Crowds swarm on ant tickets
JACKJUMPERS’ NBL DEBUT SPARKS MEMBER SPIKE
TASMANIAN basketball fans are being urged to join the Ant Army and purchase a JackJumpers membership or risk missing out on the team’s historic first game at MyState Bank Arena.
After the release of the fixtures list last week, JackJumpers membership sales spiked and the club is expecting it to reach a point where only JackJumpers members will have access to the highly anticipated league debut on December 3 against the Adelaide 36ers.
“Since the fixture was released last Tuesday and the opening game of the season was announced, the memberships have sold really well and it’s looking very like that the only way you will get to see the first game is via a membership,” JackJumpers general manager of commercial and marketing Christine Finnegan said.
With only around 4500 seats available at JackJumpers home games, Finnigan said it was looking highly unlikely that any general admission tickets would be available for the team’s historic first game and expected only a limited number of general admission tickets to be available for its following 11 home games in Hobart.
“It won’t be a big amount [of tickets] available for each game, and we’ll have presage to our members so they can bring their friends as well, so I would say there will only be around 500 game-night tickets for any game throughout the season,” she said.
The only way to guarantee a seat at the JackJumpers’ blockbuster NBL debut is to purchase a 12 or 14-game membership and Finnigan encouraged hoop fans to get in quickly or risk missing out.
“Memberships start at $275 for 12 games, which is less than $25 per game to have a seat,” she said.
“With the arena being the boutique size that it is, there’s not a bad seat in the house and you’re close to the action no matter where you sit, so we really encourage people to get out and buy a membership.”
With the season only six weeks away, JackJumpers forward Jarred Bairstow said he was itching to begin the side’s inaugural NBL campaign and couldn’t wait to do so in front of a packed Hobart crowd.
“There’s nothing like walking out and seeing a packed house and the arena is pretty packed in so the noise should be unreal, and so we’re really looking forward to the first game and having that place loud and rocking,” he said.
The 12 JackJumpers home games scheduled in Hobart will be played at the $68m, state-ofthe-art, redeveloped Derwent Entertainment Centre, newly renamed MyState Bank Arena. Basketball fans are expected to enjoy a world-class entertainment experience.