Large arena tips?
 

I'm working a varsity game today at Quicken Loans Arena. Never have I officiated in anything bigger than a HS gym with a capacity of maybe 1000 people...and even then only half full.

Any thing to look out for or be aware of?

I'm not expecting tons of fans--both teams are from out of state--but I figure there's gotta be something different with respect to the extra space...?

Your locker room will probably be the biggest difference.

Congratulations!

Apart from nerves I can't think of many bad things. I was blessed enough to officiate at Madison Square Garden in March, 2013. To deal with the jitters I told myself, "Same game, bigger gym."

Just have fun. One thing you'll notice immediately - and it's a good thing - is the court will be easy on your feet/legs. NBA courts are very forgiving. The only other thing I can think of is lighting. If they light QLA in the same manner as it's lit for a Cavaliers' game you really won't notice the crowd that much. All the lights are generally focused on the court.

Thanks Bob - should I be <b>that</b> official and take my camera with me? :rolleyes:

When I worked a HS state game on a D1 college floor a few years ago, the biggest thing I noticed were the lights. Bright, intense, focused on the court. Hard to miss them.

I have worked in VERY large HS arenas in the OKC area (if anyone has ever worked at Moore HS, you know what I mean), and I've done camp games on a single court setup in D1 arenas. Not quite the same situation as yours (congrats on a cool assignment, by the way!), but what I recall is how little I think about it once the game starts. The whistle echoes just a little bit. Other than that, I don't think you'll notice anything out of the ordinary.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congratulations on the assignment. Great arena.

Definitely the locker room. Nice to have a game clock in there so you know when to leave for warm ups. Better showers too. Just make sure you don't get lost getting to the floor. (my idea of humor)

Although bringing a phone on the court to take a "selfie" is frowned upon, ask a loved one to take plenty of pictures from the stands to prove to your relatives/friends you worked one of Lebron James NBA games. (have the floor logo in your picture without the kids, ha ha)

Have fun and enjoy!

When I was first starting out, I worked a game in the Roman Coliseum. The size wasn't a problem, but the lions were. :eek:

First and foremost try to enjoy the experience, not everyone gets to do these type of events.

Try to get your bearings during warmups, your visual cues are going to be different than a typical HS or small college gym.

Depending on the amount of attention on your event there can be a ton of people at the scorers table and all around the court.

There might even be a media table on the opposite side. Make sure you know which is which. You laugh but I've seen more than one guy report to the wrong table. The team benches may blend end with everyone else and guys get turned around.

With the amount of people at the table find out who your scorekeeper is early hopefully they are wearing the striped shirt to make them easy to find.

More than likely there is a large overhead scoreboard. Ignore it. Use the clocks on the baskets for your time and find the score and fouls on the ribbon boards in the arena.

If there are not a lot of people there it may not be that big of a deal and things will be comfortable. But if there are, you're going to feel nerves because you're out of your comfort zone. It's natural. No different than walking into a packed house for a varsity game for the first time. Just get your cues early and dont forget to referee.

I Wear My Sunglasses At Night (Corey Hart, 1984) ...
 

Agree. I had the fortune of working a game at the Hartford Civic Center (now the XL Center). It felt like I had to wear sunscreen.

Come On Baby Let's Do The Twist (Chubby Checker, 1960) ...
 

This is not an urban myth. My local board used to volunteer to work the Doc Hurley Classic (a Christmas charity scholarship tournament), at the Hartford Civic Center (now the XL Center). The first year we worked the tournament, one of our best, and most experienced, officials reported his first foul to the media table, across the court from the scorer's table. This probably happened about thirty years ago, and, to this day, the story makes its rounds at our annual end of the year banquet.

I was fortunate enough to work a couple of times at Target Center (Timberwolves/Lynx home court) in years past, with maybe 300ish people in the stands.

The biggest things that stuck out to me (in addition to the aforementioned lighting differences):
1) Court length: 95 foot court instead of the regular 85-foot HS courts that I usually work... after working 2 up-tempo games with 2 officials... Those extra steps made a big difference.

2) the lack of space on the end lines... you get about 4 feet to work with, which is as tight as some of the tightest HS courts but the majority of HS courts I work have significantly more space. Since I tend to work fairly deep as L, this took some getting used to.

3) Finding the scoreboard/game clock.

4) The noise... or, more correctly, the lack of noise. So few people in such a huge arena.... actually makes everything quieter. Not like the echo chamber high school gyms.

Plenty of good advice here.

Remember to enjoy it and have fun. It's an awesome experience, imo.

2-person crew, right? [emoji14]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The Land That Time Forgot ...
 

Classic sign. The sign also needs "and NO shot clock".

