This year's Great Alaska Shootout college basketball tournament will "be a whole new ballgame" when the event tips off today, according to Beth Bragg of the ALASKA DISPATCH NEWS. The event will say "goodbye to Sullivan Arena and hello to the Alaska Airlines Center, the University of Alaska Anchorage’s sleek new" $109M arena. The tournament also has a new title sponsor in Alaska-based telecommunications corporation GCI, "which has opened a store in the arena's lobby, just inside the north entrance." The new location is a 5,000-seat gym that "appears to have no bad seats." Although those sitting in the balcony "are really far up there, a four-sided "giant video board hangs above center court to help them follow the action." The east side of the arena "will be designated a 'wet area,' where beer and wine can be consumed," a first for the Shootout. Meanwhile, a couple of "longtime Shootout traditions will go away." The $1M shot contest "is no more." Held annually since '96 during halftime of the Saturday night men’s championship game, "no one ever sank the 70-foot shot." Also gone is the Couch Potato contest, which "rewarded the group of green-and-gold-wearing fans deemed most spirited with a courtside sofa from which to watch the game -- and a chance to win airline tickets." UAA Senior Associate AD/External Affairs Tim McDiffett said that a "slew of new promotions will replace the old ones, some of which offer prizes that are easily worth the price of admission" (ALASKA DISPATCH NEWS, 11/23).
