when they unveil Mr. Oden to the home crowd for the first time (YES!!!). It’ll be my first game of the year.

If I do end up going, I will surely let you know my experience.

T.V. just can’t portray what the experience is like. The Rose Garden is known as one of the loudest, if not the loudest arena in the entire NBA. Arco Arena in Sacramento was also well known for this, but not anymore since the Kings are in a recession. Not to mention how nice the place is! It’s only 13 years old, so it’s still a newer arena. It’s one of the largest capacity NBA arenas and the jumbotron and sound system are new and state-of-the-art. I personally never knew anything other than the Rose Garden (excluding the days of the Memorial Coliseum, that place really isn’t an NBA-worthy building by today’s standards), until last year when a friend and I decided to drive up to Seattle and catch a Blazers away game. My friend, I felt like I was at a minor league sporting event. The concourse was lifeless, old, small, and there wasn’t really much energy among the fans. I realize that KeyArena in Seattle is a bit outdated, and the Sonics were really bad, but there just wasn’t the enthusiasm and electricity that I was used to in the Rose Garden. It was just a totally different atmosphere. I celebrated a Blazers’ basket during that game and was given the stink-eye from an arena attendant, a gesture as if to say “whoa whoa, settle down, we don’t really do that here…” I usually return home after Blazers games with a lost voice, due to cheering and trying to yell at whoever I went with every time I have to say something. I have a video up on YouTube that I took a few years ago when Kobe missed a game winning 3 (after Rasheed nailed a 3 with a few seconds left in the game assisted by Stoudamire to take the 2 point lead). It was so loud and electric in there that words cannot describe. Those days were all sellouts so every seat was filled all the way up to the top. In that video I was in the Blazer Boxes, about as far away as you can get. Everybody was on their feet and the sound was deafening when Kobe missed. There is an intangible feeling that just can’t be described. In the past few years it hasn’t seemed as lively, the nosebleed seats were lonely and it just wasn’t as crazy as it had been. Until I went to the season opener last year. It was the first sellout I had been to in years. The seats were once again filled with Blazer family up to the rafters. The feeling was back. It is indescribable my friend. I can honestly say that attending a good sellout game at the Rose Garden is they best experiences of my life. Rip City forever!

and they do a lot of stuff during commercials, etc. that of course TV watchers don’t get to see.

Just something that I haven’t seen anyone else mentioned… I’ll write it out in story form. :)

Last year I took my nephew, brother, and fiance to the Nuggets game in December. What a game. We were right behind one of the endlines, a few rows up. The crowd was crazy loud, but not so much that you needed earplugs (though I bet the Nuggets players disagreed! The sound is engineered to filter to the players on the court). The fiance is not a big basketball fan, but had a great time. By the time Travis blocked Linus’s shot, she was yelling. She’s still not a basketball fan, but is pretty well up on the Blazers these days.

So we were in town for this preseason, and went to the Utah game. This is also known as the game where Nate sat a bunch of healthy players (against Utah’s starters) and gave us the most boring game in recorded history… but everyone saw Batum’s potential for the first time.

Instead of floor seats, the best available were in the upper deck. My wife was terrified the entire time. As part of the engineering (for both sound and view), it gets steeper the higher you get. If you don’t like heights, the upper deck will be a bit freaky. The steps are steep and the drop feels huge.

Plus the usher stood in front of the Blazer basket for the whole second half. We didn’t care as much when it was the Utah bucket. :)

So if you can get lower section tickets, jump on it. It’s the best way to watch a game. Sophia is right about the atmosphere there. My wife is fully aware that if we lived in Portland, we’d have season tickets and never miss a game.

I would seriously consider season tickets. Very festive atmosphere. I loved Fan Fest and hope to catch a few games this season. Go Blazers!

I’m going to college here and couldn’t get tickets to either Blazers game against the L*kers. They were up on StubHub for ridiculously high prices. I guess in LA everyone just buys them to turn around and sell them. I have seen the outside and it looks pretty fancy. I doubt it has the energy and noise that the RG has even though it’s in the middle of LA, because from what I’ve seen so far around here most people are bandwagoners instead of passionate fans. We always joked about all the cell phone usage and celebrity presence at St*ples, but the games seem to be more of this novelty, entertainment event. Of course I guess that’s not a bad thing and it’s not true for everyone, but it definitely is different here. L.A. has also always had a really hard time in the RG and I’m sure Kobe and Phil would be the first to tell you that there are many buildings they would rather play in than the RG.

that’s JUST the lower bowl…there’s another level about as …tall? :)

utah portland game one 1999

I say so because most of the arenas are not owned by the teams

He came out to Portland last year during The Streak and we caught the game against the Nuggets. A lot of people read the paper or bring a book to read during timeouts during Wizards games according to my brohan. He was totally blown away at how loud and engaged fans were throughout the game.

If anyone attended a game during The Streak last year knows how loud it gets in there, especially for a non playoff game. Let’s hope the real fans don’t get priced out like in Golden State and Boston. Those crowds were nuts back in the day.

make my heart hurt a little bit, that was my senior year of high school, family had season tickets and I went to every home game during that playoff run, seeing them loose to the L*kers… first time i learned what it felt like to have my heart broken…

inside the bowl is pretty nice and our fans are louder and more enthusiastic than most.

was opening night this year against the Spurs. I had been to Blazer games before, even have sat courtside during last years 13 game streak, but nothing compared to that game. It was 12 of us BEdgers up in the 300’s. The place was deafening, RUDY, RUDY, RUDY… DE-FENSE… CLAP CLAP, CLAP CLAP CLAP, CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP LET"S GO! Man it was awesome. At the end when Horry missed the game winner the place EXPLODED!!! On the way out complete strangers were high fiving, chanting Rudy, Rip City, it was NUTS! Then on the way to the car, it felt like we had one a playoff game, everyone was chanting and hooting and hollering, what an experience. Get to a game ASAP! There aren’t words that can describe the feeling of being a part of this Blazer team, RIP CITY BABY!!!

Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name! Or at least acts like they do during timeouts. The place where we high five total strangers on Oden’s 1st home-block in Portland tomorrow night. Where we come to share an experience with 20,000 strangers/friends. Coming to a game at the garden is the highlight of my day, or in this case, week. It is a state of mind, a mind not hindered by thoughts of the outside world. It could be pouring down outside, but it’s raining three’s in here. Going there is my life. It’s my date night, if I were to ever get so lucky again. It’s my boy’s night out, for those nights I cannot procure female company. It’s my expendable income’s favorite way to be spent. It’s why I pre-funk. It’s where I choose not to pay $8 for libations and instead soak up the sights and sounds of 6 dancing blazer fans from section 324.

I think the Gorillaz put it best in their song "Fire Coming out of a Monkey’s Head.

And then came a sound. Distant first, it grew into catrophany so immense it could be heard far away in space.
There were no screams. There was no time.
The mountain called Oden had spoken.
There was only fire.
And then, nothing. (Except a Deafening Roar)

O little town in U.S.A, your time has come to see
There’s nothing you believe you want (more then an NBA championship)
But where were you when it all came down on me? (At the Rose Garden)
Did you call me now? (No, it was last night, asking if you wanted to go to Wednesday’s Game!)

I can’t wait for the game tomorrow so I can get my fix, I’m a Rose (insert corporate sponsor here) Garden-o-holic, and I’m always glad I came.