Friday's game was the first for me at Perth Arena. I had been the for other events, but not NBL.

I would have to agree with most of what Boti has written. It has been a couple of years since I went to a Sixers game in Adelaide, but the overall experience between the two is like night and day. The very new, modern, inner city arena really helps Perth, but it is clear that the Wildcats have worked hard on their game night presentation.

I would hope that GMs of other clubs would travel with their team for the game in Perth, and see how the Wildcats run their games. Problem with a club like Adelaide is probably the additional costs involved.

Sure, there is too much music,and the coutside announcer is a little too enthusiastic, but overall there is more going right than wrong.

It also helped that the game itself was a great contest.

First half atmosphere was dead, dead, dead. But that's just how the first game in Perth tends to be, takes a couple games before all the Good Folks remember how to shuck the inhibitions and yell like hooligans again. Last couple minutes was more like it.

I find some players comments/gos very interesting and from my experience i tend to agree tho i have not been to this new area myself,

gos is that Perth = great night of entertainment,
but in terms of home court advantage, the Perth crowd are too spaciously seated back from the court. Everyone is saying the old court where the crowd were packed in closer to the court definitely provided a greater home court advantage.

36er and other NBL players certainly arnt intimidated by this venue compared to others where the fans are closer.

A gripe I have with the way the Wildcats use Perth Arena is the fact there are no Wildcats logos on the court/baselines. I know sponsors need their place, but would look a lot better and more NBA like. Even red decals around the edge of the court would look better and also help with players getting caught with their feet on the out of bounds line e.g. James Ennis on Friday night(there is a lot of space between the edge of the court and team benches/seats, unlike most venues where it is only a metre or so)

Yeah, would love for them to break the red paint out. Would massively improve the look of the Arena imo.

Have any non-Wildcats supporters on here been to Wildcats @ the Arena?

Yes, read my earlier post.

I was a 36ers season ticket holder for years prior to moving to Perth.

I had been to a Wildcats game at the Challenge but first at the new arena was last week.

@shin splits,

Read that, was wondering if there were others!

Out of curiosity, how do you think it compares to the Challenge Stadium experience?

Agree with Mark about the decals and Nathan about how dead the arena was last Friday and in a way that's the scary part of Boti's article as I feel it was fever pitch last season and so awesome to be a Wildcats fan at Perth Arena and last week was bleh.

I might have to let my inner hooligan come out against Hammer's boys

Game 1 last season - despite the massive crowd - was bleh as well, so don't panic.
The crowds won't be as big this season, but I think the play will be more exciting. If Boti returns for the Cats-36ers clash on Valentine's Day next year I think he'll have an improved experience.

I don't think we are ever going to recreate the cauldron atmosphere of Challenge Stadium again though. As others have said, the seating just starts too far from the court. It's surprising what a difference those few metres makes.

I think part of the "New NBL" rules should be every team has to have team the colour around of the boundary and the center circle reserve for team logo.

I understand advertising is important but would really like to see the courts having an identity at least in the middle. Cairns and Townsville both have this, not sure who else?

I agree - there should be some standardised rules for court logo placements, mandatory colours, how many sponsors can be put on the court etc.

Plus the same with uniforms and how big sponsor logos can be. The front of a uniform should be about the team name/logo, then the number and finally a subtle sponsor logo. I think the Wildcats uniforms are dominated by the big black alcohol think again box and it looks terrible.

I think they don't have any decals on the baseline because its reserved for potential sponsorship (someone posted something about that in another thread, and that would make sense to me why there's no current paintwork)

I must be the only one, but I think the minimal amount of decals on the arena floor looks good. Makes the floor look cleaner and more spacious, even if some might think thats a negative and takes away some of the home court intimidation factor about it.

As long as the keyway is painted and the center circle has something in it (team logo or sponsor), I think it looks fine!

Remember NBL courts back in the 90's? They were like billboard advertisements plastered all over the court and that looked awful! All clubs have rectified that by putting ads around the side of the court that faces the TV, and we now have cleaner looking courts overall.

@NathanofPerth In response to your question, as a Breakers fan, I like the arena, it's nice to be in, comfortable etc but I agree with the above comments- the seats are too far and I feel that the away team does not find it to be as intimidating playing there, opposed to Challenge where the atmosphere seemed to be more intense just from the size of the place.

Hopefully Wildcats fans stick around when their team isn't consistently performing well.

@Anon 582: Blame the decision makers that insisted on designing the arena to be most suited to tennis matches, which is why there is so much blue. Furthermore, tennis is played only once a year for a week for the Hopman Cup, which is nothing more than a much-too-friendly warm up event to the Australian Open - yet the arena was constructed around the Hopman Cup as its main event.

The Wildcats had a bit of say with the arena design from what Ive heard, but in the end it needed to be suitable for tennis matches.

Having said that, its still way better than Burswood, the Perth Entertainment Centre and Challenge Stadium!

Most people don't give a shit about all the stupid entertainment. People go to watch basketball.

I can't stand watching Perth games on TV. They play terrible music throughout the game

The Kings are the only team not doing this...