The San Antonio Spurs took care of business on Thursday at the Quicken Loans Arena in front of a crowd of 20,000 screaming fans. The Spurs won their fourth NBA Championship in nine years and third in five years. Though the 83-82 score in the records makes this game appear to be closer, the Spurs were really in control the last few minutes of the game. Tony Parker finished with 24 points in game 4 and was rightfully named the Finals MVP.
For those 20,000 screaming fans waving their rally towels in support of their hometown team, they, along with any other hardcore fan across the state of Ohio may have been the only people in the nation who wanted to see this series go another game. The ABC television ratings have been the worse in the history of the Finals. Many in the media expressed after game 3 that they 'wanted the series to end' hoping it would not last another day so they would not have to tune in to another day of horrible basketball.
Of course for fans in San Antonio, the 39th largest media market in the United States don't really care. They are just happy that their team won. That baffles me the most though, about the lack of ratings, and I do understand they did go up against some stiff competition this week, but I do not see how Game 1 of the 3-time champion Spurs vs the LeBron James led Cavaliers can lose out in viewers on a broadcast TV station (ABC) with a 6.3 rating (9.2 million viewers) to the final episode of The Sopranos which is shown on a Cable TV network and on some cable subscribers requires a digital upgrade. They racked in a 6.5 rating (nearly 11.9 million viewers) including myself.
For game four of the finals, I was at the AT&T Center. Not as a fan, but an employee. I was there as one of the fine few whose job it was to get the merchandise ready if, but in the minds of many of the others, when the Spurs won for the fans that had filled the arena to buy. Before the game, the group of us made our way to 'employee only' territory on the event level. (BTW...I've worked at the AT&T Center before, just, this was the first time in two years [05 Finals]) We made our way to the room where they kept the championship merchandise. Official locker room hats and shirts in addition to an alternate shirt that had the team roster on the back. Our job was to make sure we had the correct amount of merchandise for our stand and then to fold a few of the large shirts and put a few on displays. Once we were done, they were put back into boxes to be carted up to the plaza level where they were kept behind a curtain underneath the escalator near the Fan Store and then slowly wheeled out once the game neared the end.
As the buzzer sounded, it was total madness, the seven of us had 30 minutes to SELL SELL SELL!! We had 5 registers and I was on one of them. We also had over 200 excited, and a few drunk, Spurs fans anticipating purchasing championship merchandise. After the chaos died down, we had sold over 200 shirts, 50 hats, and made over $8500 in 30 minutes.
I am just glad I did not get stuck in traffic on the way home. BTW...brooms are for cleaning.
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