the first quarter of Friday’s game, Ball led a fastbreak with Bridges trailing him. As Ball got close to the basket, he threw a no-look alley-oop to Bridges. The crowd in the arena erupted.
“A lot of it has to do with our style of play,” Hornets President and Chief Operating Officer Fred Whitfield said. “Up-tempo, a lot of 3s, tough defense and a young team. So I think that exudes a lot of energy from our fans.”
Often times when games were sold out at Hornets games in recent years, it was because the New York Knicks, Lakers or Golden State Warriors were in town. That’s still the case, as evidenced by Friday’s game.
But Whitfield, who has been with the Hornets for 16 years, dating back to when they were the Bobcats, said there have been more Hornets fans this year filling up seats.
Whitfield said the Hornets were No. 3 in the league in new season-ticket holders. Increasing fan attendance and engagement has been a process, and started with the rebranding of the Hornets.
The retro Hornets jersey from the ‘90s and the colorful court design on throwback nights have been a hit.
“We’re approaching our highest level of season-ticket holders that we’ve had in the last eight to 10 years,” he said. “I think that’s where a lot of that energy comes from.”
Of the Hornets’ remaining 32 games, 20 are home games.
Smith, the Hornets backup point guard and Charlotte native, is excited about that.
“The fans are really feeding off of how talented and how fun (we) are to watch,” Smith said. “I don’t care what nobody says. Nobody wants to follow a losing team.
“So we’re putting a product out there that’s not only winning but is fun to watch.”
