The ABL's San Jose Lasers opened their season on
Wednesday night and MERCURY NEWS columnist Ann Killion wrote
that if the "first night is any indication, Year 2 will be
bigger and better." Killion: "Bigger building. Bigger
crowd. Bigger media turnout. Bigger celebrities and more
of them in the audience." The announced attendance of
10,809 "more than doubled" last season's opening crowd.
Killion noted the "star-studded crowd" that included 49ers
Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens, Merton Hanks, and Terry Kirby,
along with Ronnie Lott, Marty McSorley and Dusty Baker.
Killion: "[T]he ABL is still here. Not just existing, but
getting bigger" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 10/16). In S.F.,
Gwen Knapp, under the header, "ABL Sells Basketball For The
Real Fan," wrote that the Lasers of "yesteryear sold
themselves to the women's basketball loyalists, long smitten
with the college game. Wednesday's show appealed to the old
crowd and reached out for general sports fans." But Knap
added that the 49ers' at the game were "invited as VIPs ...
a WNBA trick, slightly altered" (S.F. EXAMINER, 10/16).
BLIZZARD: A HARTFORD COURANT editorial states that
Blizzard fans "are not a beer-drinking crowd. Ponytailed
girls dressed in tie-dyed Blizzard shirts bounced up the
coliseum aisles. ... Mothers with the neighborhood girls in
tow held up homemade signs, and families ... watched
affordable and exciting basketball" (HART. COURANT, 10/17).
