Adelaide 36ers boss thrilled with opening night at the Entertainment Centre despite 100-91 loss to Melbourne United
Adelaide 36ers chief executive Ben Kavenagh says the 6300-strong crowd that turned out for the club’s pre-season opener at its new home, the Entertainment Centre, was beyond his “wildest estimations”. See photos from the night here.
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Adelaide 36ers boss Ben Kavenagh says the success of Friday night’s opening pre-season game at the Entertainment Centre exceeded the club’s “wildest estimations”.
A crowd of 6366 turned out to the Sixers’ house-warming at its new venue which was a test run for the first official game there against Brisbane on October 19.
Melbourne United crashed the party with a 100-91 win but Kavenagh said it took none of the gloss off the historic night for the club.
“Talking to the NBL, the best pre-season crowd across the league this year was about 1500 people. We were hopeful the inquisitive nature would have driven that up, but to get to 6300 for a pre-season game is beyond our wildest estimations,” he said.
“We’re ecstatic, the member feedback during and after the game is they are really excited about the offering here.
“The accessibility of the venue - it was amazing to see people flood off the trams because we’ve never had that before - as well as the hospitality and facilities.
“Now we’ve got 6300 people who have seen the (giant screen) cube and the experience, and our data tells us a lot of those are new people to the team or to basketball.
“As a practice match it still wasn’t a full-scale production, there are lots of things at our first game (on October 19) that will be in addition to what they saw on Friday night.”
Membership is 10 per cent up on last year’s total and on Friday night corporates and sponsors were housed in the new split level ‘Prancing Pony Deck’ behind one end of the court which is believed to a league first.
“We now have a range of corporate offerings that we didn’t have before and one of those is the casual corporate arrangement, close to the court with food and beverages, people can mingle and network and watch the game, and I’m really confident that will go gangbusters,” Kavenagh said.
The Sixers trailed by only two points at quarter-time but were stunted in the second as United flexed its muscles and showed why it is a genuine championship contender.
Adelaide finished with six players in double figure scoring led by import Eric Griffin (16 points, six rebounds), Harry Froling (13), Deshon Taylor (12), Daniel Johnson and Jack McVeigh (both 11).
McVeigh caught fire in the last quarter and helped cut the margin from 24 points to 10 with three quick-fire three-pointers.
Coach Joey Wright said .he was pleased with the way his team fought back late.
“I like the fact that we continued to play hard, we didn’t make shots tonight and we didn’t take care of the basketball,” Wright said.
“That happens on some nights and they knock some shots down. We had enough open shots regardless of what we were running.
“But we had 19 turnovers which is too many against a good team.
“We stayed true to our character and our values, but they’re (Melbourne) a good ball club, they’re real good.”
The Sixers fly to Utah on Monday to play NBA team the Jazz next weekend.