Yesterday a friend of mine called and said that a friend of a co-worker had offered him free tickets to a SUITE at the Friday night Hornets game, and wanted to know if I wanted to go with him. Of course I said yes!
I was nervous about a lot of things. What would the traffic and parking be like? What would the suite be like? Would people wonder what we were doing in their suite? Would the tickets really be there waiting for us at the box office? As it turned out, every single thing went perfectly smooth. We parked next door to the Ford Center in the underground Cox Center convention parking. $6, but it was only a five minute walk. The suite had a couch, a table and some chairs, a sink area and a couple of TV’s, but the coolest part was the big glass wall which was really a sliding glass door that opened up to the arena. Outside the glass door were twelve seats, two rows of six. Our tickets were for the front row of the suite on the end. The Ford center has a reputation for having small seats and to be honest I was worried about my butt fitting into them, but the seats ended up being okay.
After picking up a $3.50 hot dog and a $3 20oz Pepsi, I proceeded to watch our 2-5 Hornets defeat the 0-8 Atlanta Hawks. At halftime the Hornets were up 26 points, but the Hawks rallied late in the third on into the fourth. In the last two minutes of the game, the Hawks were within 2 to 3 points the entire time. It was definitely a nail-biter for sure!!
Never having attended an NBA game before, I was surprised at just how much stuff happens off screen. During every timeout, quarter change and of course halftime, there were big activities going on. A martial arts weapons team performed between the first and second quarters.Cheerleaders did different dances. Hugo (the Hornet’s mascot) kept the crowd entertained by doing several different antics. He shot t-shirts up into the crowd with an air cannon, stole bagged peanuts from a vendor and threw them into the crowd, and in general kept all of us entertained. The camera men were constantly showing the crowd on the big screens above the arena, having different contests like a kissing contest, a disco dance-off, and so-on. Quite entertaining!
I don’t know what it will take to convince Oklahoma City that bringing a major sports franchise here is a good idea, but attendance at last night’s non-televised game against the 0-8 Atlanta Hawks was 17,500 (the Ford center only holds 19,000).
