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With Their Season Over, We Would Like To Officially Give The Sixers Credit For A Great Year

A few months ago, here’s how the hierarchy of local sports was laid out: The Eagles, followed by the Phillies, and then Flyers. Way down past those rabid, cargo shorts’d fans of the fly-guys sat the fans of the Philadelphia 76ers. Sure, few people in town didn’t want the Sixers to do well, but if a law was passed declaring a city could only have 3 major sports teams, the Sixers would be on their way out of town before the final votes were even counted. A few months ago, this was clear. Now? Not so much.

It’ll take a whole hell of a lot for the Eagles to ever be usurped as the kings of the hill in town, but this year’s Sixers team (along with the Flyers) took a serious shot at gunning for that number two spot. It started with the new ownership, specifically CEO Adam Aron, making it known that they were behind the team, and were here to serve the fans. They brought back novelties and pieces of Philadelphia history, and when their mascot offerings left something to be desired, they ignored the situation completely.

The fans and the team responded. At the end of a lockout-shortened season, the Sixers earned the last spot in the playoff picture. This past weekend, they were eliminated from the playoffs after losing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals to the Boston Celtics. It was their strongest showing since losing in the same spot in 2003, and their best winning percentage since that same year. They’re likable, they’re exciting, and they’re young (the average age of the players who contribute is somewhere around 24, which should bum out just about everyone). They kept playing hard and winning in improbable spots; something appreciated in Philadelphia about as much as a championship is in other cities. A lockout can do a lot to hurt a sport (just ask baseball), but this year, the Sixers rose professional basketball from the dead in Philadelphia. Clap your hands, everybody.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2012 at 7:00 am.

  • Ebrentari

    Sorry to break it to you, but the Flyers are #2 in this town.  (And I’m not a hockey fan.)  Anyone who thinks differently isn’t paying that close attention to the overall fan base. 

  • Anon

    I’m going Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, 6ers. The Flyers have a dedicated bunch but they could never get 45,000 people to show up 81 times a year. Nor could anything, sport or not, in this town or in many other places in the world. Think about it. The Phillies are one of the best attended “things” in the world regardless of category.

  • Ebrentari

    I’m looking at it from an overall long term view.  The Phils attendance is not sustainable.  Do you remember the crowds in the last days of the Vet? 

    Based on the fact that Flyers fans support the team every year without fail, and, I can’t remember the last report, but Birds season tickets have a 15+ year waiting list,  Philly is a football and hockey town first.  (Which is crazy being that hockey as a sport is not considered top 3 nationally, but here, it’s huge.  Just the way it is.) 

    The Phils get more overall support than the Sixers in the long term, but both fan base support has greater fluctiation based on current or recent team success.  (I still remember Sixers playoff tickets in 2000 selling out in 10 minutes, but that’s when expecations were higher.) 

  • 1980CHAMPS

    Wrong.  Philadelphia was a baseball town from the mid 1800′s till the early 1980′s and has returned to that 5 years ago. The Vet was the worst venue imaginable for baseball.  The ratings even during those last place years were pretty good. Do you remember the Eagles black-outs in the late 90′s for the Eagles?  It was because they had a terrible team much like the Phillies did till the mid 80′s to the early to mid 00′s ( barring 1993).  Can you imagine if the Eagles had such a long stretch of below mediocre teams? Over the last 24 seasons they have have went to the playoffs 15 times.  A record few NFL teams have reached over that span.  Oh and in the last year of the Vet the Phils were 14th in attendance even though sporting a pretty bad team that year.

    You tout stuff that all the mouth-breathing WIP & overall tv & radio personalities spout. 

    Don’t even get me started on the Flyers where there is little turnover as far as ticket sales go.  Plus the Flyers (with the excpetion of the early 90′s) make the playoffs EVERY year guaranteeing a lot of fans.  Then they find ways to choke in the playoffs always making their fanbase believing the next year WILL BE IT!

  • 1980CHAMPS

    …and on to the Sixers.  In the NBA average teams regardless of the city will not get you attendance, superstars do!  You can have a poor team with superstars and pull in far more people than an average team with no stars.  Everyone bitched about how Philly isn’t a NBA town the last few years because the Sixers had a bottom 10 attendance.  Now this year they finish 14th in overall attendance with a barely .500 team with ZERO superstars and everyone shuts up and forgets about it. Pull up the attendance when AI was here.  They were top 5 almost every year.  

    Everyone just needs to settle with the whole this team vs that and just enjoy the games.

  • Ebrentari

    WIP will rot your brain, but that doesn’t make them wrong.  You are pretty much supporting my argument though.  The 2 most successful franchises in town have the 2 most supportive fanbases.  Nuff said. 

    And I think the past 30 years of Phillies issues has a greater impact on the spot the Phils have on this “ranking” vs. the 130 years that preceeded that timeframe.  Things can change, and I actually think a 20-25 year scope is a good way to look at it, but as you mentioned, they current Phils uptick is in it’s early stages.  In another 15-20 if this continues, that changes things, but I can’t predict the future.