Long-Suffering Clippers Suddenly Create a Buzz

It was closing in on midnight and dozens of kids waited patiently outside the tunnel gate at Staples Center.

Suddenly, pandemonium!

As cars and sport utility vehicles approached the gate, young girls screamed until their voices cracked and teenage boys jumped up and down, hoping to get a look at the players leaving the arena.

They all wanted to get close to the hot new attraction in Southern California--the Clippers .

“It’s been amazing,” said shooting guard Eric Piatkowski, a seven-season Clipper veteran. “In the past, we would be able to get as many tickets as we wanted. We could get 15 or 20 tickets with no problem. Now, we come in for shoot-arounds in the morning and we’re told we can’t get any tickets because we’re sold out. It’s kind of cool but it’s going to take time to get used to.

“We’re selling out games during the week. We can feel the excitement around the community. People notice now and you get nothing but positive feedback. The fans have just been amazing.

“And L.A. fans are different. I may come out for warmups and not too many people would be in the stands. The place would be half-filled. Then by the end of the first quarter, I may be taking a break on the bench and look up and the place is packed. I can’t help but say, ‘This is sweet.’ ”

The Clippers still trail the Lakers in attendance. In 37 games at Staples Center this season, they are averaging 14,243 fans, compared to the Lakers’ 18,928, also in 37 games.

But the Clippers shouldn’t really be matched up against the Lakers, who won the NBA title last season and feature two of the league’s most popular players in Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

Remarkably, the Clippers are on pace to break their single-season attendance record, despite having the third-worst record in the Western Conference. Thanks to eight sellouts, one shy of their single-season high established in 1991-92--with the help of games played at the Arrowhead Pond--the Clippers are ahead of last season’s record-setting average for 41 home games.

“I’m really not exaggerating when I say this but I can’t believe the fan support that we’ve had this year,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “That’s the one thing my wife commented on after our fifth or sixth home game. She said, ‘I can’t believe how good the fans are here. They are really into the game and the team.’ ”

With some seats selling for $35, the Clippers have cheaper lower-level seats than either the Lakers or the Kings of the NHL. That, and last season’s move out of the Sports Arena probably have something to do with the attendance leap. But the team itself can take some credit.

“I think it’s a result of the product, 80%, and the building, 20%,” said Ralph Lawler, who has broadcast Clipper games since the team called San Diego home in 1978.

“This year’s team is an awful lot of fun to watch. I get more and more people saying that the building is different during a Clipper game than it is for a Laker game. It’s just more alive. The youth of the team is a part of it. They have a lot of exuberance that you can’t mask because it’s real.”

Added Piatkowski, “It’s huge that the tickets are not that expensive, and with us becoming a better team every game, that also helps. You can see people getting excited about our future and they are now thinking about locking in season tickets for next year.

“People are enjoying watching us play. It used to bug me when people would say, ‘It’s too expensive to see the Lakers but we can get Clipper tickets to watch the other teams play.’ Now, they are coming to see us play and that’s great.”

The Clippers’ growing fan base is not isolated to Los Angeles. After ranking as the NBA’s worst road draw for years, they have attracted more fans on the road than the playoff-bound Dallas Mavericks, the Vancouver Canucks and the Washington Wizards.

If there’s one player who can be linked to the sudden interest in the Clippers, it’s probably second-year swingman Lamar Odom. He was one of the league’s top rookies last season and, with the addition of other young players such as Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson, Keyon Dooling and Corey Maggette, the Clippers are definitely on the rise.

“It’s fun to see so many kids follow us now,” Odom said. “I couldn’t have imagined this before I signed with the Clippers. It was considered the worst situation. Nobody wanted to come here and play. Nobody wanted to be involved with the Clippers. Now, there’s a major change.”

And Odom never played at the Sports Arena, the Clippers’ home for 15 years.

The Clippers not only used to lose there, they did so in front of the smallest “crowds” in the league. In six of their seasons there, they averaged fewer than 10,000 fans a game.

“There were nights at the Sports Arena when I think there were just 3- or 4,000 people, regardless of what was announced,” Lawler said. “It was like a tomb. It was so hopeless.

“But what has impressed me the most this year about the Clippers was a Golden State game last month [at Staples Center]. We had 15,860 to see Golden State. It used to be, for so many years, that the [Clippers] tried to attract fans by trying to sell opponents, like Larry Bird or Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. Now they can legitimately say, ‘Come out and see Lamar Odom and Darius Miles.’ You can see it with the kids wearing Clipper gear and holding up signs. It’s the kind of stuff we haven’t seen.”

But considering owner Donald Sterling’s history of letting his good players go elsewhere, will the Clippers continue as a hot ticket?

“Fans love an underdog and here’s one that not only is an underdog, but showing a chance of really turning things around,” Lawler said. “Fans are jumping on board and it’s great. I don’t think this group is going to disappoint. They look like they are going to deliver.”

Time will tell.

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High Interest

Average attendance at Clipper games. The Clippers moved to Staples Center in ‘99-00 season:

YEAR: ATTENDANCE

2000-2001: 14,243

1999-2000: 13,652

1998-1999: 10,263

1997-1998: 9,968

1996-1997: 9,772

*

Top Dollar

2000-20001 NBA average ticket prices:

TEAM: PRICE

NEW YORK: $91.15

LAKERS: $87.69

PORTLAND: $70.43

HOUSTON: $66.39

SEATTLE: $62.19

WASHINGTON: $60.46

MIAMI 1: $58.07

NEW JERSEY: $57.14

SACRAMENTO: $55.29

UTAH: $54.60

INDIANA: $53.05

CHICAGO: $52.84

PHOENIX: $51.60

NBA Average: $51.02

PHILADELPHIA: $50.12

BOSTON: $49.60

ORLANDO: $49.04

ATLANTA: $45.87

CLIPPERS: $44.81

TORONTO: $44.37*

GOLDEN STATE: $42.54

SAN ANTONIO: $41.63

CLEVELAND: $41.41

DETROIT: $40.04

MINNESOTA: $38.93

DALLAS: $37.48

DENVER: $37.11

VANCOUVER: $35.51*

CHARLOTTE: $34.80

MILWAUKEE: $33.16

*--Canadian prices converted to U.S. dollars at a rate of US$1 = C$1.579