Commentary: Already a crisis in the big city

If a team cannot get a respectable number of paying customers into the building to watch it play, the chances of it making enough money to survive as a legitimate business for many years is doubtful.

Exhibit A: The Tokyo Cinq Reves, an expansion team, have created no buzz in the great metropolis, which has 30 million people within its limits on weekdays.

Take a look at the team's six home games attendance figures.

Game 1: 973
Game 2: 876
Game 3: 614
Game 4: 712
Game 5: 506
Game 6: 563

Tokyo is 5-7 through Thursday's win over the Gunma Crane Thunders, and there are 40 regular-season games remaining for the first-year club. Figuring out a way to sell tickets -- buy one, get one free for all games ought to be implemented immediately, and major discounts for any group with 10 or more fans (in fact, the entire league should require these two ideas to be done for at least one full season to see how it affects attendance) -- needs to be a major priority for the club

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Updated on Dec. 20.
The Dec. 1-2 home games against the Saitama Broncos attracted the following crowds, according to official figures provided by the team:

468 in the opener and 551 a day later.