Young, fun Pacers putting on show, but where are you?

INDIANAPOLIS – Where are all the Indiana Pacers fans?

During Monday night’s game in which Indianapolis’ NBA team trounced a long-hated rival, 115-97, little more than 12,000 fans were there to see it.

Sure, it was a Monday, a school night and New York Knicks superstar Kristaps Porzingis wasn’t dressed for action. But those things feel more like symptoms rather than the cause of a stadium only two-thirds full during a season in which lackluster attendance has become the norm.

Lost amid all of the bouquets being thrown at these upstart Pacers (13-11) — a team that has been lauded for its consistent hustle and aggressive style, boasts a former IU guard destined for his first NBA All-Star game and features a one-man crowd-igniter — is that no one goes to see them. At least, not compared to the rest of the NBA.

So far this season, just 162,719 sets of eyes have watched the Pacers go 7-4 on their home court, the fifth-lowest total attendance mark in the league. The numbers grow even uglier on a per-game basis.

Only the lowly Atlanta Hawks average fewer home fans than the Pacers (14,792). The franchises hold the dubious distinction of being the only two in the league averaging fewer than 15,000 fans per game.

The Pacers’ season-opener barely attracted 15,000 fans, and despite home games against Western Conference giants San Antonio, Portland and Houston along with Eastern Conference contenders Detroit, Boston and Toronto, the Pacers have yet to sell out a game.

Their Nov. 24 game against the Raptors — a team that has built up as much bad blood with Indiana over the past couple years as any — drew the highest attendance of the 2017-18 season to date: 16,523 fans. That’s between 89-91 percent of Bankers Life capacity, depending on which figure is used (ESPN.com says 18,135; the fieldhouse website says “approximately 18,500").

For the season, Indiana is averaging crowds of a meager 80-81 percent of capacity.

So what’s going on? Why are these electric, run 'n' gun Pacers drawing nearly 2,000 fewer fans per game than last year’s disappointing bunch?

It's not ticket prices, which have remained about the same since last year. Heading into the season, ticker resaler SeatGeek.com rated the Pacers as the second-most affordable team to watch in the NBA. In fact, a ticket to Wednesday's Pacers-Bulls game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse can be had for as low as $6.

IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel recently learned from Pacers chief marketing officer Todd Taylor that season ticket sales stayed about the same as last year, but that fewer fans were purchasing multi-game ticket bundles.

Perhaps, Taylor seemed to suggest, fans didn’t know what to expect from a team entering the Paul George-less era, and low attendance in the first 25 percent of the season is the result.

Jack Slingland, director of client relations at TickPick, a resale site that also analyzes that marketplace, suggested George’s departure put an early kibosh on enthusiasm for the 2017-18 season.

“When you lose a star like George, it’s going to have an impact on the excitement for the season,” Slingland said, comparing the Pacers to the Chicago Bulls, whose attendance numbers have dipped after the team traded away Jimmy Butler. “Despite the fact that they are playing well this season, it’s tough to replace that superstar and keep up the attendance and volume of orders.”

Since 2015, the average purchase price for Pacers home tickets on the secondary market has dropped about 60 percent, Slingland said. Additionally, the total tickets purchased in the two weeks before the start of the season and two weeks into the season have dipped about six percent since 2015.

This is all happening to the Pacers, Slingland added, despite the NBA seeing significant growth in both average purchase price and total tickets sold on the secondary market.

There is, however, some hope on the horizon. Slingland suggested games against LeBron James’ Cavaliers (Friday) and the return of Paul George (Dec. 13) during the Pacers’ six-game homestand could put a jolt into the attendance numbers. But there’s no denying that so far, the excitement surrounding this team has not been equaled by fans buying tickets to see it.

Still, it’s early going, and it might take some more time for Pacers fans to literally and figuratively buy into this bunch. While it is foolish to believe Indiana will ever soar into the upper echelon of attendance ranks — it has finished in the bottom half of the league all but once (2013-14) over the past 10 years — perhaps if it continues to fight for playoff contention, play at breakneck pace and score points in bunches, fans will flock to Bankers Life Fieldhouse again.

Actually, Darren Collison is sure of it.

“I think people are going to start coming,” Collison said after practice Tuesday at St. Vincent's Center. "We need them. Our fans are the reason why this organization is what it is. It's the fans. The ones who have been there are amazing, but the more that come to our games, the better."

3 things to know about Wednesday's opponent, the Chicago Bulls (3-19)

The lowly Bulls are dead last in the Eastern Conference, largely because of their current nine-game losing streak. Since Nov. 10, when the Pacers beat them 105-87 in Chicago, they have just one game, going 1-11 in that span. The Bulls will bring the NBA's worst offense and a bottom-of-the-barrel defense to Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Wednesday. Chicago is one of just three teams scoring fewer than 100 points a game, as it averages a league-low 95.6. And on defense, Chicago yields 107.2 points per game, giving the Bulls a -11.6 differential, also worst in the league. In the Nov. 10 game, the Bulls had no answer for Bojan Bogdanovic, who scored 22 points on 66.7 percent shooting. He knocked down a season-high 6 3s and pulled down seven rebounds. Since that night, he has scored in double digits in all but two games.

More Pacers:

3 takeaways from the 115-97 win over the Knicks

Lance Stephenson denies calling Xavier coach Chris Mack n-word while attending Cincinnati

Victor Oladipo well on his way to securing first all-star bid

Follow IndyStar Sports reporter Jim Ayello on Twitter and Instagram: @jimayello.