Ticket sales for Kaohsiung Steelers home games surged after last month’s announcement that former NBA sensation Jeremy Lin would join the struggling P.League+ team.
The Steelers, currently in last place in the six-team league with a 2-14 record, have three home games this month, hosting the Formosa Taishin Dreamers, the New Taipei Kings and the Dreamers again at Kaohsiung Fengshan Arena on Monday, Saturday next week and Feb. 12 respectively.
Tickets to the latter two games went on sale at noon on Monday and as of 2:15pm, the courtside seats for the contest on Saturday next week, priced at NT$3,500 each, and all other lower-level seats were sold out, as were many sections in the arena’s second deck.
Photo: CNA
The cheapest seats, in the arena’s third tier, are priced at NT$400 each.
In their first seven home games this season, the Steelers had an average attendance of 2,502 people per game, only 47.2 percent of the arena’s 5,300 seat capacity, the league’s Web site showed.
After the three home games, the team’s next home encounter would be on March 10, which could possibly drive up demand for tickets this month, even though the Steelers have yet to confirm when the Taiwanese-American player would make his debut.
Promotional material released on Friday for the Kaohsiung team’s home games this month featured Lin alongside guard Jerry Chen and Shawn Chou, Lin’s former teammate in China’s professional basketball league.
Lin did not appear in a post on the team’s Web site on Sunday.
Many fans question whether Lin could reverse the Steelers’ fortunes, given that the T1 League’s Taoyuan Leopards have been unable to win more than one game despite the addition of former NBA star Dwight Howard.
Kaohsiung finished fifth in the P.League+ last season with a 9-20 record. They have fallen further this season, four wins behind the 6-11 Dreamers in fifth place and 11 behind league leaders the Kings (13-4).
The league’s top four teams in the regular season standings advance to the playoffs.
Carlos Alcaraz on Monday powered into the French Open second round with a resounding win to start his title defense, while world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and three-time defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek also progressed at Roland Garros. Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz struck 31 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri and is to face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in round two. Alcaraz is now on an eight-match winning streak at the French Open and also took Olympic silver at Roland Garros last year, losing the final to Novak Djokovic. “The first round is never
TIGHT FINISH: Napoli only needed to do the same as or better than Inter, who won their game against Como 2-0 on the same day, leaving Napoli with a one-point lead The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli their second Serie A title in three years on Friday. Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari. Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams. “Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.” Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won
The journey of Taiwan’s badminton mixed doubles duo Ye Hong-wei and Nicole Chan at the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur came to an end in the semi-finals yesterday after they suffered a 2-0 loss to China’s Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Ye, 25, and Chan, 20, teamed up last year and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world. The Taiwanese shuttlers took on China’s second seeds in the mixed doubles event, but proved no match for Feng and Huang, losing the match 10-21, 7-21. In the first half of the first game, the pairings were neck and neck at 6-7 until Ye
SSC Napoli coach Antonio Conte has dragged the team back from disaster and restored them to the top of Italian Serie A, but his future at the Scudetto winners is in doubt even after a triumphant season. The fiery 55-year-old has exceeded preseason expectations and bolstered his reputation as a serial winner by guiding Napoli to their fourth Scudetto, and second in three seasons. However, he might well be on his way in the summer after just one season at the helm as his charged relationship with Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has simmered throughout the campaign. Conte has said