Tomorrow Wednesday evening will be played the game of the year in the United Kingdom: the Everton Tigers will be the hosts for the local rivals of the Big Storage Cheshire Jets.
What’s so game of the year in a matchup of the 9th of the British Basketball League versus the 6th placed? Well, just read this excerpt from an article I found today in the Liverpool Echo online Edition.
Nearly 7,000 tickets have already been sold for the derby clash, ensuring it will be the biggest attendance for a British basketball game this season.
It will be the first time the Tigers have played at the Arena and the match is being televised live to a global audience on Setanta Sports.
It’s a far cry from their usual surroundings in front of crowds of up to 600 at Greenbank Academy, and Mooney knows it’s a great opportunity for his side to showcase their talents to a far greater audience.
Yes, this game between two mid-level teams of one of the poorest professional leagues in Europe will attract more than 7000 basketball fanatics to the highly spectacular Echo Arena in Liverpool. But how is it possible to have more than 7000 people at British basketball game without NBA teams? Here is the explication.
Tickets priced at just £2 for adults and £1 for under-16s have helped to ensure the crowd will be close to the 7,500 capacity.
And is this financially a good deal for the team? Well you may know that such an arena is costing some money to be rented. But here, going for a break-even should be possible.
This is an experiment and the club have been able to get the Arena at a reasonable rate. It’s costing around £8,000 to put the game on and the hope is to break even.
There’s a lot of interest in basketball in Merseyside and it’s a great opportunity for people to have a look at the new Arena at a low price.
If the event is a success then the Tigers plan to hold more games at the Echo Arena next season.
So having 7500 sold tickets at between 1 and 2 GBP would give the team a nice opportunity to do some promotion for themselves and for basketball in Great Britain in general as the game will be televised on National Sports Channel Setanta.
But the best thing in the article is the end. In fact, you can find there a "Beginners’ guide to basketball" explaining the rules of the game. With the little error that the basket is 3m above the ground, the rules are explained very easily and should be understood by everybody (maybe this article should be handed out to every fan, not only in Great Britain, before any basketball game). Finally, the description of every position on the court is really fantastic. So here it is.
1) Point guard: usually the fastest player, he organises the team’s offence by controlling the ball and making sure that it gets to the right player at the right time.
2) Shooting guard: attempts a lot of offensive shots and guards the opponents’ best perimeter player on defence.
3) Small forward: primarily responsible for scoring points via dribbling to the basket, while on defence seeks rebounds and steals.
4) Power forward: the team’s strongest rebounder, plays offensively often with his back to the basket, while on defence plays under the basket or against the opposing power forward.
5) Centre: plays nearest the basket at both ends of the court. Uses his size to score on offence, while he protects the basket closely on defence.
Good work by the Liverpool Echo. I wish good luck to the organizers and if any of our readers attends the event, I would be happy to get some impressions of the game.
