Take an early seat, and look out

Virtual Venue

By David Williams
Contact
December 7, 2003

FedExForum is still very much a work in progress - a place of heavy
equipment, hard hats and signs reading "Restricted Area -
Unauthorized Persons Keep Out."

But go ahead, take a peek.

Take a seat, even.

What's impossible in reality, some 10 months from opening night, is possible on the Internet. The Grizzlies on Monday will unveil "Seats in 3D," an online program giving fans a computerized view of the court from every section of the five-level, $250 million arena.

"It is a great way for fans to go online and spend some time in the building," said Mike Golub, Grizzlies senior vice president of business operations. "It's fun. It's almost like a video game."

It's also an effective tool for selling tickets, said Bernie Mullin, NBA senior vice president of marketing and team business operations.

The Grizzlies were the first NBA team to use the then-new technology, in 2001 with The Pyramid. Now, seven of the league's teams use it, and, Mullin said, "I don't understand why every team doesn't have it."

The "Seats in 3D" program, developed by California-based Ballena Technologies, can be accessed from the team's Web site, www.grizzlies.com starting Monday.

The interior of the arena will appear on your screen, with some 18,000 seats - they're blue in the computer program, but the actual colors haven't been chosen - surrounding the court. Click on a section, from courtside to rafters, and you'll get that view - rotating or fixed, your choice.

"I've clicked on every section of FedExForum," said Lesley Torrell, Grizzlies senior manager of Internet marketing & development. "I can't find a bad view."

She also hasn't broken a sweat - such is the ease of cyber-roaming an 805,850-square-foot arena.

But how do you accurately represent an arena interior that, at the moment, leaves most everything to the imagination? That was the challenge for Ballena, working from blueprints provided by the team.

"In the case of the existing facilities, we will go out and make site visits and take some video," said Steve Stonehouse, Ballena's vice president of sales. "Needless to say, it's a little trickier when you don't have that visual reference.

"The other thing is, obviously, the small details - (there's) just a lot more information gathering when the building's not complete."

A partial list of Ballena's clients includes the NBA's New Orleans Hornets, Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns, the NFL's Houston Texans, major league baseball's San Diego Padres, the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers and racing's Talladega Superspeedway.

The company's relationship with the Grizzlies nearly began before the team moved to Memphis.

"They were originally pitched (when they were) the Vancouver Grizzlies, who obviously needed a lot of help selling tickets," Stonehouse said. "They nearly signed up with us. Then this opportunity came to move and they put us on the back burner.

"The moment they learned they were coming to Memphis, they called us up. We were in Memphis the week they moved."

"Seats in 3D" is the Grizzlies' latest means of taking potential ticket buyers inside the arena before the doors open.

At team headquarters in downtown's Toyota Center, the Grizzlies opened a preview center for potential luxury-suite buyers and season-ticket holders.

The preview center includes a scale model of the arena, a replica of a suite and a small theater with club and regular seats.

Now comes this online sneak peek inside FedExForum.

"You can read about it . . . You can go look at the model . . . You can drive by it," Golub said.

But without visual aids, "It's hard to fully express what the arena will be, to people who have not experienced a modern state-of-the-art arena."

- David Williams: 529-2310