The Pelicans are 26-40 this season and have seen "tepid fan support," but that "wavering support has been met by ownership with understanding, rather than scorn," according to Scott Kushner of the Baton Rouge ADVOCATE. There have been "large swaths of empty seats" at Smoothie King Center, and the team's TV ratings "finished in the bottom third of the NBA last season." But the Pelicans have had a "bounce-back in TV viewership this year" and garnered national headlines after acquiring C DeMarcus Cousins at the All-Star break. Pelicans President Dennis Lauscha said, "You will never hear us say, ‘If we don’t get to 10,000 season tickets, the team is moving.'" Despite losing seasons in four of the past five years, the Pelicans said that they "sold more than 11,000 season-ticket accounts" for '16-17. Merchandise sales also are "continually improving; the Pelicans had the NBA's top-selling team store" in Q1. Kushner noted there is "reason to believe fan support can grow quickly." Before the '15-16 season, the Pelicans "broke franchise season-ticket sales records." Pelicans execs "insist they’re doing everything else they can to entice people" into Smoothie King Center and "into the season-ticket base." The team "invested in the customer-service side, sponsoring a Disney training course for arena workers and employing a six-person staff of data analysts to track customer satisfaction while beefing up the marketing budget." But Kushner wrote the "perception lingers that the Pelicans are merely a stepbrother to the Saints." However, that premise is one franchise executives "harshly rebuke, adamantly stating there is no back seat for basketball." Lauscha "pointed to myriad basketball investments for personnel, community involvement and infrastructure, including a new practice facility as well as arena renovations." Lauscha: "In some ways, we’re more engaged in the NBA than we are in the NFL, to be honest with you” (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 3/12).
