Basketball season is here. And the home opener next Tuesday, Nov. 5, will be big.
10,000 fans is the goal.
It’ll be UNCG faculty and staff appreciation night. They can get tickets for 5 dollars each for themselves and guests, to the game vs. in-town rival NC A&T.
Student tickets, as always for basketball games, will be free.
A spirit march announces the season opener and our Spartan spirit. At 4:15 p.m., students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends will assemble on campus in the UNCG Baseball Stadium concourse – Kenilworth Ave. entrance – for the spirit march. (The march will start at 4:45 p.m.) Wear your best blue and gold! The Grimsley High School drumline and UNCG cheer squad will be on hand for a brief pep rally. Then it’s on to the Coliseum!
The 1.1-mile route (which last year took a brief 15 minutes for most) will be west on Walker Ave., then left on Chapman all the way to the Coliseum. The streets will have “rolling closures,” meaning police will stop traffic one block at a time. “In order to provide safety for the participants, we will have to shut some streets down between 4:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. until everyone leaves campus,” says Captain S.C. DeDona. “Walker Avenue will close between Josephine Boyd Street and Kenilworth Street, and West Drive between Gray Drive and Walker Avenue will also close between those times. They will open back up as soon as the participants leave campus, which should be between 4:45 p.m. and 4:55 p.m.”
Free shuttles back to campus are available for faculty, staff, students, and alumni throughout and after the game.
There will be a tailgate with free pizza and music for the students, starting around 5 p.m., before the game. The first 100 faculty/staff members to check in before the spirit march, at the stadium, will receive entrance to the the student tailgate at the Coliseum. Those first 100 faculty and staff members will receive a wristband for entrance into the tailgate.
Doors to the Coliseum will open at 6 p.m. and tip off is at 7 p.m. Faculty and staff can purchase $5 discounted tickets online at this page using promo code “FACULTYSTAFF1”.
Free parking is available at Walker Deck with a shuttle to the Coliseum.
In the event of rain, the march will not happen. However, the tailgate will still take place inside the Coliseum West Wing B.
One UNCG student will win a semester of free tuition.
For more information, visit: https://newstudents.uncg.edu/yfy/storm-the-streets/
Parking:
If you are walking to the Coliseum, parking on campus is free in the surface lot at the corner of Josephine Boyd and Walker Ave. and the Walker parking deck. Due to road closures, reach these parking options from Spring Garden Street. If you are driving to the Coliseum, parking is $5 per vehicle and can be paid at the gate. Free shuttles back to campus are available for alumni throughout and after the game.
See video of last year’s “Storm the Streets” event.
By Mike Harris
