Saturday, August 28, 2010

Seattle-LA pre-game notes

Nice piece on how Tina Thompson has been getting it done for the WNBA for 14 years by.....the Seattle Times reporter. But this is no surprise, actually, as the LA Times sucks.

So does the Staples Center, apparently. Season ticket holders got this notice last night:

The jumbotron at STAPLES Center will not be operational during Saturday's game and throughout the playoffs. During our post-season run, there will be two temporary video boards and one score board. Please read below for an official statement from STAPLES Center.

"A full schedule of safety testing, maintenance procedures and capital improvements take place each summer at STAPLES Center. Due to timing issues, the replacement of the center-hung scoreboard and video display had to begin this week. STAPLES Center has provided the temporary screens for our fans."


Bite my ___ . They wouldn't do that to the Fakers.

Oh, and because of the Emmy Awards, the street in front of Staples will be closed. No biggie!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's say you're management of Staples and you need to recondition the video tower. When would you do it? During events that have the lowest attending crowds? The Sparks last home game is today. I'll bet my life savings on it. They don't even deserve to be in the playoffs. Teams in the Eastern Conference had better records and were more deserving.

Sue Favor said...

How you'd like reality to be doesn't change the actual state of reality, Anonymous. And the Sparks did make the playoffs. I've found it best to simply deal with reality, myself.

If I were management of Staples Center, I'd wait until the one thing that was scheduled at the venue that would actually require the Jumbotron to be over before trying to renovate it:

http://www.staplescenter.com/

and:

http://www.staplescenter.com/wide.php?page=events

Then I'd see from looking at the schedule that I have a whole week to fix it, and then another five days between events after that if I needed to do more fixing.

But I'm a logical person, and usually such people don't get put in charge.

Anonymous said...

official attendance: 8326. wow! that is not very good draw for a win or go home game, especially against the storm. wonder how much the traffic and road blocks affected that number.

scullyfu

Sue Favor said...

No, it was not a good draw. There's no way in hell there were 8000 people there yesterday, as the place was gapingly empty. I don't understand it either, because traffic was fine and the street closure out front was a minimal distraction. Way more people showed up for their last two regular season games a couple weeks ago than for the playoff game. But as I've said before, I don't understand LA fans at all.

Anonymous said...

a storm fan who lives in the l.a. area and has been in staples numerous times over the years attended the game and reported the funny, amazing and oh-so-sad story of how there were so few fans at the game that they were piping in fake screaming over the loud speakers. wow!!!

scullyfu

Sue Favor said...

I've never heard them do that, and frankly, I find that hard to believe. But the crowd issue is an issue.

I said this last year and I'll say it again: have the games at USC's Galen Center just down the street. It's a smaller arena and would creat a more intimate atmosphere where a more Key Arena-like vibe could be had, instead of the gaping cavernous effect of Staples Center.

Anonymous said...

well, maybe that was just hyperbole on her part; i give more credence to your experience anyway.

so do you have an estimate of the actual attendance number?

scullyfu

Sue Favor said...

I'd say about 5,500 people there.