FWIW ...

I picked up my 2 free tickets a little bit ago to the preseason game this evening (Sunday October 23) (and, thanks again, OkcTalk! ... I guess that I can no longer say, "I never win anything."). Whether it's significant, or not, and/or just a matter of printing space, the text on the tickets reads,


NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

OKLAHOMA CITY HORNETS

vs

DENVER NUGGETS

Ford Center

Sun, October 23, 2005 6:00 PM

"New Orleans" is nowhere to be found on the tickets ... again, FWIW. I've tried to make the relative "size" of the text consistent with what is to be found on the tickets.

I'm taking my camera and will post a few images sometime tomorrow (I hope ... with my recent hard disk malfunction, reformatting, etc., I've lost the password to my website's FTP host and I have no idea what it may be ... but I expect that will be taken care of tomorrow ... and when it is, I'll post the pics).

Now, I've got to get ready to go ... gotta get there early so I can buy some Hornets gear, don't you know? :tweeted:

Well, I've just returned from the game, had a toddy with my buddy who went with me, and here's my preliminary report.

IT WAS GREAT!!!

Pretty full, but not toally full, house, very enthusiastic, lots of fun and entertainment ... and oh, yeah, there was a basketball game. Frankly, in the 1st half, the Hornets didn't play well at all ... got down by 26 points, as I recall. In the the 2nd half, they bounced back, the crowd really got into it, got as close as 3 points, people were yelling their voice boxes out, and we had a chance to tie at the end but the 3 pointer with about half a second to go missed, and we fouled. They made a final free throw and we lost by 4 points. The Hornets should have left that game with their heads held high. I can't imagine that anyone attending would say they didn't have a great evening. Oh, I forgot, the Honey Bees were not too shabby eye candy, too! Lots of other crowd interaction things occured during the game ... and I got me a cool Hornets ball cap, and I'm good to go again as soon as I can!

What a fine, fine evening! A person could really get hooked on this ... and maybe I already am. :kicking:

I'll post some pics as soon as I get squared away with my website server, hopefully tomorrow.

Thanks Doug~

I'm so excited! I get to go next week and can't wait...

Yes it was an exciting game, actually we were as close as 2 at one point and I think down by 1. It was definetely a nice experience. I wish more would of showed up though. The count was 14,600 something. The halftime dance by the inflatable hornet robot thing was insane. I had never seen anything close to that! Doug did you catch it?

Yes it was an exciting game, actually we were as close as 2 at one point and I think down by 1. It was definetely a nice experience. I wish more would of showed up though. The count was 14,600 something. The halftime dance by the inflatable hornet robot thing was insane. I had never seen anything close to that! Doug did you catch it?

The inflatable Hugo was pretty funny. I was a little disappointed in the size of the crowd but the place definitely started rocking once the Hornets started their comeback. It felt like a regular season game in the 4th quarter with both teams really trying to pull out the victory.

Oh yeah, I hate to bring this up, but how about the trumpet player playing the National Anthem? Man, I felt for that guy! Pretty embarrassing stuff.

I didn't catch that, I missed the whole first quarter, bought $150 dollar seats off a scalper for $13 bucks each though. I guess that was worth missing a few minutes.

Yes it was an exciting game, actually we were as close as 2 at one point and I think down by 1. It was definetely a nice experience. I wish more would of showed up though. The count was 14,600 something. The halftime dance by the inflatable hornet robot thing was insane. I had never seen anything close to that! Doug did you catch it?
Metro, sad to say, half-time was my smoking break! What happened?

I think I've got my ftp problems solved now, and, if so, here are some pics:

Pledge of Allegiance
http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.pledge.jpg
Game About To begin, with spotlight on the team
http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.startgame.jpg
We score (or are about to ... I was trying to get the 1st score)
http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.wescore.jpg
Crowd intereaction: Musical Chairs
http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.musicalchairs.jpg
Crowd interaction: KissCam (it was a hoot)
http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.kisscam.jpg
Oy! The Honeybees!
http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.honeybees1.jpg
More Honey!
http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.honeybees2.jpg
Hugo (in the middle)
http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.hugo1.jpg
Hugo again
http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.hugo2.jpg

There is no need to be disappointed in the attendance last night. Preseason NBA games usually draw extremely small crowds. Drawing 14,500 is an awesome turnout as far as the NBA and the Hornets are concerned. Really....that many butts in seats for a scrimmage is incredible. The Hornets first preseason game, which just happened to be against the Nuggets was played in Denver at the Pepsi center and drew 9,571 fans.

Keep in mind that the Cleveland Cavs only sold out 18 games last year in spite of Lebron. Also, Gund arena (the cavs home arena) has about the same seating capacity as the Ford Center.

What happened to the Trumpet Player??

I don't know what he did but in my opinion, nothing could be more embarassing than the poor elder bagpipe player falling down the stairs in a skirt at the OKC Memorial 10 year Anniversary..

Doug, I can't believe you missed the inflatable Hugo. It was insane, I thought my eyes were tripping. That was the coolest and weirdest act I have ever seen! All I can say is that it was hard to describe, hopefully he'll do it again during another halftime.

I didn't see it posted above, but per The Oklahoman today, we were 250 fans over the season average from last year.

Not too shabby for a virtually meaningless game.

November 1 will be magical.

What happened to the Trumpet Player??

I don't know what he did but in my opinion, nothing could be more embarassing than the poor elder bagpipe player falling down the stairs in a skirt at the OKC Memorial 10 year Anniversary..

He was just really nervous, I guess. He had to stop a couple of times completely and couldn't hit the right notes once he attempted to start again. Not sure if any of you have seen the clip of the little girl in Portland a couple of years ago that completely forgot the words, but it was akin to that. Unfortunately, it's harder to help out a trumpet player.

The Hornets' brand of run-and-gun basketball will be exciting. So good to hear this crowd really got into it. I think we can make a difference in the Hornets' record just by "yelling our voice boxes out". Thanks for the pictures, Doug.

Poor guy - probably so nervous in front of all those people!

I can't wait for Opening Night!

I wonder how the game will be on the 27th? I'm taking the kids to that one -- should be fun for them (and of course, we'll be yelling our heads off!)

Even if the Hornets go back, this proves without a doubt that OK can and will and should support a pro team - if it keeps up like this, we will probably at the very least get great national recognition/coverage and hopefully soon, a team of our own.

Pre-Season that loud was great bring on the regular season. I am sure somebody will post Mr. Shinn's remarks about returning to New Orleans, what's he supposed to say, N.O. is the Home of most of his back office do you destroy office morale by saying we are never going back to N.O. following the first Pre-Season game. That would be ridiculous.

Doug, I can't believe you missed the inflatable Hugo. It was insane, I thought my eyes were tripping. That was the coolest and weirdest act I have ever seen! All I can say is that it was hard to describe, hopefully he'll do it again during another halftime.

While I didn't see the inflatable Hugo during halftime, I did see him in a break during the 1st half ... at least, I think that's when it was. After performing, he ventured into the crowd, as shown below. What I saw was, like you said, something that would be hard to describe ... flips, head getting sucked in, etc. I wonder how that was done???

http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/hornets.hugo3.jpg

Carrie, as for the trumpeter, I think that he was just nervous ... and the crowd gave him a polite round of applause. Like has been said, I think that mainly people felt embarrassed for him, in a good way. He missed a lot of notes, had to start over on a couple of occasions ...