| Opening Night From A Fans Point Of View Authored by Danny Thompson - November 8, 2005 - 9:31 pm
After 27 long months of waiting and anticipation, the Charlotte Bobcats opened up their brand new $265 million dollar uptown arena on Saturday night with a 107-105 overtime victory over the Boston Celtics. The game opened up like a Hollywood premiere with Grammy Award winning Gospel artist Yolanda Adams singing the national anthem, the players having a chance to have a bit of fun during pre-game introductions by coming out individually and having a nice bit of celebrities in a attendance.
A sellout crowd announced at 19,028 gave the brand new Charlotte Bobcats arena, a playoff feel three games into season number two for Charlotte’s new NBA team. Some noticeable in the crowd included owner Bob Johnson, musicians Nelly and Ashanti (who by the way looked really good sitting next to each other courtside), golfer Fred Couples, commissioner David Stern, actor Will Ferrell, and North Carolina Head Basketball coach Roy Williams (who got a loud ovation when he was shown on the big screen on the kiss cam kissing his wife Wanda midway through the third quarter).
For those who weren’t in attendance last night or didn’t go to the open house two weeks ago in Charlotte, Charlotte Bobcats Arena is something special to look at. On the outside, outside of the huge flat screen that helps gets fans ready for what there going to experience on the inside. Unlike its big brother Bank of America Stadium that is about 6 blocks away, there isn’t a huge statue of note or anything that makes it feel like a Bobcat home arena. The architecture isn’t anything that fancy but it makes a perfect fit in downtown Charlotte. Parking wasn’t a problem for many people that went inside but on a game night I’m going to be pretty interested in how people are going to get in and out of an area that has its parking so far spread out through out downtown Charlotte. But the plus of the whole thing is that for those who don’t want to pay for parking
The inside of this building is something that not too many arenas have to offer. Each of the seats has great site lines from the closest seat on the floor to the seats at top of the building. A state of the art scoreboard that has a beautiful picture of downtown Charlotte on each side and a huge video screen that makes watching Basketball a joy to watch. From my seats in the upper level, the sight lines weren’t bad for watching. But my only complaint is the prices of food, but that’s another story for another day.
But for one night in Charlotte, the eyes of the NBA were watching the city of Charlotte and for one night the city of Charlotte was ready for the spotlight.
If you have any comments or question for me leave me an email at QCBigCat21@aol.com |
