Nets' announced attendance up 23% over New Jersey, leading league, but gaps remain

From NetsDaily, 4/29/13, Brooklyn Nets attendance, up 23.1%, leads NBA in one-season gain:

Sports Business Journal reports that the Nets' 23.1 percent increase in attendance this season led the NBA, far outpacing the Houston Rockets, at 8.5 percent and the Pacers and Raptors, who were up 7.8 percent each.
The Nets finished 16th in attendance in their premier season in Brooklyn, averaging 17,187 or more than 96 percent of the Barclays Center's final basketball capacity of 17,773. The planned capacity was 18,000 but was reduced as more high-end sections were configured. The ranking was the Nets highest since 1997-98 when they finished 12th. In their last season in New Jersey, the Nets finished 30th and dead last.

Still, we should recognize that NBA attendance is measured in tickets sold/distributed, not gate count, and there were a good number of tickets available for the last Nets playoffs game. Wrote SBNation Chicago correspondent Zach Lee 4/30/13:

I looked on TiqIq (shout out!) for a ticket halfway through the day on Monday only to find that Nets fans were showing a significant lack of interest in an underperforming team on the brink of elimination. I rejoiced in my half-price seat to a Bulls playoff game, even as a familiar pang of fear arose somewhere from the recesses of my mind.

A good number of seats must be owned by people trying to make a buck, rather than diehard fans. If the Nets win Game 6 of their best-of-7 series tonight in Chicago, there will be a Game 7 in Brooklyn on Saturday, May 4.

Right now, StubHub has 5662 seats available for that game, though if the Nets make it to Game 7, the team will have momentum and generate much more interest.

The change from New Jersey

A few comments on the NetsDaily post:

here are the raw numbers. maybe this will seem more impressive:
Brooklyn Nets avg attendance in 2012-13: 17, 187 per game (96.7% basketball seating capacity of 17,773 people)
New Jersey Nets avg attendance in 2011-12: 13,961 per game (74.6% basketball seating capacity of 18,711 people)
year-over-year change: + 3,226 people per game (+ 23.1%)
also remember, face value ticket prices in Brooklyn are MUCH higher than they were in NJ and they are still selling thousands of more tickets per game.
Payment plans
I think they lost alot of people because of the packages they offered. i was a season ticket holder in jersey for the last two years but it didnt matter it was treated like a new account. Also they didnt offer payment plans everything had to be paid in just 2 payments. my seats were about $4000/season for 2 seats and i had 6 months to pay it off. that jumped to $10,000/Season for 2 seats in bk and only 2 months to pay it off. but i’ve since heard they brought back the payment plans for next season.