Ya’ll remember back in the day when the Sixers were cool? In fact, the hierarchy of Philly Sports used to rank the them the third coolest team behind the Kelly Green Eagles, and of course the Phillies. That was back when they were hotter than the Flyers and well before Bon Jovi tried to poison Philadelphia’s deep well of sports with whatever his dumb ass was up to. Nowadays, the Phillies seem to be the top dog amongst the ranks of Philadelphia sports teams, followed by the ever-dramatic Eagles and now, the Flyers are back in a major way. Not that there was ever a drought of Flyer-Love in this town, but the Sixers are hurtin’. Nobody cares! Even despite an ‘09/10 team which, some say at least, is sorta-solid but simply lacks stars. It seems like the roller girls have an easier time getting asses into seats than the Sixers. It doesn’t seem to be from lack of trying: The recent rebranding was pretty cool and the retro look of their new uniforms bring us back to happier times. Now, only if they could fill seats like they did back when the shorts were short and the socks were high.

The Sixers are doing what they can to pack em in, though: They’re rolling back ticket prices and offering package deals as a means to beat the recession. For instance, Comcast-Spectatcor are presently offering a limited amount of $10 mezzanine level tickets. They’re also piggybacking Sixers tickets onto Flyers bundles, which seems a little sad. There’s a Ladies Night and the list of discounts goes on and on. This is a start in getting people interested in the 76ers, perhaps, but the true solution is threefold, the first of which is obvious: They need to win more (they’re currently 5-6 — not awful, but definitely uninspiring). Second, they need some Gilbert Arenas type shit talk; drama is great and whether you admit it or not, people love it (works for the Eagles.) Third, the Sixers need some sort of hotshot, and we mean household name type of shit. For Pete’s sake, Allen Iverson hasn’t played here for years and he’s all up in the Philly Metro’s Sports section this very day. Now, easier said than done on all three counts, but until some combination of the three happen, no amount of cheap tickets or deals on food is going to help. We, the people, need a reason to come.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 5:01 pm.