Utah Jazz: No Sunday Home Games, No Day Games

There have a lot of talks lately about the fact that the Utah Jazz do not play home games on Sunday.

According to Greg Miller, not scheduling Sunday home games is out of respect for the area’s LDS Church following. ‘It is a business decision to not play home games on Sunday,” Miller wrote. “We believe it would be very difficult to draw 19,911 fans to EnergySolutions Arena for a regular-season Sunday game, based on past experiences we have had with Sunday home games during the NBA playoffs. About the only way it would work was if the opponent were the Lakers, LeBron [James], or the Celtics.

Although Miller does make a great point, Deron Williams is not interested. Williams, and the rest of the Jazz roster for that matter, are forced to play more games on other days of the week because of the “no Sunday home game” policy. This causes games to be bunched up, and it definitely takes a toll on the team over the course of the season.

In my opinion, this is a very sticky situation to have to deal with. From one perspective, it makes sense from a money standpoint to not schedule any home games on Sunday, as the attendance will undoubtedly be down. However, from another perspective, it can cause the team to play worse, and it will bring their record down.

If you think about it, both situations can really hurt the team from a business standpoint. Figuring out which one hurts the team more is what needs to be decided.

The real questions at hand are: Will the Jazz generate more money if they win more games? Or will the Jazz make more money by having more seats sold?

Those are two questions that I cannot answer because of a lack of some important information. Hopefully, though, Greg Miller has addressed them, and he has come up with an answer based on the results. If that is the case, that’s great. If not, then we might have a problem on our hands.

Even though the topic at hand can be discussed a lot further, I have a question that can build on the argument that is being made by Deron Williams. That question is, “Why did the Jazz play no day games for the entire regular season?”

For the entire 82-game season that was constructed for the Utah Jazz, there were 82 night games, and there were 0 day games. Why in the world is that?

Sometimes day games can be beneficial for rest purposes. For instance, you open the week with a day game, and you follow that up with a night game the next night, you will get a few extra hours of rest time, as opposed to the regular night back-to-backs where they are usually 24 hours apart.

Also, playing during the day can give you an opportunity to be seen by a wider audience. Of course, the kind of day games I am referring to are Sunday afternoon games or holiday day games (Christmas, MLK Day, etc.). Being seen by a wider audience is always a good thing for selling your product (team), and you would ultimately generate more money from that. This is especially true if your team puts on a good performance. Of course, that would be no problem with the Jazz.

I haven’t heard of any specific reasons as to why the Jazz had no day games this season. Heck, it may be possible that it was just a coincidence and it was not a conscious choice like the “no Sunday home game” policy.

Whatever the reason may be for the no day games, I am hopeful that it will change next season. Sure, watching night games is just fine with me, but every now and then it is great to know that there is a day-time Jazz game to look forward to. There’s just something about a day game that brings extra excitement for me, and I do not want to be deprived of that anymore.

What do the rest of you think? Would you want the Jazz to have a few day games next season, or are you content with an all-night schedule?