With the college basketball season winding down, I wanted to get a few more venues in. I found a trip to Atlanta where I could add three new college gyms plus a G League game over three nights, but the delay in returning from Dublin pushed that back by a day, so I missed West Georgia. I flew to Atlanta Thursday afternoon and stayed in College Park by the airport. This suburb is also the location of the Gateway Center Arena, home of the College Park Skyhawks of the NBA G League and they had a game on Thursday night.
The arena is nicknamed 'The Runway' because it is right next to Hartsfield-Jackson and easily accessible using the free Skytrain (not MARTA). Just get off at the Gateway Center stop and walk around the back of the convention center to reach the main entrance, where you will find the box office. General admission tickets are $12 but hard stubs are not printed. They aren't trying to save paper though, because inside at the Guest Services desk, you can pick up a 16-page collection of game notes, by far the best I have seen outside of a Big 4 press box. Get there early and read up on both teams to appreciate the game even more.
Inside the main entrance are a couple of concession stands and as this was a throwback game, hot dogs, popcorn, and water were just a buck. Beer and wine are available, though throwback prices were not applied here unfortunately. The promotion was sponsored by Goodwill, and there were racks of vintage clothing also on display, something I had never seen before at a game.
The seating bowl is in a horseshoe shape, with a private party area at the far end (below). The first three rows in each section are reserved and after that, it's general admission. Why would you pay extra for a reserved seat to be just three rows closer? I don't know. As well, there are table seats at court level for four but those were not available on TicketMaster. They were mostly empty, so I guess they are reserved for groups. Meanwhile, there are two videoboards at opposite corners and they include team stats which are a huge help to following the game.
The arena opened in 2019 and holds 3,500 for basketball. The Skyhawks moved here from Erie that season, while the WNBA's Dream began playing here in 2021 after leaving State Farm Arena, making this the smallest arena in that league. Interestingly, attendance for Dream games has not suffered significantly and from an atmosphere point of view, it's probably better to have this place nearly full rather than having 4,000 fans in a cavernous and mostly empty arena downtown. Even their two playoff games against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever were held here, selling out at 3,800 both times, presumably adding 300 SRO tickets. To compare with the G League, there were 3,285 on hand for this game, which officially made it a sellout. As you can see from the photos, there were a lot of no-shows, perhaps because it was a rainy evening.
The Skyhawks mascot is Colli Hawk, who made his way around the seating bowl a few times. The entertainment team is the CP Southside Crew as the arena is in the south side of the city, a point which was made several times throughout the evening. One particularly annoying feature was having the P.A. announcer scream "Which Way?!" every time an out-of-bounds play resulted in the Skyhawks having the ball and then playing a clip of a song with the lyrics "That Way".
Other than that however, I found Gateway Center Arena to be a cool venue in a great location, especially for airport travelers. The G League is still the best basketball value out there and for $12, you won't get more entertainment than this.
The Game
The Skyhawks were 7-18 and are suffering through their worst campaign since moving here, while the visitors were none other than Raptors 905, who were 15-8. The two had played on Tuesday night, with College Park prevailing 132-129. I sat directly behind the Raptors bench cheering them on; this would be the second time to see them on the road after they lost in Delaware back in 2016. One thing to note is that the G League has a different foul shooting rule: for the first 46 minutes of the game, players get one shot for the full points. So a hoop-and-harm is one freebie for one point, a typical shooting foul inside the arc is one shot for two points, while a three-point foul is one shot for three points. This is supposed to speed up the game, but there were several official reviews that slowed it down just as much.
Defense is optional in the G League and the first half saw the teams racing back and forth at a ridiculous pace, shooting almost at will but neither team could dominate as the quarter ended 28-28. There were few set plays with the shot clock rarely going under 10 seconds.
The second quarter saw the Raptors score the first 11 points, but College Park came back as you would expect and trailed by a pair, 53-51, at halftime. Amazingly, the Raptors did not get a single offensive rebound in the first half.
The second quarter saw the Raptors score the first 11 points, but College Park came back as you would expect and trailed by a pair, 53-51, at halftime. Amazingly, the Raptors did not get a single offensive rebound in the first half.
The third quarter saw several ties, but the Skyhawks went on a mini 13-6 run and had an 84-79 lead entering the final frame. The Raptors managed three offensive rebounds in the quarter but still had no second-chance points.
In the fourth, it became clear that the pace of the game had taken its toll as the players were visibly tired, which meant fouls. And more fouls. Much of the period was spent watching plays like the one below. There were 24 fouls in the 12 minutes, which made what should have been an exciting endgame rather dull. The period lasted 45 minutes, more than double the 22 minutes of the first quarter. Fortunately, the Raptors went on a 20-4 run midway through as the Skyhawks committed five turnovers and missed five shots plus three free throws (worth six points) over six-plus minutes.
Of course, the 905 couldn't make it easy. They were up 112-107 with 16 seconds left when the Skyhawks scored two, and then the Raptors lost the ball on the inbounds pass and that was immediately converted for another pair. Suddenly it was 112-111 with 12 ticks to go. The Raptors did not screw up the ensuing inbounds and AJ Hoggard was fouled. As it was the last two minutes, he had two free throws and made both, giving the Skyhawks a chance to tie. Thankfully, RayJ Dennis saw his three-point attempt bounce off the rim and another foul allowed Tyson Degenhart to add a pair of freebies to make the final 116-111. The 905 won despite only three offensive boards and not a single second-chance point.
Yay, a rare Toronto victory on the road! Although the Raptors 905 actually play in Mississauga (905 refers to the area code). Should I count this in my Toronto on the Road quest? Dennis led all scorers with 31 points, while a balanced Raptor attack was paced by Tyreke Key with 20.
Notes
I had seen a couple of these players at college and remembered them from their somewhat humourous names: Degenhart at Boise State last year, and College Park's Basheer Jihad at Ball State the year before.
Best,
Sean
No comments:
Post a Comment