So the Atlanta Hawks are experiencing a boost in their ratings on Fox SportSouth according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That is a 44 percent boost to be exact.
The ratings were up nearly 50 percent for the first three games this season compared to the first three from last season. The opponents this year were the Raptors, Pacers and Spurs while last year’s were the Mavericks, Raptors, and Lakers.
Obviously some better competition this year compared to last, but it seems that higher viewership may also mean lower attendance.
The first home game of the season (against the Pacers) saw 19,118 people at the arena according to Basketball-Reference and the arena is only supposed to hold 18,238 people so that seems pretty good right? That number might be robust because of T.I.’s concert though so we will have to see if the numbers can stay high going forward.
Their second home game against the Knicks yielded a pretty good showing of 17,521 people. However, they are only ranked 27th in the league in attendance and that is probably because they have only played those two home games so far this season.
This fan base has been a bit rough on the Hawks though never really getting above 22nd in attendance the past few seasons. The coinciding factor in those seasons was that no one expected the team to do well, despite consistent trips to the Playoffs for much of the past decade.
This year? People are thinking better than a seventh or eighth seed and hopefully the attendance numbers the rest of the year will reflect that mentality.
