Hornets fans can finally watch LaMelo Ball in person. Spectrum Center opening to fans
Charlotte Hornets fans will finally get to see LaMelo Ball play live at Spectrum Center starting March 13 against the Toronto Raptors.
The Hornets got permission Tuesday from the state and Mecklenburg County to host roughly 3,000 fans — 15% of Spectrum Center’s seating capacity — for the remaining 19 regular-season home games. Season-ticket holders will get first dibs on seats, then single-game tickets will go on sale to the general public Friday starting at 10 a.m.
The Hornets will become the 16th of 30 NBA teams with at least some fans at home games. It’s been tough on the Hornets not to fully market Ball, the front-runner for NBA Rookie of the Year, and a team in playoff contention at 16-18.
But months of lead time has Hornets officials confident they can provide both a safe and fun atmosphere the rest of the season.
“Our goal is going to be to over-communicate,” Spectrum Center general manager Donna Julian told the Observer.
“We’re going to communicate before you get there, we’re going to communicate as you’re coming into the building, and clearly as you’re in the building, to make sure we can anticipate the questions that you have.”
The fan experience will be very different from last season: You will be encouraged to arrive earlier, and there will be staggered entry and exit from the building. Ticketing and concessions will be touch-less. There might not initially be entry to the team shop during games.
Face masks, social-distancing and health screening will all be enforced as requirements for admission.
The Hornets will go a year and six days between fans at a home game, dating back to a March 6 matchup with the Houston Rockets. Team president Fred Whitfield says that was an opportunity to maximize planning. The team hired two companies with expertise in sanitation and cleaning to certify the building and procedures were ready.
“I can’t tell you how connected we are as an organization,” said Whitfield, who served on state committees the past year regarding mass events and the pandemic. “How prepared we are.”
The first ticketed event is the Raptors game. The March 11 home game against the Detroit Pistons will host 500 health-care workers with marketing partner Novant Health, as a thank-you for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lost revenue, chance to market LaMelo Ball
Fans have been limited to watching games on television, and many don’t have access to the Hornets’ TV partner, Fox Sports Southeast, due to a carriage impasse between its parent company, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and some providers.
The Hornets have obviously lost millions in potential revenue at a time of heightened interest in the team and rookie Ball. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in the fall that arena revenue — tickets, concessions, premium amenities, and parking — represents about 40% of what the league generates annually.
“It’s a huge priority to get fans back into our arenas,” Silver said at the season’s outset, when six teams had local government permission to admit between 1,500 and 4,000 fans each.
Beyond the lost revenue and marketing bump, it’s simply been weird for Hornets players and coaches to play in an empty Spectrum Center. The lack of atmosphere at home feels all the more pronounced when the Hornets play on the road in arenas that admit fans.
“If there are 3,000 in the stands, it feels different,” coach James Borrego said Monday. “It’s not your normal NBA game, but just having some fans instead of just a dead arena does feel different.
“I think my (players) would agree that having some fans in the arena is important. They love playing in front of fans; it’s a different vibe, a different energy. I’m thrilled to get it back.”
Season-ticket holders first
Whitfield appreciates that interest in attending an indoor event might vary widely from fan to fan. Some will jump at the chance to see Ball and the Hornets live after such a long break between opportunities. Others will shy away from being inside with strangers, even with social-distancing and mask-wearing.
So it’s hard to predict the demand for 3,000 tickets per home game.
Whitfield said the team’s core customers — season-ticket holders, partial-season plans and group sales — will get first priority in ticket access. That figures to eat up seats for popular opponents like the Los Angeles Lakers (April 13), the Boston Celtics (April 25) and the Milwaukee Bucks (April 27).
“We’ll go to our season-ticket holders first — our members who have been loyal to us the whole time,” Whitfield said.
Whitfield believes there will still be a chance for anyone to sample the Hornets experience the rest of this season, with the limited seating capacity.
“Even as exciting as we think our product is, there is still going to be a supply-and-demand” dynamic, depending on opponent and night of the week, Whitfield said. “A Monday night, a Tuesday night, depending on the opponent — there’s probably going to be some inventory still there.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 12:00 AM.
