Georgetown is promoting its Jan. 20 men's basketball game against St. Johns with a "phone-free 'Actual Reality (AR) Seating Section,'" according to Scott Allen of the WASHINGTON POST. The promotion is the "latest idea" from Georgetown Assistant AD/Marketing Chris Grosse and his staff. At the game there will be a "phone check station adjacent to the AR section where fans must deposit their mobile devices, and name tags to encourage conversation with others in the section." Polaroid photo and letter-writing stations "will also be present." Tickets for the AR zone (Section 118) are available for $20, and they "won’t be delivered electronically" as fans "must pick up paper tickets at will call" (WASHINGTON POST, 1/11). Grosse said that there are "roughly 50 seats reserved for the 'Actual Reality' section, and they'll add more if the interest level warrants a bigger area" (ESPN.com, 1/10). Grosse: "The future is all virtual reality, and soon you won't even have to go to games -- you can just sit in your living room and watch. My job is to get people to come to games, so we wanted to kind of pick fun at the way things are trending and showcase that we still have a really fun product and it's worth it to actually come out to the arena and experience a game without having your face in your phone" (Syracuse POST-STANDARD, 1/11).
