..I'd be interested in hearing your post-game impressions of the product.
The game was fine, and my 17 year old son was thrilled by the whole experience, and his friend seemed to have a good time, too. Thinking on it, a few things come to mind:
Pros:
The game was fast paced, and there was something happening during all the breaks to keep the crowd's attention.
Pro basketball players are extremely talented. During warm-ups when shooting 3-pointers, they hardly miss any!
We saw Dominique Wilkins at the game.
At halftime, there was a guy who was competing for $10K if he could make a shot from half-court. He only had one shot and HE MADE IT! Good on him!! <IRS enters chat>
The crowd was well behaved. I didn't see any idiots doing idiot things.
The Hawks won 109-92! Dejounte Murray, who was playing in Trae Young's spot (injury), was one rebound away from a triple-double.
Traffic wasn't Atlanta bad.
I overpaid and pre-paid for parking before the game, so parking was easy and we were very close to the entrance.
Cons:
Some starting players from both teams were out last night with sickness or injury and one of Orlando's star players got hurt early and had to leave the game.
They play music during the entire game. I would think that would be distracting to the players but they didn't seem fazed.
As expected, all food and drink inside the stadium was very expensive. We ate 30 minutes before we got to the stadium and I told the boys they were on their own if they wanted food/drink once we were inside. They paid for their own snacks/drinks.
I've been to Atlanta a lot over the years but I don't know the area around the stadium at all. I hate driving in areas I'm unfamiliar with, but that's what Waze is for. Waze preferred that we take the scenic route out of town, which added a few minutes to the drive.
So much homelessness around the stadium. It hurts my heart for lots of reasons. Some I can relate to and many I can't.
All in all, we had a great time and may do it again next season, we'll see.