Lightning Watch: Windsor NBLC team gambles during special game

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: IAN SHALAPATA
Quinnel Brown drains two of his 21 points at the Caesars Casino in downtown Windsor.

The Windsor Express beat the London Lightning 86-78 in mid- January. The game was full of firsts, none of which involved things that happened on the court.

Caesars Casino was home to the matchup between the two rivals. The Battle of the 401 transformed into the Battle of the Coliseum, as Windsor beat the Lightning yet again. Windsor has discovered something at a crucial time in franchise history; an attendance tripling anything they've ever seen.

Windsor has never been able to draw many fans to the WFCU Centre, the same place theWindsor Spitfires play. Unlike a 'Spits game, the Express doesn't have years of tradition and familiarity on its side. Their games typically draw a few hundred fans a game to the arena on the outskirts of town. To people outside of the National Basketball League of Canada, that is far from sustainable. Far. So when they drew 2,800 fans to Caesars Casino downtown, it showed some potential.

There are obviously lots of factors that led to this crowd. I'm not saying it's a one-off thing, but there were lots of things done right, and things that can be improved upon.

Downtown has to be a must. There are several venues the team is looking at downtown that they could potentially move into next year. This case is similar to the London IceHouse, situated near the 401 for many years, before the John Labatt Centre/Budweiser Gardens came along. No one was going to London Knights games, mostly due to location.

The basketball is good. The level of play is good. Any good Canadian basketball fan in Windsor will be following you closely. It's about bringing the families to the game. Go look for pictures of the crowd at Caesars — tons of kids (which is kind of funny because they were allowed into a casino) and families around. The family is huge to a budding franchise because they represent four, five or six tickets in one sell, whether it's a single game or season's tickets. That's not to say Windsor doesn't have a strong section of families at the game, but you can always make a game more family friendly.

Finally, this game was an “event.” For most of the league's teams, any one of their 20 home games is just a game. The London Lightning make as many games possible, an event. When they drew the biggest crowd in NBLC history (5,000-plus) to start the season this year, they opened the upper bowl to area children and guardians. That makes it more than a game. That gets people talking, that gets media talking and, most importantly, that gets people through the door.

Marty Thompson is the play-by-play voice of the London Lightning for their livestream, SportsLive24.net.