I worked a game at the Verizon Center in DC a few yrs back. 18K seat arena w/ about 400 in attendance for our game prior to an NBA event......

My experience was similar to others.

- Took me a while to adjust to the long scorers table.
- The lights were brighter and the court seemed warmer.
- Floor appeared much more cushioned and easier on my feet.
- Baskets/rims/backboard seemed to have more give and appeared quieter.
- The overhead scoreboard took getting used to as when you go to peek up at it, you're underneath it and can see very little. I had to find the clock either above the basket or along the overhangs of the arena.
- Most importantly for me though, my Fox 40 seemed inadequate. It just seemed to get swallowed up by the sheer size of the venue. I wish I had had a better whistle.
- Much nicer locker rooms and showers!;)

After our game the 76ers and Wizzards were warming up. The shortest player that walked by me, was nearly as tall as the tallest player I'd ever officiated.

Have fun and enjoy.

You'll appreciate how the long courtside table keeps the benches away from the scorer and timer, and from you when you're on the opposite end of the court.

Back in those big OK gyms I mentioned earlier, my partners and I would use Dolphin whistles as long as we all had them (so they'd sound the same). Worked well to solve this problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Huh. I know in soccer the Fox 40 gets used in packed professional stadiums. What whistle to college/NBA basketball refs tend to use?

I've worked in D1 arenas before and have never changed whistles.

I concur with this one. Our local gyms aren't nearly as bright as major arenas in Florida. I had the opportunity to work our state finals/semis a couple times. They take place in a much bigger venue equipped for media coverage so the lighting was a BIG contrast. It took a few minutes to acclimate. Also, lighted backboards for last second shots were a nice plus as well.

Not sure if you're game will be covered on TV, but camera men on the endlines were a little bit bothersome for me...felt like I had to keep away so I didn't ruin their shots.

Lastly, they put cheerleaders on one of the endlines as well for state series games. Add that in with the cameramen and it got a little crowded back there.

The main thing is to just figure out where the clocks and scoreboard information is located. Otherwise nothing really changes. You still have to officiate.

Peace

That is probably the biggest issue...the boards that you use to keep up with information are often in very different places than HS gyms. I've worked a few times on such courts and you just have to get used to looking a LOT higher and farther away to see the info.

And the information is often not clearly in the "right place." There are times where it is hard to find the foul count is in a weird place, which is mostly all I care about anyway.

If you have a scoreboard in the middle above the court, that can often be a horrible place to look as it is hardly ever in your view and you are spending your time looking up to get a good look.

But I do enough college games where I am not freaked out by the court or even how the benches are in relationship to the court. But if you are not used to a bigger court, it can be an adjustment for angles and how fast you need to run at times.

Peace

Ah, yes. I forgot about this little added attraction. The only issue I had at MSG was the cheerleaders. One team's squad was a bit uncooperative, shall we say, about staying in its area. I came thisclose to purposely running into one of the young ladies on a fast break.

There is one arena near me that the floor only extends maybe three feet outside the sideline before it drops off about 4-6 inches to the concrete. This is a multipurpose facility and not home to college or pro team. It's something to be aware of when working on a court you haven't worked before.

Fox 40 classic. Fox 40 is the only brand they are allowed to use. I suspect if they wanted to they could use the mini( not as loud) eclipse( sounds goofy, needs more air to get a similar sound to the classic) or the Sonik ( sounds awful) .

I've used the Eclipse for a few years now. Same decibel rating as the Classic.

It is but you need to push more air through it to achieve the same sound.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I gotta lot of hot air.

So after working the game, here are some things I noticed:

The lights are <b>really</b> bright. Almost to the point that if I looked up I got blinded.

The floor was great to run on, but if I was earning $10 million to <i>play</i> on that floor, there were a lot of what seemed like dead spots.

The board that showed fouls and timeouts only went up to 4 (for fouls) and 3 (for timeouts)! I guess that's because either a) the arena is for NBA or b) the guys working the table didn't know how to work the board. Either way, it made keeping track of the fouls a bit more difficult than normal.

Apparently, the key in NBA is about a foot and a half wider on each side than in NFHS. High school games, the key extends down from the semi-circle at the edge(s) of the foul line. On the Cavs court, the lane lines were outside the edge(s) of the free-throw lines. Didn't know that...

It definitely sounded quieter than normal when we put air in the whistle!

It was fun (and extremely distracting!) to imagine officiating in front of 18,000 people with a bunch of A-list celebrities (well...in Cleveland, maybe B+ list celebrities) sitting 3 feet off the court.

Good times, though.

By what I saw last night, it appeared the HS teams stuck around and donned Cavs uniforms for the game against the Wizards.