Hoops

Planning a US trip for NBA - advice needed

Heh...

Yeah, my interest was to go to the all star game, but based on some people's advice it may not be the best option - and yes, the only reason I would go to Dallas is for the all star game so it's still possible I'd skip it in favour of touring a few cities and catching a few random games.

Cool...

Yeah, being as I'll be having to take annual leave I'll probably only have about 2 weeks all up, so flying to LA will probably be the best bet. I'm not too knowledgeable on US Geography but I was thinking domestic flights to Chicago, Boston, NY and then back to LA for the trip home may be decent...

It is extremely expensive to go to see a Laker game. I went over the new year in 07/08 to Staples Center and paid about 500 USD for my ticket. Mind you, that was centre court, 2 rows from courtside.

Other tickets were also in the 200-300USD price range for a game at the Staples Center.

A friend of mine recently went to Boston and saw a Celtics game, very pricey. I'd imagine that the Garden would be the same as well.

As for the All Star Weekend, that's extremely difficult to get tickets for. You'll have to pay mega dollars to get tickets for that, as hardly any ever get sold to the general public through Ticketmaster.

As for Dallas, I wouldn't even bother staying in Dallas for a week. I'd fly from Melbourne to Frisco and stay there for a few days, then fly to Dallas a day or so before the All Star weekend.

Getting tickets ain't easy. Your best bet is to get them through a broker. It'll cost a bit more than face value, but you get much better seats.

Thanks guys.

All Star weekend is the plan but yeah, I'd like to go to a couple of other cities, see the sights and see some games. It's possible I may skip the ASG, because really all I want to see is some NBA and logistically it'd probably be harder to wrangle ASG tickets.

Is there any particular reason I'd have to land in LA? do flights from Australia only service LA? if that's the case, LA -> Boston -> NYC may be a plan, catch a game in each city...

Hi everyone just an idea.

Some times it can become frustrating in regards to having volunteers to man the score bench for junior and senior games.

Especially when your involved in the senior grades where parents aren't as involved as they were in junior basketball programs.

If BASSA were to set up for each club, paid officials to attend games to run the score becnch for that day or night session.

If not BASSA then the individual basketball clubs.

Firstly that would take the pressure of parents.

Girl friends boy friends or just feinds of senior players would come to games more, that are a bit apprehensive because of been asked to sit on the score bench.

Team managers and coaches would not have to worry about finding someone to do it.

Coaches would not worry about been penalised for not having score bench people.

More spectaors would come, they don't have to worry about, is it my turn. And they can relax and watch all games.

The more people that come the more revenue for clubs and BASSA.

How? Every player has to pay player game fees to play.

Lets say every team has an average of 8 players, they pay approx $8.

If you were to ad $1.50 to that fee. That's $12 from each team.

As a spectator if you were to ad only 50¢. Average two people per player. That's $8 a team Total $20 per game.

If there are 5 games on a Friday night on 1 court. Most clubs run 2 courts and some 3.

1 court 5 games $100.
There are games run over 6 days a week between juniors and seniors.

Dare I say one could become a profesional bench offical not just for ABA games but all.

And would that not create a qualified pool of trained officals for all State, and National and International bodies to access and train for the higher level of professional games.

Basketball in general would benefit from implementing score bench officals for all disrict games senior and junior.

As a parent or spectaor it would not worry me having to an extra $2
to have scorebech people officiating the games.

I've been all three, parent coach and team manger and it is a bit of a pain and hassel at times.

What do you think?

Regards
penn4