The Hawks were "forced" to play Game Five of their
first-round playoff series against the Pistons at Alexander
Memorial Coliseum, rather than the "spacious" GA Dome, to
accommodate NBC, though the GA Dome "could have handled it"
despite a concert there Saturday night, according to Jeffrey
Denberg of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. The Hawks had a
sellout crowd of 20,884 at the GA Dome for Game One and
16,377 for Game Two, but had to play Game Five in the 9,300-
seat arena on GA Tech's campus. Hawks Exec VP Lee Douglas,
on the arena switch: "Upsetting? That's a good word for
it." The game was being considered for one of NBC's Sunday
time slots, but the net "abandoned" the game and gave it to
TNT for an 8:30pm ET tip-off. The game was not blacked out
locally, even though only 6,200 tickets were sold as of
Saturday afternoon (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 5/16). The game
drew a less-than-capacity crowd of 8,460 (ATL. CONSTITUTION,
5/17). Fox's Keith Olbermann: "They couldn't bump a Dave
Matthews concert for an NBA playoff Game Five?" (FSN, 5/16).
