There has been a sense of excitement building for some time among Perth basketball fans with the imminent opening of the Wildcats new home, Perth Arena.
All of us who have watched it grow in the site of the Wildcats’ original fortress, the Perth Entertainment Centre, have waited with an anticipation born of the opportunity to relive the glory days of Western Australian basketball.
As a kid, I was fanatical about the sport, playing every weekend and every spare minute at school. My enthusiasm more than made up or my astounding lack of skill.
This was during the golden age of the NBL, when every game was broadcast on television and the Entertainment Centre was regularly filled with unashamedly biased Wildcats fans cheering for the likes of James Crawford, Mike Ellis and Ricky Grace.
The atmosphere of those games is something I remember to this day and it still fills me with an excitement that is palpable.
I will be the first to admit that much of this is probably due to nostalgia. The Entertainment Centre was a notorious for having sub-standard sound and facilities to be classed as a modern arena, the news of its demise being met with mostly positive reactions in Perth.
Talk to anybody that attended those Wildcats games, however, and this is largely forgotten. They will tell you that those games, in retrospect or not, had certainly had something special about them.
Good times.
So with the opening of Perth Arena, a venue with a larger capacity than the old Entertainment Centre, and the promise of a truly world class stadium, are those glory days here again?
Can basketball in Perth return, if not to the top of the tree, then at least to one of the upper branches?
The Wildcats, both the team and administration, will be hoping for such an outcome.
The organisation’s drive for members, dubbed project 10K, has worked well, with nearly eight thousand signed up at last count. There is certainly no shortage of advertising, with every relevant print, web, multimedia opportunity taken to spruik the new found aura of excitement around the club’s move to Perth Stadium.
The “Back to the City” slogan seen strategically placed on billboards around Perth has tapped into the aforementioned nostalgia and has no doubt had an effect on the membership numbers, but there are more advantages to present to potential attendees of home games.
There is, of course, the purely practical nature of having a stadium virtually connected to the train and bus lines in and out of Perth.
Many basketball fans that would have otherwise stayed with the team after the move to the hardly central Challenge Stadium, simply found the Wildcats post-Entertainment Centre home too far to travel.
The ease by which you can now attend a Wildcats home game will surely keep many fans interested even after the initial excitement and hoopla dies down.
I must admit, I was excited when my wife and I strolled up Roe street and over the bridge to the Perth Arena.
We had enjoyed dinner and drinks in Northbridge, another plus from the central location certain to draw people in.
The fact that my wife, usually opposed to sport of any kind, felt motivation enough to attend the occasion is testament to how successful the Wildcats marketing team has been.
The key to attracting, and more importantly keeping, new fans to consistently fill the twelve-thousand seat arena is to create a level of interest that appeals to a wide demographic of people.
Those who have no history with basketball may have been lured by the occasion, but it would be up to both Wildcats organisation the administrators at Perth Arena to then present them with enough comfort and entertainment to make them come back.
In the end, I think they did a pretty good job.
We arrived just before tip off, the largely red-clothed crowd outside the arena buzzing with excitement. Entry was easy, my tickets pre-purchased and scanned quickly by the attendant.
The interior of the stadium is impressive, although as yet seems unfinished.
Signage is well placed and easy to follow, and the positioning of the ample food and drink outlets made it easy to navigate without getting lost.
It was when I walked through the doors into the main arena, however, that I was really impressed. The design and layout are very good, the court the immediate view as soon as you come through the doors.
The scoreboard and seating angle make it very similar to an NBAtype stadium, albeit with a lower capacity. Our seats were some of the cheapest, and high in the corner of the court. We could see everything really clearly, however, and we were close to the action.
The occasion befitted a rousing atmosphere and the crowd obliged. It seemed the fans were happy with the move back to the city, the noise constant throughout.
We did overhear a few niggles, some guys behind us putting forward the position that stats, instead of live action, would be better displayed on the scoreboard. It was also pretty warm in there, the supposedly air conditioned seating not having much effect if it indeed had been working.
There was a lengthy delay once the game had finished. Anyone trying to leave had to wait while those in front were funnelled out the single front exit. Hopefully this is again due to the Arena not being quite finished yet and will not become a regular feature.
The Wildcats themselves couldn’t rise to the occasion, the 36ers taking them down 69-65. This did deflate the atmosphere somewhat, but the organisers of the Perth Wildcats first home game at Perth Arena can nevertheless call it a success.
The new stadium may very live up to its hype as the best place to play in the country. The Wildcats will certainly hope that it contributes to a turn around in fortune, the loss to Adelaide their third in a row and a tough assignment next up against the defending champions in the New Zealand Breakers.
Perth are 3/3 and are in danger of slipping away from the top teams with another loss. It is nowhere near crisis point, but coach Rob Beveridge will no doubt be worried about his team’s recent form.
I’ll be going to the game on Thursday night having seen enough already to expect I will continue to go and enjoy the experience at every opportunity.
Let’s just hope the Wildcats can fulfil their part of the bargain, bring home a win, and begin anew the glory days of WA basketball.
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