OK, so what happened today.
I was at the Rose Garden this morning, (it’s winter break at UO, so 11 a.m. on a Saturday — when I have to be back at the Garden tonight at 4 for the Pape Jam) for the announcement of the naming of Oregon’s new arena. It’s going to be called the Matthew Knight Arena, after Phil and Penny Knight’s oldest son, who died in 2004 in a diving accident in El Salvador.
Didn’t put it in the story but Knight, who worked briefly for the Emerald during the late 1950s so I have heard from his former editor, shed tears at the end of his time at the mic when talking about his son.
It was a pretty charged atmosphere at the press conference. Every donor of consequence was there, with reporters from the O, R-G and me. Add that to Knight, both basketball teams, Bev Smith and Ernie Kent, the Pape family, Nike higher-ups, golfer and UO alum Peter Jacobsen, cameras everywhere and Kilkenny and UO president Dave Frohnmayer.
In about a half hour, the women’s basketball team plays Georgia Tech. At 5 p.m., the men take on San Diego. You feel like the teams weren’t very good tonight, (not to mention tickets are going for half-off, some for $5), so they jazzed up the lineup with the announcement.
For students, this sounds like it couldn’t really have worked out better. Sure, some are stuck up in the top row of the stadium, but it will be a very intimidating scene in Matthew Knight Arena. They’ll go all the way from the top down to the floor, along with stretching in front of the benches on the floor.
In other words, right in front of the TV cameras.
For everyone who isn’t a Pape or a Knight, the ticket prices are also rather reasonable. And at Matt Court, the worst tickets won’t be stuck in front of a beam, either, like at the current place.
Cheapest tickets go for $15 for a game ticket and $270 for a season, without a construction fee nor a Duck Athletic Fund donation. There are 1,228 general admission seats at that price, and 1,707 of the ‘backcourt terrace,’ also at that price.
