Yes it’s a cliché that is rolled out time and time again whenever a Houston sports team finds itself in a heap of trouble. Yes it’s a cliché that citizens of our fair city loathe as much as red light cameras. But in this case it’s true.

You see, tonight Houstonist made an excursion out to the Toyota Center to watch the hometown Rockets take on the Utah Jazz in the second game of a first-round playoff series. Heading into the game down 0-1 in the match-up, tonight’s showdown proved to be crucial. Unfortunately, the Rockets found themselves on the incorrect side of the scoreboard with a 90-84 loss and a hole deep enough for Yao Ming’s feet to be grazing Chinese soil (from the wrong side).

However, that’s not the problem we noticed tonight. Well, not the problem on which we’ve chosen to pontificate in this very space. What really drew our ire this evening besides the game's outcome was the behavior of the so-called “fans” of our fair town. What was instantaneously noticeable from our seats as the game tipped off was the fact that the arena was not sold out. A playoff game with empty seats is nothing short of an abomination. How is it possible that a city with several million folks cannot find 20,000 people willing to attend a playoff game? When did our city's sports fans become that apathetic? (Wait, don't answer that.)

Furthermore, with the Rockets down by 5 points with less than a minute remaining, and the game’s outcome very much still up in the air, streams of “fans” began to head for the exits. The entire country was able to see that the city of Houston has long forgotten the motto "Clutch City" in that very moment and had given up on a team still in the game.

This type of behavior is not becoming for a city long struggling with a sports identity crisis. For years journalists and major media outlets around the nation have dubbed the Bayou City to be a lesser tier sports town because of fan behavior relating to all local professional sports franchises - from blackouts for Oilers games to booing of hometown heroes during Astros playoff runs. And with a national audience’s eyes focused on Houston’s lack of fan support tonight, this conclusion was cemented in stone.

If the Rockets are able to bring the series back home (and that’s a big if), we hope to see better support for the hometown team.

Perhaps the Rockets can take a page out of University of Texas football head coach Mack Brown’s playbook. His motto? “Come Early. Be Loud. Stay Late.” Or just as good, just mimic what the Red Rowdies do.

Photo: flickr user jeffbalke