Nov. 14, 2007
Back to School at the Verizon Center
Over the past week or so, I heard many Hoya fans liken Saturday's home opener to Christmas Day. I can certainly relate, having counted the days until the 2007-2008 basketball season practically since I left the Final Four in Atlanta. For that matter, I'd take Roy Hibbert over an X-Box any X-Mas Day.
For me though, the first day of the season felt more like the first day of my senior year of High School. Everyone gets reacquainted with their old friends (I'm back with the Section 118 crew), the latest summertime gossip makes its way across the grapevine (anybody think Chris Wright can play major minutes?), and without fail the promise is made--this is the year we go all out (i.e. make plane reservations to San Antonio).
Even if you're back in your old stomping grounds though, there is always something different when you return from summer vacation--a new teacher, an exchange student, the flooded theater (this actually happened to my High School one year).
As over 11,000 Hoya fans went "back to school" on Saturday, they found quite a few changes in their old stomping grounds on 7th and F. Here are just a few of the new sights at the Verizon Center:
The Scoreboard
There's no denying it--the old purple girl was looking a little frumpy. The MCI/Verizon Center's old boxy Jumbotron spent last season clunking from breakdown to breakdown--score tallies were wrong, fouls didn't add up, and occasionally the video screen just quit working altogether. But boy did she get a makeover this summer.
This year Verizon Center introduced a brand-new 14 x 25 foot high-definition LED scoreboard. According to its official bio on the Verizon Center website, the scoreboard features four 6mm video screens, 4 10mm LED video matrixes, and two 20mm LED rings. Plus, it can display 68 million colors!
What does this all mean? Roy Hibbert looks good dunking the ball.
Final Four Banner
What's scary is that an LED scoreboard isn't even the most attractive thing hanging from the ceiling. Prior to Saturday's game, the lights dimmed. In the classy, understated manner that has become indicative of John Thompson III's men's basketball program, the Hoyas officially announced their presence in the Verizon Center rafters with the unveiling of an NCAA Final Four banner.
New Snack Bar Signage
We've all had a friend before who, bless their heart, was trying a little too hard to fit in. Jumping from trend to trend--baggy jeans, Abercrombie and Fitch, the blowout haircut--they never quite knew when to just give it up and be themselves.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I'll miss the days of clever D.C.-related snack bar puns at the arena. Gone are the days of "The Thirst Amendment," "Fill Up, Buster!" and my personal favorite "E Pluribus Mmmm". In their place are generic exclamatory phrases that might tell me what I'm eating, but utterly fail in teaching me principles of constitutional government.
"E Pluribus Mmmm" as a basketball play is a well-timed Jeff Green bounce pass--understated and clever, achieving its desired result with a sense of class. EXTREME NACHOS is the Pittsburgh Panthers chest-bumping on the court with 12 minutes to go in our home game last February--loud and annoying, but oozing desperation. Well, Pittsburgh lost the game, and I'm certainly not buying any nachos.
10 Years At the Center of the Action
High Schools senior classes of old are immortalized across the country in plaques, memorials, class gifts, or perhaps the lingering smoke damage from a class prank gone horribly wrong.
The first ten "classes" of the Verizon Center are on display throughout the concourse as part of the arena's "Ten Years at the Center of the Action" campaign (also on display at the official arena website. As one of the original downtown tenets, the Hoyas are on virtually every page of the Verizon Center's "yearbook," including the picture of John Thompson III that appears on the 2004 banner.
Same Places, Same Faces, New Stuff
Nothing beats getting reacquainted with old friends after a long summer apart. The whole Hoya Hoop Club and Hoya Blue gang are back together and still hitting up their old hangouts in the Verizon Center concourse.
The Hoya Hoop Club table outside of Section 120 will be open for business beginning no later than 30 minutes prior to every Verizon Center game. At least two representatives from the Hoop Club Executive Board will be on hand to answer all of your questions and to inform you about our upcoming promotions.
Among the many items you can pick up at the table: sign-up information for the Hoya Hoop Club and the Hoya Kids Club, Big East Tournament ticket order forms, pocket basketball schedules, and information about the Hoop Club's upcoming away-game roadtrips to Rutgers and West Virginia.
Hoya Blue meanwhile will be operating in their usual location outside of Section 118 as well as a satellite table directly across from the Hoop Club outside Section 120. The Hoya Blue table is the only location at the Verizon Center where you can pick up this year's NOW THEY KNOW HERE WE COME version of the popular "We Are Georgetown" t-shirts for only $15 (if you can't make it to the Verizon Center this season, you can order the shirts online here.)
While you're at the table, consider participating in Hoya Blue's "Bucks for Blocks" promotion raising money on behalf of the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation. You can make a pledge for each blocked shot the Hoyas record this season, or donate a lump sum directly to the Hoya Blue representatives at the table. Either way, you'll be helping out a tremendous cause and supporting the work of a man we should all be proud to call a Hoya.
Unfortunately, I have a "field trip" this Thursday so I won't be able to make it to "class" at the Verizon Center. But we've got a long school year ahead of us--I'm sure we'll hang out sometime later.
As long as you do something about the EXTREME blowout.
HOYA SAXA!!!
John Hawkes (SFS '04)
Proud Member of Generation Burton
