Detroit is home to Lions, Tigers and octopi, oh my. It is home to Eminem, Madonna and Tim The Tool Man"" Taylor.
The city has a pretty good basketball team that resides in the Palace at Auburn Hills. In fact, the Pistons have made basketball in Detroit so great the PA announcer feels the need to remind fans every five minutes they are watching ""DE-TROIT BAS-KET-BALL!!""
This weekend Detroit basketball will take on a new meaning as it moves downtown to Ford Field, where the Badgers will take on Davidson in the NCAA Regional Semi-Finals.
No, it's not a football tune up for Cal Poly. It's ""Friday Night Lights"" basketball style. The court will literally be at the 50-yard line, and the fans in the upper deck will be watching the UW men's basketball team from a different area code.
I honestly don't know how this is going to work, but I'm excited to see if it does. The NCAA Executive Committee approved the purchase of temporary seating that will allow the Final Four from 2009-'11 to expand its seating capacity to around 70,000. That's right, 70,000 people.
Traditionally, when the Final Four has been held at football stadiums, a curtain is put up across the field to split the stadium in half. The court is put in the endzone from sideline to sideline and temporary bleachers are installed on the other side of the court. The new temporary seating allows the court to be placed at the 50-yard line and the entire stadium to be used.
Since Detroit is hosting the Final Four next season, Ford Field will be experimenting with the new seating arrangement this weekend, and Wisconsin and Davidson will be the first to try it out.
(Right now, that guy who bought the $45 cheap seats just realized he'll probably have a better view from his hotel room.)
It sounds like it will be pretty cool, but that's easy for me to say from my courtside press row seat. It does have the potential to be successful, however. In 2003, Michigan State and Kentucky played in Ford Field to test out the seating arrangement and a world-record 78,129 fans showed up. I wouldn't expect that crowd this weekend, but I can imagine a basketball game in front of that many fans would be exciting.
While a greater seating capacity obviously means extra revenue, college students will actually benefit from the new seating arrangement. According to NCAA.com, when the Final Four comes to Detroit next season, student fans will have the opportunity to buy discounted seats on the baseline. All four teams will have seats and the tickets will actually be vouchers that cannot be resold to scalpers. Basically, each team will have a student section right next to the court.
It's actually a pretty good idea.
But you still wonder what it would be like to play basketball in a giant dome. I'm personally a fan of small, cozy venues where fans are right on top of the court. If I had it my way, the Badgers would still play at the UW Field House.
In a place like Ford Field, there will be no shooting background, it could get completely silent in a boring game and why would you want to sit in the last row of the upper deck when the game is happening in a 32-yard stretch at mid-field?
I'm skeptical, but keeping my mind open. I guess we'll see how it works Friday night when the lights come on.
If you would like to see football played at the Kohl Center e-mail Adam at hoge@wisc.edu.
